Phillies activate Trea Turner, option Johan Rojas to Triple-A

The Philadelphia Phillies announced Monday that they have reinstated Trea Turner from the 10-day injured list, marking a full return from the left hamstring strain he sustained on May 3.

Turner will bat second and play shortstop in Monday evening’s series opener against the San Diego Padres at Citizens Bank Park. Prior to his injury, Turner was hitting .343 with 10 stolen bases. A Phillies team desperate for right-handed production outside of Alec Bohm — with J.T. Realmuto on the injured list and Nick Castellanos struggling — will get a shot in the arm with Turner’s return.

Meanwhile, the Phillies optioned center fielder Johan Rojas to Triple-A Lehigh Valley to make room for Turner on the 26-man roster. They elected to keep Cristian Pache and David Dahl — both of whom don’t have minor-league options and would have had to be exposed to waivers if removed from the 26-man roster — over Rojas for the time being.

Rojas was hitting .235 with two home runs, 19 RBIs and a meager .566 OPS prior to his demotion. He’ll now get a chance to get extended at-bats at the Triple-A level, which he skipped when he was promoted from Double-A Reading to the majors last July.

Rojas is still only 23 years old, so there’s time for continued maturation at the plate. But it would be fair to say there are legitimate questions about whether he’ll ever hit enough to be a regular on a contending team at the MLB level. Certainly, his defense taking a step back — he had 15 defensive runs saved in 392 innings last year, but has just one over 481 1/3 this season — made it more difficult to justify continuing to have his bat in the lineup every day.

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