VIERA, Fla. — Bryce Harper is a lot of things, including the Washington Nationals’ best player and reigning National League MVP.

One thing he’s not is the team leader.

Harper arrived at Nationals spring training early and quietly took his place in the corner of the clubhouse with Ryan Zimmerman, Jayson Werth and Danny Espinosa. Even after being a unanimous MVP selection, the 23-year-old Harper would rather leave the leadership responsibilities to those veterans.

“I don’t think I’m a leader. I think I’m more just a guy playing the game,” Harper said Monday. “I’m still at that stage of where I’m still looking at J-Dub, I’m still looking at Zim to do everything they can to make the best moves for this team and play as hard as I can out there and lead by example.

There’s not a much better example a player can set than Harper did last season. He hit .330, drove in 99 runs and led the NL with 42 home runs, 118 runs scored, a .460 on-base percentage and .649 slugging percentage.

Yet Harper is humble and deferential to older teammates.