Phillies star Bryce Harper had team owner John Middleton feeling some type of way after Philadelphia advanced to the World Series following a Game 5 win in the National League Championship Series on Sunday.
"I think I've underpaid you," Middleton recalled from his initial postgame conversation with Harper, who signed a 13-year, $330 million contract four seasons ago, per NBC Sports Philadelphia's John Clark. "I said, 'I'm not sure you can underpay somebody when you give them $330 million, but I'm pretty sure I underpaid you.'"
Harper earned NLCS MVP honors after recording two hits and two RBIs in the Phillies' series-clinching 4-3 victory. His two-run home run in the bottom of the eighth inning erased Philadelphia's one-run deficit and lifted the organization to the Fall Classic.
Those sorts of clutch hits are exactly why the Phillies spent on the now 30-year-old Harper.
"I told him, 'It's perfect that it was you who hit that home run,'" Middleton said, per Clark. "It's like a fairy tale. It was fantastic.
"Then I also told him that he might be underpaid."
Harper and the Phillies enter the World Series as a considerable underdog against the Houston Astros, who completed the sweep of the New York Yankees on Sunday as well. Harper, though, provides an intriguing World Series MVP bet with his 7-to-1 price.
Game 1 from Houston is scheduled for Friday.
