Spencer Turnbull to the injured list, Yunior Marte back up

Just when you thought the Phillies had enough pitching depth for the starting rotation, the injury bug bites yet again.

We all watched Turnbull exit the game Wednesday with what he called a “grab” in his right shoulder. Turns out, that “grab” was his lat muscle straining.

Cool.

The team had six starters heading into this season, which is great, but teams usually need seven or eight to make it through an entire season. With Taijuan Walker already on the injured list with a blister (wink wink), losing Turnbull does hinder that depth a bit. However, there are two things that are in play in the Phillies’ favor.

First, they don’t need a fifth starter for a while.

If the team does indeed look to skip that spot, their top four starters will stay on turn, something they might prefer.

Second, if they choose to keep using all five starters, there is an intriguing prospect already on the roster and already stretched out.

This is also a good thing. Mercado has tantalized the team with his stuff in his starts in the minor leagues, so if the team wanted to give him a spot start to see how well it translates before shifting him to a relief role (a plan they have had), now would be a good time to do so.

Marte coming back deepens the bullpen all the more and when he was here, he was quite good. So, while the depth of the team does take a bit of a hit, it should be but a blip on the radar right now.