Right fielder Bryce Harper departed the Nationals’ game against the Giants on Saturday with an apparent injury to his left knee. The injury occurred when Harper tried to beat out a ground ball, per the Washington Post’s Jorge Castillo, who adds that the superstar had to be helped off the field and didn’t put any weight on his leg when he exited (Twitter links). As the video shows (via Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area, on Twitter), Harper slipped while crossing the first base bag, which was “clearly wet” as a result of rainy conditions in Washington, tweets Castillo.
The Nationals already lost one of their starting outfielders for the year when center fielder Adam Eaton suffered a torn ACL in April, while left fielder Jayson Werth has been out since early June with foot issues. The club has also had to go without Eaton’s replacement, Michael Taylor, for over a month because of an oblique injury, while standout shortstop Trea Turner has been on the shelf since the end of June with a fractured wrist. The Nationals, to their credit, have withstood those absences en route to a 68-45 record and an insurmountable 14-game lead in the NL East.
While injuries haven’t stopped the Nationals to this point, remaining an elite team without Harper would be an incredibly difficult task. Harper is arguably the best player in the National League, after all, and will have a strong chance to win his second MVP this season if his injury isn’t as catastrophic as it appears. In his age-24 campaign, Harper has slashed a remarkable .326/.419/.614 with 29 home runs in 472 plate appearances. His 5.0 fWAR ranks third in the NL, trailing only Diamondbacks first baseman Paul Goldschmidt (5.2) and one of Harper’s teammates, third baseman Anthony Rendon (5.1).
Washington replaced Harper on Saturday with Brian Goodwin, who shifted from center to right, and brought Andrew Stevenson off the bench to occupy center. Longtime first baseman Adam Lind and the recently acquired Howie Kendrick join Goodwin and the untested Stevenson as the team’s only healthy outfield options at the moment.
There goes the Nats championship and Harper’s MVP
Who said they were going to win a championship?
Why should he be the MVP? As the article states, he doesn’t even have the best WAR on his team. Why shouldn’t Rendon be getting MVP love? Goldshmidt seems to be on a play off contender, as well as having the better numbers. Just because MLB has chosen Harper as their poster boy should not determine the MVP. Bryce is having a monumental season, but Goldschmidt hasn’t had Rendon helping the cause all season, or that Washington starting pitching. The leader for MVP should be Paul Goldschmidt.
Torn ACL. 100%.
If he escapes having a Torn ACL he’s one lucky mofo. That was a pretty brutal video to watch
Don’t get me wrong, there will be other damage – LCL, Meniscus, PCL maybe. But ACL is always the most significant to rehab.
Exactly. I slipped in some mud playing soccer and ended up with a new ACL, PCL, a rebuilt meniscus. 10 years later I’m still only about 75% of what I was when it comes to agility and quickness and lateral movements.
Yeah it sure looks like it. The way the knee hyper-extended, it usually always ends up being a torn ACL.
That could’ve been multiple injuries. Knee ligaments, shoulder, etc. I’d be shocked if he isn’t done for the season.
I think it looked worse live than on replay. Could definitely see no torn ligaments, not that it would be surprising if he did.
Wow. No ligament damage, only a significant bone bruise according to GM Mike Rizzo.
That looked really bad
Hope he’s alright…never want to see a guy go out like that. Was looking forward to watching LA battle Washington again this October.
It evens out. No Harper and Kershaw is far from unbeatable in the playoffs.
It doesn’t even out.
Dodgers without Kersh are a lot better than the Nats without Harper.
The Mets always suffer from the worst luck! Now the Metes lose Harper….oh nevermind!
agreed
Granderson but might not want to do a in Divsion Trade same with any other NL East Team OF that clears Waviers and wants like Robles in return.
Harper is far superior to any mets position player.
He’s far superior then most players on most teams
Every real contending team has a superstar hitter.
Not at harpers caliber
Mike trout, and he’s better than Harper..
The Angels aren’t a contender…
Angels are in a wild card spot as of today
He was grabbing the back and top of his knee but likely a torn acl. Regardless of who you cheer for this is one of those that are painful to watch
I’m going to vomit. Just ignore me
It looked really, really bad. Worse than Adam Eaton’s looked, if It’s not a torn ACL/MCL or PCL then I don’t know what is, that looked brutal.
It definitely look similar to the Ryan Howard injury from few years ago in the playoff.
No it wasn’t…albeit both are painful!
I thought Ryan Howard’s injury was a blown Achilles? That’s nowhere near the knee.
Ryan Howard tore his Achilles. Nowhere near close to what Harper just suffered
Maybe even a TCL, RCL or even the dreaded WCL….brutal
I am not a National fan or a Bryce Harper fan having said that I do hope that this won’t be a season ending injury. Nationals fans Braves fans are keeping you guys in our prayers.
But we still can’t stand Bryce Harper or the nAtionals
Thanks. It’s tough watching your season disappear in an instant. And I tend to root the same way. Want to beat the Braves when Freeman, etc. are healthy. Don’t like seeing anyone get injured. Followed Harper since he came up. That play was not fun to watch. Like others above, I suspect the worst.
The Nats are not a one man team. Even if Harper is out for the year, they are still virtually guaranteed the division title. Once the playoffs start, anything can happen, especially when you have a pitcher that is as potentially dominant as Scherzer.
Yeah, they will win the division and they will still have a shot. But what was already starting to look like the Dodgers year is looking more so. But the team as constituted on opening day could compete with anyone. Real tough year.
The Dodgers will flop in the playoffs like usual. The set up is actually very dangerous for them anyway. Their division series opponent is likely going to be a division foe. Both the Rockies and D-Backs have already beaten them 5 times each this season. All you need to do is win 4 and the Dodgers are right there with the 2001 Mariners.
And the Dodgers have won 8 and 7 against the Diamondbacks and Rockies. 15-10 against their nearest rivals, with homefield advantage (48-14, easily the best home team in baseball). But yeah, it’s so easy.
All the Dodgers gotta do is what they’ve already done, and all Col or AZ need to do is what they haven’t done, which is win 3 of 5 to a team they’ve collectively lost 3 of every 5 to. After, of course, burning their best pitcher just play LA.
It’s not impossible, but don’t act like it’s so easy. This Dodgers team isn’t last year’s team, which beat the Nationals in 5 games. It’s deeper and better.
And last year is irrelevant, which is why the Cubs are tied with a mediocre Cardinals team instead of romping to another NL Central title.
Yeah, we’re keeping them in our prayers alright. Prayers that they choke.
and just like that it’s looking like a breeze for the dodgers to win the NL…now that that’s over with, who wins the NL now?
Potentially any of the other 4 teams in the playoffs. In a 7 games series, almost anything can happen. The team with the best record rarely wins in the postseason. Even the Cubs last year were 1 run away from 109.
Well loks like Mets found a Team too take the Gandy man !
I was just thinking that.
nah, nats have no relievers to trade to us
Just watched the video of this. Definitely hyperextended it, but won’t be surprised if it turns out to be ligament damage.
It hurt just to watch.
Why can’t we have nice things?
Yeah that’s definitely a torn ACL
That was hard to watch. I can’t stand him, but you never want to see that kind of thing happen to anyone. Hopefully he can fully recover from whatever it is. Baseball needs him. He is important to the game. And he has a big pay day coming in the near future. Wonder what kind of hit that takes should this be a significant injury that continues into next season
Rosenthal tweeted that prelim tests show torn ACL and PCL.
NVM…. I think I saw a fake Rosenthal tweet. Hopefully it isn’t as bad.
That was the fake Rosenthal who tweeted this out.
Rosenthal tweeted he has a torn ACL and PCL which makes sense. Hopefully he makes it back before the start of new year. Truly a shame. My money was on Nats making WS but I’d be surprised if they did now. Honestly I could see Harper potentially being able to pitch hit if they don’t do surgery until the season is over.
The guy couldn’t even put pressure on his leg. How could he pinch hit. There is a reason they need surgery with this kind of injury. You can’t even stand with that type of injury and you think he can pinch hit and run?
I had a similar injury recently(torn acl and Partially torn PCL) and yes I was unable to do much of anything for a few weeks but not long after that I was able to resume my normal activities without problem. They didn’t even repair acls commonly until the 70s most people just lived with it torn. I don’t think it is likely he returns due to the risk he could injury it even more, but it’s not impossible.
And he’ll get it repaired at some point for sure, I was suggesting he could push the surgery until after the season. Again I think unlikely but not impossible.
I’m guessing your not an MLB player though. Better let Eaton know that he can come back already
You are right. Eaton had the surgery though once you do that it’s a 6 month recovery time if he came back early his chances or re tearing it are huge.
It was a fake rosenthal account. Dont get finnesed
If it’s a torn ACL and PCL, then he’s done. That’s the same injury Schwarber suffered last year in early April and he was only able to bat (not play the field) in the World Series (and even that was considered a miracle). There’s no way Harper contributes anything for the rest of the year (playoffs included) if that is indeed the injury.
Nothing on Rosenthal’s twitter feed – twitter.com/Ken_Rosenthal?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor
Stanton has mvp in the bag now
Wrong. He’s on a losing team that won’t make the playoffs. The only way that would happen is if there was nobody else really worthy of the award.
Guys like Arenado, Blackmon, Goldschmidt, Turner, and Rendon
(and maybe even Bellinger) will all get consideration before Stanton.
Agreed.
He should still be able to make the ballot and command a few votes
Trout was on one of the worst teams in the league and still somehow won the MVP over Betts.
Are you really comparing Stanton to Trout? Trout is the best player of his generation Stanton is a good player. Trout was the highest WAR player last year and no way Stanton will be anywhere near that. Stanton won’t win the MVP. He is having a very good year though.
Trout had a high AVG, OBP, SLG, HRs, RBI, and led the league in WAR as he always does.
Stanton has a lot of HR.
I’m not saying he sucks by any mean…he’s certainly more of a complete player than other guys with “just lots of HR”, but it’s not enough to win the MVP over some of the guys I mentioned.
“somehow” won the mvp over betts… stop it
Lmao that somehow was unnescary. Anyone who didn’t pick trout was wrong
Yes I am a Red Sox fan and love Mookie Betts as good a complete player as there is in the league but Trout is just in a different league.
Thanks for saving me some typing.
he’s not even top 3, IMO he’s not top 5. He won’t be either, no matter how many bombs he hits
As a Braves fan, I hate the GNats, I hate Harper and wish him an eternal slump when he plays against us… that being said, I hope he avoids any serious injury, that video was tough to watch.
Hello, Justin Upton!
Granderson is available.
I didn’t think it looked as bad in slow motion. Hyperextended a bit for sure, but no rotation which is where most of the ligament damage comes from. Hopefully he’s alright, but we’ll see what they say tomorrow.
Personally i can’t watch that video of the injury and not grimace every time. Looks awful, hope he can be back this season
Slippery wet Raised bases… Yes injuries are a part of the game but Harper was hurt for HUSTLING on a MINE FIELD
Will MLB fix this problem?
Probably not
Players were lost for full seasons due to simply landing awkwardly on raised dry bases…
But raised wet slippery bases? Harper never stood a chance.
Wet raised bases? Maybe if he wore a helmet that fit properly and not those and fly off when he does his cool headshake then maybe he might not have had that injury. Watch the video again and watch how when he gets close to the base his helmet comes down in front of his face and he loses vision so he ends up stepping on the back end of the base instead of the front of the base like most normal players
You’ve never played baseball before, have you? A tight helmet is the worst thing on earth. Anybody who has played will tell you that. If you can feel it on your skull it’s too tight.
If it falls off when you run, it’s too loose.
Nah. Much rather have that than feel it around your skull.
Yeah much rather have it loose and fall forward and block his vision so he’s not sure where he’s tagging on the base and blowout a knee than actually fit right. Can’t mess up the hair style too bad and prevent him from doing that cool head flip.
I will just say from personal experience no players like to have a helmet construct their head. It’s uncomfortable as hell.
Yet, all the other players in the game managed to “survive”, despite the raised wet bases.
Looks like a high ankle sprain to me. Watch his ankle roll as he slips off the bag and immediately grabs his upper calf. But he does quickly shift to the lower knee. Could be either. Hope for a speedy recovery.
his foot slides forward and his knee bends in, torn acl or god forbid torn patella tendon
He will take a few days off and be back by the end of the week. He was walking around a bit later in the night. It probably looked worse than it actually was.
Not matter what sport , what team, what gender, you hate to see injury. With that said I’m guessing dodger fans as well as rocks and dbacks would seem to gain a slight edge come playoff time if this is season ending. Dudes a stud and you hope for the best for him
Since I seem to blame Dusty for everything, I’m blaming him for this, too.
That is why the teach you to hit the front of the bag in little league.
Goldschimdt should finally win his well deserved mvp award hes been outsanding for years but never gets credit for it for being on the d backs
I agree. He’s carried that team at times. The Arenado and Harper injuries probably give him a decent shot at winning.
If it’s an acl tear, then the nationals world series hopes went out the door and possibly mvp for harper, eventhough my vote is going to Arenado
Just a bone bruise…no ligament or tendon damage
Mike Rizzo stated he should be back before the end of the year.
if it was something more significant, it would make FA a lot more interesting to see teams other than the dodgers, red sox,, yankees, etc having a chance at him