MAY 1: The Phillies announced that Gregorius has been reinstated from the IL and Marchan was optioned back to the alternate site. Additionally, outfielder Roman Quinn has now been placed on the COVID IL, while fellow outfielder Mickey Moniak was recalled in a corresponding roster move.
APRIL 30: The Phillies have placed shortstop Didi Gregorius on the COVID-19 injured list and recalled catcher Rafael Marchan from their alternate site, according to a team announcement.
There’s no word on how much time the 31-year-old Gregorius will miss. Regardless, this news adds to a rough start to 2021 for Gregorius, whom the Phillies re-signed to a two-year, $28MM guarantee in free agency. Across 83 plate appearances, Gregorius has batted .250/.277/.355 with two home runs – down quite a bit from the .284/.339/.488 line he logged in 2020. With Gregorius out, the Phillies will start Nick Maton at short Friday.
The 22-year-old Marchan made a brief MLB debut in 2020, and though FanGraphs ranks him as the Phillies’ No. 6 prospect, he’ll have a tough time carving out a regular role with them. Marchan is stuck behind starting catcher J.T. Realmuto, an elite player at his position and the recipient of a five-year, $115.5MM guarantee during the winter.
Cabrera hit him so hard he caught the coof.
Damn that sucks! Hope he gets well soon. Especially with his underlying condition
No…..
Marchan will have a tough time carving out a regular role because Andrew Knapp is the best #2 Catcher in MLB.
It makes we wonder if there’s a problem with Realmuto or Knapp that hasn’t been reported yet.
Why?
Because why else would Marchan be called up? If Realmuto and Knapp are healthy Marchan would basically just be a designated pinch-hitter.
not a lot of other options
Realmuto was scratched from the lineup ahead of Friday’s game against the Mets for undisclosed reasons, Matt Breen of The Philadelphia Inquirer reports.
thanks, I only check mlb.com and mlbtr for news so I definitely missed that.
Realmuto was scratched due to sore hand from Hale’s wildpitch.
I knew if I kept scrolling I’d find a post of yours, @Von. Thanks for the info.
Didn’t he have a broken thumb earlier this year?
Related or nah?
He did. I’m not sure if this is related. I hope not.
Kyle Higashioka begs to differ
Kyle Higashoika is no longer a #2 catcher.
He will be again soon.
But Sanchez is no Realmuto. Bad comparison
Tough break. Really think the Phillies win yesterday’s game with either Harper or Didi in the lineup. Now they’re in for a tough stretch. At least the division stinks right now.
Expect the division to be up and down all season long with the parity it looks like it’s going to have – assuming that no major injuries or Covid hits that take major pieces out of the equation for significant time within the division.
Ironic since he was that one player who always seemed to be wearing a mask. He started to not wear it lately, guess that’s one point for “the masks work.”
Every time I’ve seen a Phillies game this year – including the other day – Didi was wearing a mask.
I don’t watch all the games, but I definitely saw him without a mask recently and Tmac pointed it out. My only evidence is game archives so if you want to, go check them out.
He never stopped wearing a mask because he has a kidney condition that puts him in the high risk category.
He didn’t have a mask on last game he played. Tom McCarthy actually mentioned it on the air. First time he decided to not wear it.
@melly thank you… it was on 4/26 to be exact.
He definitely did. He was wearing the mask when he got drilled. Maybe he had off in the field.
He got drilled on 4/27, 4/26 was when he played without the mask.
Sorry, he got drilled on 4/28 rather.
@Audrey Apologies again. You’re definitely right. 4/26 he didn’t have a mask on for a few innings.
Wednesday against the Cardinals, I saw him without it in the field at least one inning, but wore it when he batted. Not sure how much he’s been not wearing it in the field, but I just noticed it that once. Cards have been playing the Phils a lot lately and that was the only time I saw him without a mask on.
Von- I watch every game, and Didi most certainly has been playing the field without a mask at times recently. He wears it at bat and on the bases, but has definitely played defense without it on
@philliesphan77 Yea. I admitted my mistake. On 4/26 he was playing without a mask in the field. Seems to be a one-time thing.
He was actually opting not to wear the mask on the field for the whole St. Louis series until he got hit, I looked at more of the highlights.
Wasn’t he one of the handful of players who wore a mask onto the playing field during games this spring?? If so.. Maybe he should have placed barriers around himself if believes in things like that would keep away the virus.
He started to play the field with the mask off the past few games…
@Audrey He never played without a mask the last 2 seasons. Used it at all times due to his high risk condition. So you’re mistaken about the past few games.
What are you talking about?
MLB.TV allows subscribers to view all archived games for a year. I just looked at the last game Didi played – Wednesday’s game against the Cardinals. He had his black mask on as he has all year.
Please stop spreading nonsense.
I swear he was playing the field without a mask for at least 1 inning and it definitely happened. I can’t tell you when it was and I’m sure neither of us are willing to sift through game archives, so agree to disagree.
@Audrey as someone who has watched every Phillies game this year, I assure you it never happened.
It’s definitely possible you missed it, I remember being astounded seeing it because Didi without the mask was such a rare sight. Like I said, if you don’t believe me, watch the archives, it was for at least 1 inning. In fact I just checked 4/26/21 PHI vs STL highlights you can see Didi without a mask. If only you could post screenshots here… oh well.
@ Audrey;
Did you know that the overwhelming majority of COVID positive tests turn out to be false? Are you saying that if a person doesn’t wear a mask with other people around that they immediately contact COVID?
The USA has led the world in false information being spread via social media and by the news media for over 5 years now. I realize that this is a baseball rumor site, and as such the majority of the things written and commented on turn out to be false – but who cares….gossip is fun. But you are now impinging on a life and death situation that has affected all American’s in one way of the other. I suggest you re-read the story about the boy that cried wolf…..and what happened in the end.
Mr. Gregorius is a person of color. Fairly dark. His facemask is black. The evil, nasty, terrible Police will tell you that eyewitnesses often are sure of things they saw that later proved out not to be true. It’s human nature. Has happened to me.
not reading that lol
@Audrey Interesting. Must have been for a part of the game in the field. He had ut on during his last at bat.
Thank you for making me seem not crazy… lol, hopefully Samuel will see this but after that last post I’m not so sure.
@Audrey I apologize. You’re right. He didn’t have it on partially for 4/26.
they are minus contamination about 98% accurate, so yeah overwhelming majority of 2%
Not reading it because you don’t want to be proven wrong, or are you just lazy?
@Arthur, because I’m not in the mood to read insane political rantings on a website about… baseball. Also he accused me of spreading fake news but I was telling the truth and he denied it because he was too lazy to check the game archives. So the lazy one in this instance is Samuel.
I should also add that Samuel was deliberately trying to misrepresent or gaslight me into thinking I believed one way about covid or something and he also got weirdly racial towards the end and I have no idea why.
Which btw Audrey is something we see an awful lot the last year or so, even here.
Um, just because Didi wore his masks on the field and during the games does not matter. It does not mean that he wore it 24/7 nonstop. And every time we hear of a player or player breakouts, the Patient Zero didn’t get it on the field.
Point is, no argument here is going to solve the mystery of how Didi got it. He got it and all anyone can hope for is that he’s okay when we take into account that he has an underlying condition.
Best wishes to Didi and hopefully any other Phillies that are hit by it turn out okay too.
@Marlins I don’t think anyone here would deny what you said and I share your sentiments, I was just simply pointing out that he removed the mask for field play. I wasn’t trying to spark any conspiracies or political talk or anything. Sadly you can’t escape that here.
It’s my fault mostly.. Asked a question if he wasn’t wearing a mask all spring or not and was wondering if he still was myself. not a huge Philly fan, so don’t catch many of their games on mlb and none so far this season.
It doesn’t take much to set some off in today’s world and i guess daring to ask just did.
No problem gentlemen. I’m just one that likes baseball talk in my baseball site. Of course Covid is a factor in all of sports with the IL ramifications, but I really don’t care for the debates that have nothing to do about sports, especially when we are all dealing with this pandemic, and the “experts” don’t have all the answers. Baseball is one of my escapes. It is for a lot of us. Let’s just enjoy that, and anytime we hear of a player being infected with or affected by Covid in any way, wish them and their family members the best – no matter whether they are our players or a rival team’s players.
Now back to baseball!
This NL East is fun so far this year….even though my Marlins, through 25 games, have now blown 4 saves…with 3 different pitchers.
i think there is at least a 70% chance this is for the back but to avoid putting him on the 10.
I may have to agree with you here. He was clearly sore after getting beaned in the ribs, but not 10 day sore. The Covid il will let him come back when he’s ready while allowing the Phils to keep their bench full.
For sure.
This means more Nick Maton. I’m ok with that. He’s been a pleasant surprise.
Some players recently got vaccinated. Realmuto and Didi could be experiencing side effects of the 2nd shot. Not sure though.
When players go on the COVID IL, do we know if it’s because they have Covid or if they’ve had the vaccine and maybe have a day or two reaction? Hopefully the latter as I believe Didi had some health issues that made
…him at greater risk.
It seems like these incidents are rising. What percentage of players have been vaccinated?
Valid point, but sadly, when they don’t mention that it was due to a reaction from the vaccine, it’s usually been due to catching it or precaution taken due to potential symptoms.
70% per commish
Yea. COVID IL doesn’t mean covid. Could be a reaction to the vaccine or precaution from another illness.
Or contact with someone else who tested positive (or is a suspected positive). The Sixers this year had their best two players miss a week because their barber had tested positive.
I like Didi. Yanks gave him no respect. Hope he’s okay.
I’ve never seen DiDi without his mask on..Thisd doesn’t mean he has Covid, it could mean he has had close contact with someone who has..
His mask did him a lot of good lul
Really funny jerk
Connor,
Why mention “down a bit from 2020” when his ABs add up to what 17 – 20 games? Seems “a bit” of a stretch to use that phrase don’t you think?
I must admit I find it a bit annoying that players are not getting vaccinated..I thought it was available to them all by now..
I take it back if it isn’t available to them…
its very possible it was just the 1st one so far, and you can still get it after vaccination, its just quite less likely.
you know your offense is bad when the only runs you score are on a strike out..
add to that, your right fielder almost totals your center fielder..as it is, OH got a fat lip for his efforts..amazing he held on to the ball
One day for Didi, maybe it was vaccine side effects
It was probably contact tracing in addition to him being hit by a pitch. Needed a quick roster move to call up Marchan in case of emergency. They optioned Marchan so I assume Realmuto is doing fine.
Either way I’m glad he’s ok
Just swell…..Alvarado suspended for 3 games..Not like the Phillies need a reliever..After all, the team does have Hector Scare-Us..What else does a team need…