Why Phillies Owner Thinks He ‘Underpaid’ NLCS MVP Bryce Harper

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.