After two consecutive off days, the Philadelphia Phillies announced Tuesday that they have placed Bryce Harper on the 10-day injured list, retroactive to May 23. The injury is being called a left forearm contusion.
The 28-year-old got off to a hot start in 2021, but hasn’t looked himself in the field or at the plate recently. In his last four games, Harper is 0-16 with one walk and 10 strikeouts.
Harper’s injury – which does date back to him getting hit in the face and then the wrist in St. Louis on April 28 – “cropped up” again after Saturday’s loss to the Boston Red Sox. Girardi says that Harper called him Sunday and told him that his wrist was sore, which bothers him more swinging than throwing (in part because he throws right-handed).
Girardi had said in recent days that he believed Harper was healthy, when asked both about a shoulder injury and his entire body generally. Harper’s shoulder and back do appear to be healthy now, but clearly he is not healthy from a general sense. Girardi, in his second season as Phillies manager, says it didn’t make sense from a strategic standpoint to reveal that Harper was dealing with pain in the wrist area that made him unavailable to come off the bench in the last two games.
“There’s a distinct advantage if I tell you that a guy’s wrist is hurt to the other manager,” Girardi said Tuesday afternoon. “And the idea here is to win games. It’s kind of like me telling you who is available and not available in the bullpen – I don’t like doing that because I don’t want Donny [Marlins manager Don Mattingly] to know who I might use or not use.
“And I understand that you want to know, but there are distinct advantages that I can give another club if they know everything that’s going on over here. So, I’m sorry that I had to do that, but we’re trying to win games. And he’s just not ready to go, I thought he’d be ready on Monday or Tuesday, he’s not, so we decided to IL him.”
Roman Quinn has been activated to take Harper’s place. Quinn hasn’t played since suffering a laceration on his right index finger back on May 4.
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