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Baker denies report about Harper's ailing shoulder

Brad Mills-USA TODAY Sports / Reuters

Bryce Harper is doing fine, Washington Nationals manager Dusty Baker said Tuesday, denying an "inaccurate" report from Sports Illustrated's Tom Verducci that suggested the reigning NL MVP continues to be hampered by a shoulder injury both afield and at the plate.

According to Verducci, Harper's purportedly ailing shoulder compelled him to play curiously shallow in right field over the weekend - "at one point he could barely throw the ball 40 feet," one source close to Harper said - but Baker rejected that notion ahead of his club's clash with the Miami Marlins.

"The story is inaccurate. (The website) asked me about the shoulder problem before, and I gave him four or five days off (last month because of a neck condition)," Baker told reporters, according to MLB.com's Bill Ladson. "The website said he was playing shallow because he couldn't throw the ball. That's totally inaccurate. I don't know where they got that from.

In his report, Verducci said Harper has been playing with right shoulder/neck issues since early July, though most only learned of it during a game against the San Francisco Giants four weeks later:

Harper is likely to fall into a hot streak, but that’s only if his troublesome upper right shoulder/neck issue improves and allows him unrestricted passes at the baseball. Go back and look at an at-bat he had against the Giants' Matt Cain on Aug. 6. Harper fouled off a 2–2 pitch and doubled over in pain. By then the injury had already plagued him for about a month. He has played through the discomfort.

Baker, Verducci wrote, admitted last Saturday that "the shoulder thing" has continued to bother the 23-year-old - who's hitting just .220 with a .710 OPS with one outfield assist since the All-Star break - but the veteran skipper insisted he was talking about the past.

"I know they had some quotes from me, but I was talking about the past. … Bryce said the information on the shoulder didn't come from him. It's not in the injury report. We treated that shoulder in the past. If I did make a mistake, it was because it was in his neck, which is connected to the shoulder. That's it."

The confusion notwithstanding, Harper's performance in 2016 pales in comparison to last year, when he smashed 42 homers with a 1.109 OPS in 153 games and was named the youngest unanimous MVP in baseball history. This season, Harper has posted career worsts in batting average (.242) and soft-contact rate (20.6 percent), while managing an .821 OPS with 24 home runs in 139 games.

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