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Wednesday, November 23, 2022
Phillies superstar Bryce Harper played through a torn UCL in his right elbow for the overwhelming majority of the 2022 MLB season. That’s why he was their designated hitter for all but eight games with the most recent appearance in right field coming April 16. The Phillies made it known earlier this month that Harper would have surgery to repair the UCL. He underwent Tommy John surgery on Wednesday, per Jim Salisbury of NBC Sports Philadelphia.
Salisbury notes that mid-May is a potential return for the reigning NLCS MVP.
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1. JRVJ Posted: November 24, 2022 at 11:31 AM (#6106691)Vierling/Hall will probably pick up most of the PA Harper would get if uninjured. Thats a pretty big drop-off on offense likely (unless Hall can slug .500 for 2 months, then it might only be a mild drop-off). The defense will probably be better though with one of Castellanos/Schwarber DHing daily. I'm not sure how Hall's defense is in RF actually. But, I mean, its probably at least marginally better than Castellanos. Vierling has maybe a 5% chance of turning into a decent hitter still (his statcast stuff suggests he's better than his results so far, I'm skeptical he's as much better as they think though).
So, the 2023 Phillies are likely to be under-rated again, like this year, because their full-season record isn't likely to be indicative of the team they have in October.
I suspect he'll be able to DH by June (perhaps mid May at earliest) and play the field occasionally by July and routinely by August.
Whether he's any good in the field or not, he's better than Schwarber/Castellanos, so, once he can play regularly, he will, perhaps with 1 day a week DHing again. At least they didn't just put him in CF with Schwarber and Castellanos on the corners, right?
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