Phillies fans had a scare earlier this evening as superstar slugger Bryce Harper exited today’s game against the Marlins after he was hit by a sinker from Marlins lefty Braxton Garrett. The pitch struck Harper’s right elbow, the same elbow Harper underwent Tommy John surgery on back in November. Fortunately, Harper appears to have avoided serious injury, as manager Rob Thomson told reporters (including Alex Coffey of The Philadelphia Inquirer) that x-rays on Harper’s elbow came back negative. That said, Thomson also noted that Harper’s still dealing with some soreness and his availability for tomorrow’s game is in question.
That Harper is unlikely to require a trip to the injured list is surely a relief for the Phillies. In 55 games since returning from rehabbing the aforementioned Tommy John surgery, Harper entered tonight’s game with a slash line of .287/.381/.392. While just three home runs and a .105 ISO are both unlike Harper, a typically excellent 13.5% walk rate has helped to buoy his production to an above-average 111 wRC+.
In conversation with reporters, including Todd Zolecki of MLB.com, Harper acknowledged his first half power outage, saying “I’m not where I want to be. I’m not hitting the homers that I want… I still feel like I’m having good at-bats. I still feel like I’m going out there and plugging along. We have a long way to go.”
Harper also noted that he was progressing toward playing first base, a goal he’s been working toward since before his season debut. President of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski added that the Phillies will know whether or not Harper can play first base down the stretch prior to the trade deadline on August 1, when Philadelphia seems poised to look for improvements. After a difficult start to the season, the Phillies have heated up with a 23-10 record since the start of June, enough to put them half a game ahead of the Giants for the final NL Wild Card spot.
If Harper will be able to act as the regular starter at the cold corner, the Phillies would be able to explore an addition to their outfield while moving Kyle Schwarber to DH. Mark Canha, Adam Duvall, and Tyler O’Neill are among the outfield bats who appeared on MLBTR’s recent Top 50 Deadline Trade Candidates list that could fit Philadelphia’s needs. In the meantime, Coffey notes that center fielder Brandon Marsh has begun taken reps in left field as the club explores the possibility of using Marsh in left, Cristian Pache in center, and Nick Castellanos in right. With two center field caliber gloves in the outfield, the Phillies could not only see a significant upgrade over Schwarber (-15 Outs Above Average) in left, but also help make up for the subpar glovework of Castellanos (-2 OAA) in right.
Exactly
I don’t believe there is any chance of Harper doing any damage to his surgically repaired ligament getting hit by a pitch. I wouldn’t think the medical staff would clear him to play if there was a chance he could damage the ligament repair while batting.
Why isn’t he wearing an elbow protector on the exposed elbow when batting?
because it doesn’t look cool
Oops looks like he’s going on the DL with genital Harper.
“Cold Corner”?
Nothing cold about a screaming, corkscrewing liner at your shins from a power hitting left handed monster, sometimes with a runner blocking your view?
Played both. I’ll take the “hot” corner any day.
It’s never been called the ‘cold corner’ and it never will be with all the chances a 1B gets. It’s just a failed attempt at sounding clever.
Gotcha, Just a opposite term playing on words.
But yeah, 3rd base is a lot of “Ole!” Or just plain difficult plays and throws.
If you snag it, you are a hero, or still just one for trying.
1st base can’t make errors and expected to save everyone else’s..
I would consider batting Harper leadoff for the time being. Good OBP. Not much power at the moment.
Schwarber has been horrific. Negative WAR. So it’s worth a shot.
Schwarber and Vogelfat are also competitive eaters.
He will be fine, trauma isn’t going to damage his elbow.
Don’t say that. I only came here to see if Philly fans over react more or less than Angels fans over Ohtani having a blister.
Thomson’s fall back reasoning for continuing to bat Schwarber first is, “He led off last year and it got us all the way to Game 6 of the World Series.”
Balderdash! Last year we didn’t have Trea Turner, and that’s who should have been our lead off hitter since Day 1.
Thomson will go down in Phillies history with the same acclaim merited by Nick Leyva and John Felske. A big zero.
There’s a reason why he’s been someone else’s second banana for three decades.
They’ve been winning with Schwarber leading off. They lose when trying someone else. It makes zero sense, but that’s been the case for the last 2 seasons.
Braxton Garrett should be immediately suspended by MLB and remain so for the length of time that Harper remains out due to injury sustained by the pitch thrown by Garrett. While the Phillies lose the services of Harper for as yet an undetermined length of time, under current MLB rules the Marlins and the pitcher incur no loss what so ever.. The Marlins just shrug it off with, “OOPS, S-O-R-R-Y, Well that’s just part of the game”. Regardless of the level of the contract of the injured batter, a preventable injury is still an injury. Every time a batter is struck by a pitched ball there is the potential for a career altering injury, I don’t have statistics on HBP for this current season, but it seems to be up. As do lost time injuries to batters. It is long past the time for MLB to decisively take action to: #1, limit batters being HBP and #2, Penalize both pitcher and team whose pitched balls result in a lost time injury to a batter.
What the heck. He didn’t mean to drill harper. It’s like suspending someone for getting someone a cold.
No one thinks that was intentional. The Marlins handled Harper pretty well. They didn’t want to give him a free base. This is silly.
So you’re encouraging Manfred to make one of his perennial rule changes to further damage the last great game in this country? Sheez, when you get plunked should the other team have to buy you a sno-cone after the game?
I’ve never seen someone who is a league top 10 home run hitter and still have negative WAR. I can at least say about Shwarber that he is doing something that I have seen no player do.
The bigger mystery as was indicated above is that he’s batting leadoff. I always thought Joe Maddon was insane for doing it, but now Thomson is following the same “logic”. You take one of your biggest power bats who does NOT hit for average (sub .200), has little to no speed, and is not a switch hitter and bat him leadoff when you have much better options for that in the lineup. It’s like batting Rob Deer or Mickey Tettleton #1.
Imagine if the Phillies went and traded to get Vogelbach and decided to bat him no.2 in the line up. That would be epic comedy. =}
They both hit for a higher average.
Thid is why we don’t crown people future hall of famers 4 seasons into their careers. Trout and Harper have done nothing but injure themselves every year. The media is already doing this with Acuna now too. Have them play 15 healthy seasons first and then let’s talk.
Harper didn’t get injured here. He got plunked and sat as a precaution. Trout is a Hall of Famer unless something drastic happens. I believe Harper is on pace as well.