Phils’ Bryce Harper tests strained arm again Wednesday; still no timetable for his return to right field
The Phillies don't want to rush a return to right field and will take it slow.
Phillies right fielder Bryce Harper, who hasn’t played in the field since April 16 due to a mild arm strain, was scheduled to throw Wednesday, manager Joe Girardi said. Harper played light catch on Tuesday afternoon, and said afterwards that his right arm felt “achy.” Girardi said Harper was instructed to stop if he feels any more pain on Wednesday.
“Everything that he’s been doing the past few days, he’s passed all of those tests,” Girardi said. “He threw [Tuesday], and he didn’t feel 100%. And his question is, ‘Is that just from not throwing or do I still need a little bit more time?’
“So, he’s going to try to throw today and I said, ‘Listen, if you feel it, you’ve got to stop. That’s the bottom line. We don’t want it to affect your hitting, and if we have to wait another week before you start throwing again, we’ll wait another week. It’s not a big deal.’”
Harper said on Tuesday night that the Phillies don’t have a rough time frame for his return to right field yet, and Girardi reinforced that sentiment on Wednesday. They don’t want to rush him.
“Everybody heals a little bit different,” Girardi said. “You get things like this and you put a time frame on it. … For example, if someone says it’s two to four weeks, and you wait four weeks, you might wait two weeks you could have played in the field. So that’s why you go through all of the steps, the steps in the training room, the testing that they do there, and then when you pass those, you go to the next test. And the next test was light catch.”
When asked if he believed Harper’s arm strain could affect his hitting at some point, Girardi said it could.
“I’m sure if he had a substantial strain, it could affect it,” he said. “But I mean, we’ve seen people who need Tommy John surgery continue to hit.”
In the meantime, Harper will continue to DH, while Nick Castellanos fills in at right field.
“We want his bat in the lineup,” Girardi said. “I think that’s the important thing. You might need to spell [Kyle] Schwarber and Castellanos a day or two more than you would normally, but no [it’s not the end of the world].”