PHILADELPHIA — As bad as it might have looked and felt to Bryce Harper Thursday night, he probably couldn’t have wished for a better result when it came to assessing the hamstring injury incurred in the ninth inning of a 7-4 loss to the Miami Marlins.
Or is that assessment a little too presumptuous?
“Well, the best outcome would be it was just sore and I’m back out there today,” Harper asserted Friday. “So it’s not the best outcome.”
Perhaps not. But after MRIs for Harper and Kyle Schwarber, who suffered a groin strain in the top of the ninth, both Phillies stars were placed on the 10-day injured list. And they went there with collective sighs of relief.
“It’s very mild, both of them,” manager Rob Thomson said. “Harper’s is similar to (Brandon) Marsh’s, and Kyle’s is very, very mild. So, hopefully 10-14 days. … We don’t have a timeline but I don’t expect them to be out for long.”
Thomson would subsequently point out that such a recovery timeline would brush up against the All-Star break, which commences July 15. Despite that, Thomson added, “there’s a good chance they’ll come back before the All-Star break. But having said that, we want to make sure they’re completely healed.”
Harper seemed to be the worse off of the strained stars, and he admitted after the game he was both in pain and perhaps was a little more worried because the injury wasn’t one he’d had before. Harper is the third Phillie victimized by a hamstring pull, joining Trea Turner (38 games missed) and Marsh (eight games).
Curiously, Harper indicated he wouldn’t be seeking any recovery advice on his hamstring from other players.
“As I said yesterday, everybody’s bodies are different,” Harper said. “I’m going to do my thing and understand what I do to make my body the way that it is and to get myself back. … Obviously, I’m bummed to go on the IL, I never wanted that to happen, but it’s the best decision for us and our team. So, I’ll hopefully get back in the smartest way possible and the quickest way as well.”
Their respective absences illustrate the range of damage and recovery that a hamstring injury can require. In that respect, then, a 10-14-day recovery sentence sounds pretty good, yes?
“I think anything could probably be worse, right?” Harper said. “I’m definitely happy with the outcome … well, kind of happy. The happiest I can be (with) the outcome and where it is. I don’t want to put timelines on anything; I’m not that type of person. As you guys know I want to beat every timeline out there. So I’m just going to try to come back as quick as possible and the smartest way as well.”
The sudden absences of the Phillies’ two best power hitters should certainly take a toll on the offense, especially with J.T. Realmuto having undergone a right knee meniscectomy, which should keep him out until sometime after the All-Star break. Kody Clemens was retrieved from the injured list Friday, while Johan Rojas was promoted from Triple-A.
“Yeah, they’re pretty good players,” Thomson cracked when asked about that stark reality. “But, you know, what are you going to do? It’s out of our control now. We just need to go out and play.
“I’m very confident, I am. This is a resilient group, we’ve got two really good players coming back up, and we’ve got the bulk of our club still here. So it just seems that when guys go down on this club, people step up and people contribute. People answer the bell, so I would expect the same thing to happen now.”
Schwarber agreed with that assessment Thursday.
“The last couple of years, I feel like we’ve had to go through a number of different things,” Schwarber said. “But guys are stepping up and filling in spots and doing a great job. That’s why we have this depth of pretty good players down at Triple-A as well, and guys here – we’ve got a really good bench. So if there’s time to be missed, I’ve got all the faith in the world for these guys to keep doing their thing.”
