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Bryce Harper to have surgery next Wednesday, recovery timeline unclear for now

Bryce Harper will have surgery next Wednesday. (Photo by Rich von Biberstein/Icon Sportswire)

We finally have a Bryce Harper injury update.

Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski told reporters that Harper will have surgery next Wednesday to repair the tear in his right ulnar collateral ligament.

Harper’s elbow was evaluated Monday by Dr. Neal ElAttrache in Los Angeles, the same doctor who confirmed the tear in his UCL and treated it with a platelet-rich plasma injection (PRP injection) in May.

ElAttrache will perform the surgery. The Phillies and Harper are not sure if he will need Tommy John surgery, which could keep him out of the Phillies lineup for at least a couple of months next season.

Harper could also get an internal brace, which is a similar procedure Rhys Hoskins underwent at the end of the 2020 season. Hoskins got the surgery on his non-throwing elbow in the beginning October and it came with a four to six month recovery timeline. He was ready to hit and play the field at the start of the 2021 regular season.

The Phillies are not putting an exact timeline on his recovery. They will know more following Harper’s surgery.

“Everybody’s ligament is different and where it could be torn and how much of a tear that is.” Dombrowski said. “Until they get in there, we’re really not sure.”

The injury limited Harper to just eight games in right field in 2022.

Without the addition of the universal designated hitter this past offseason, Harper’s season would have likely ended on April 16 in Miami. Instead, Harper was able to stay in the Phillies lineup and post monster numbers, slashing .286/.364/.514 with a 145 OPS+. He missed two months of the season after getting hit in the thumb with a 97 mph fastball from San Diego’s Blake Snell on June 25.

Could the Phillies target another designated hitter or another depth position player this offseason in the event that Harper misses some time? Kyle Schwarber, Nick Castellanos, Rhys Hoskins, Alec Bohm and even Darick Hall are all internal candidates that they have that could fill in for Harper.

But Dombrowski noted that this is not a situation where Harper will miss all of 2023, which in the end, could be all that matters.

“There will be discussions of what do we do if — which may be nothing because we’re in a situation where right now we’re looking at him coming back as a DH for some portion of it,” Dombrowski said.