Whereas most players generally see their performance spike the year before hitting free agency, the opposite has been true of Washington Nationals star Bryce Harper.
Harper's agent, Scott Boras, though, denied the dip was connected to Harper's upcoming free agency and instead cited the way opposing hitters have approached the 2015 National League Most Valuable Player, per ESPN.com's Eddie Matz:
"There's no question that with the walk rates that Bryce Harper has, he's going to have less hits. No doubt about that. You keep having to ask the question, why don't they do this to other players if it's so effective?