Harvey's MLB alum dad always a phone call away

This story was excerpted from Jessica Camerato’s Nationals Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

WASHINGTON -- The phone rings on game days before and after the Nationals take the field. Hunter Harvey knows he can count on the calls for preparation and postgame analysis. They come from essentially his personal pitching coach -- his father.

“It’s awesome knowing someone’s got your back like that,” Harvey said.

Nearly 30 years after Bryan Harvey concluded his nine-season Major League career, the two-time All-Star and 1991 Rolaids Relief Pitcher of the Year is still just as invested in the game as when he played. Only now, it is on a more personal level, watching eagerly each time his 29-year-old son Hunter works out of the back end of the Nats’ bullpen.

“I would talk to my dad after I pitched, and he would say, ‘I walked a hole in the floor last night.’ I said, ‘What are you nervous about? I’m not nervous,’” Bryan recounted. “Now I know.”

Kris Harvey was the first of Bryan’s sons to get drafted, first in the fifth round of the 2002 MLB Draft by the Braves and then in the second round of the 2005 Draft by the Marlins. Eight years later, Hunter was selected in the first round by the Orioles. Following a long road of injuries, Hunter debuted with Baltimore on Aug. 17, 2019, in Boston. That day, Bryan said, “My heart was about to beat out of my chest [watching Hunter], but it was really fun and it was awesome.”

That sentiment hasn’t changed.

“If I was pitching, it didn’t matter if he was at home or here [at the ballpark], he could not sit still,” Hunter said. “My debut, they said he got up and walked around Fenway while I was pitching. He was a nervous wreck. He’s getting a little bit better, but I don’t know if it will ever go away.”

Over the past three years, Hunter has found dominance as a late-inning arm for the Nationals. He leads all relievers with 21 holds, and he has a 2-2 record and a 2.75 ERA in 33 relief appearances (36 innings) this season.

“As soon as Hunter comes in, you’re wanting everything to go so good, you’re wishing you could actually do something,” said Bryan, who keeps his own superstitions when Hunter pitches. “But you have to just sit there and watch and trust that everything he’s been taught, he’s able to execute. And most of the time he does.”

Bryan and Kris have worked with Hunter to stay grounded on his back foot and stay on his back leg longer, which has helped his mechanics and consistency.

“It’s been fun to watch Hunter grow,” Bryan said. “I can remember when he was drafted by Baltimore and he went to Spring Training the first year, you could find him with ease because he looked like a toothpick among everybody else. He probably weighed 175 pounds and now he’s [233], and he’s just matured and he’s paid attention to the game.”

Hunter etched his family in the history of the game, too, last season. When he earned his first save on May 7, 2023, at Arizona, he and Bryan became the ninth father-son combo in the Major Leagues to record a save. Hunter gifted Bryan the game ball.

“I’m very proud of that,” Bryan said. “I don’t think people understand how hard it is to play in the big leagues.”

Hunter reached the milestone wearing the vintage Flexall shirt from 1993 that Bryan wore for the majority of his saves. Bryan had given it to him on a trip home during the 2022 All-Star break after finding it in the back of his closet.

“It was really hot because it was the old-school cotton shirts, so day games were not fun in it. But it was cool just wearing something that he had so much success in,” said Hunter. “I had to cut the sleeves off because they didn’t fit, it was a little small … It just started getting too nasty and started ripping at the seams, so I just said, ‘I think we’ll frame this.’ We’ll hang this up in the man cave or something.”

On Saturday, Hunter escaped a bases-loaded, full-count jam by striking out Tim Anderson swinging to end the top of the eighth. He earned the hold and set up close friend Kyle Finnegan for the save. A postgame phone call was sure to follow.

“He’ll always have the breakdown of what I did good, what I did bad, what I’ve got to do better,” Hunter said. “It’s nonstop. It’s always baseball, baseball. It’s a blessing and a curse, I call it (laughs), but it’s good to have.”