Nationals right fielder Bryce Harper celebrates his solo home run during the 10th inning against the Philadelphia Phillies on Sunday at Citizens Bank Park. The Phillies defeated the Nationals 3-2 in 10 innings. (Eric Hartline/USA Today Sports)

Every phenomenal young baseball talent has to answer questions about himself as a person and a player. This process takes years. But we’re rapidly running out of questions to ask Bryce Harper.

Very soon the questions should change. When will the Washington Nationals realize that Harper has provided enough answers to justify making him an astronomical, but also fair-market, contract offer for the rest of the best years of his career?

Harper might not take it. He may not even want it. Maybe he wants the kicks and the spotlight of being a free agent after the 2018 season. Maybe, son of Las Vegas that he is, he wants to spin the wheel and see whether he can get a deal for $600 million, not a mere $450 million. That’s his business.

But the Nats have a big business decision, too. And it’s rushing closer now, not in three years. As Washington has seen in the cases of Jordan Zimmermann, Ian Desmond and Ryan Zimmerman, if you want to get a nine-figure career contract done with a homegrown star, you get it done very early — or it probably never happens. Why? That’s a 1,000-word column in itself. Simplified: That’s how it is.

[Bryce Harper blasts a homer in fourth straight game]

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Right now, and probably for the rest of this season, the Nats are in as good a position as they’ll ever be — if they really want Harper. They have mutual goodwill, a contending team to offer, and leverage. Not a great deal of leverage, but some: In theory, Harper could still have a Tony Conigliaro-esque injury and end up with career MLB earnings of less than $15 million. Giancarlo Stanton’s cheek was shattered by a fastball late in the 2014 season; then he missed half of 2015 with a hand injury after signing a guaranteed $325 million deal.

Just a year ago, when a poll of MLB players said Harper was the most overrated player in baseball (for the second straight year), anybody who suggested a career contract would have looked crazy. But answers can arrive fast. In 2015, at 22, Harper proved that he could have a season comparable to the best ones of Albert Pujols’s or Mickey Mantle’s entire careers (or an average one for Ted Williams). That defined his talent.

Already this year, he has proved more — about his character.

Would winning the National League MVP award tempt him into complacency this season? Bryce’s answer: He showed up in Florida in ideal shape and is off to a torrid start. His on-base-plus-slugging percentage of 1.296 is even higher than 2015’s 1.109.

Question: Could he improve as an RBI man and top 100? After a grand slam Tuesday night in Miami — his second in the past six days — he has 20 RBI in his first 13 games. Question: After stealing 18 bases as a rookie, why had he only stolen eight in the past two years combined? Harper and coach Davey Lopes have worked on making him a 20-to-30-base thief. He started the season 3 for 3.

Would that MVP platform allow Harper to reveal that, deep down, he is what his meanest critics have said: sort of a jerk with a head that would swell as soon as his stats vindicated his bravado? Instead it seems Harper’s hat size may have shrunk by an eighth of an inch. In a spring training interview he said that, at 23, he didn’t view himself as a team leader yet; he’d let the veterans and the manager run the ship.

In 2015, Harper gave us “Where’s my ring?” — intended innocently, but still ill-considered. This year, his headline, and he’s always going to make headlines, was that baseball “is a tired sport” and should be more fun, with fewer unwritten rules and more individuality like in other sports. Many have agreed with him.

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Perhaps the most telling example of Harper’s increased maturity was his reaction to being choked in a dugout fight late last season by teammate Jonathan Papelbon. As a reigning MVP, Harper and his agent had more than enough clout to say, “Get rid of this guy.”

Harper did exactly the opposite. He phoned Papelbon, not the other way around, to patch things up, even though Papelbon conceded that he had been entirely in the wrong. While Nats fans suggested Papelbon should be traded, released or, perhaps, buried up to the neck in sand and eaten by ants, Harper said he hoped Papelbon would save 60 games because that’s what the team needed.

Last week, Harper hit four homers and was NL co-player of the week. After one of those homers, Papelbon was on the dugout steps offering a conspicuous high-five and cheers. Harper slapped his hand. Nothing special, just another teammate. In a dozen days in the Nats clubhouse this year, I’ve neither seen nor heard any hint of a Harper-Papelbon problem. You never know. But it seems buried.

So, at this point, I’m running out of “Harper Questions” that need answers.

[Bryce Harper: ‘I don’t think I’m a leader’]

Five years ago, when Harper was sent to his first Nationals farm team — Hagerstown in the Class A South Atlantic League — he made an off-hand remark that some interpreted as “I won’t be in this league long.” Harper got an earful from top brass. He stayed in Hagerstown for half a season.

That teenager just needed the time for normal maturation. He has been an adult for quite a while now. Imagine, by the end of 2018, what a player, person and emblem of the Nats he may be. As he leaves. Gulp.

What do we know about Harper? He has overcome injuries and criticism. Celebrity and pressure feed him. He has hit for power in two playoffs. He grows each year in on-field demeanor and clubhouse esteem.

What don’t we know?

What the multi-billionaire Lerner family will do. They are the wealthiest owners in baseball. They’ve seen Harper win an MVP award, then come back the next season with his passion and drive intact, not eroded. They’ve seen him endure the Papelbon moment, and that eternal-loop choke photo, like a pro.

In other words, the Lerners have almost all the answers they will ever get, or should need, to decide how much they want Bryce Harper. Do they grasp it? Soon, we’ll know how they answer their question.