Bryce Harper of the Philadelphia Phillies has been out for the last couple of months with a thumb injury though. He was rehabbing in the minor leagues in Triple-A with Lehigh Valley and Harper is ready to return to the ball club though. Harper is one of the best baseball players when he is healthy.
Bryce Harper has one of the best MLB stats usually year in and year out though. With him returning to the lineup, what does this mean for the Philadelphia Phillies moving forward?
Bryce Harper Was Having a Great Year Before Injury
Bryce Harper will be batting third or fourth in the Philadelphia Phillies lineup when he is coming back to the lineup. He played 64 before the injury. Harper played all of his games with Joe Giradi, but he has yet to play a game under interim manager Rob Thomson.
He has a .318 batting average with 15 home runs and 48 RBIs, along with nine stolen bases and two caught stealing attempts. His on-base percentage is .385, his slugging percentage is .599, and his OPS is .985. Bryce Harper was having another MVP-caliber season before he got injured.
Bryce Harper won the National League MVP Award last season in 2021. Instead of him winning the award this season, two of the potential candidates for the award this season will be New York Mets first baseman Pete Alonso and St. Louis Cardinals first baseman, Paul Goldschmidt.
Another Dimension To the Philadelphia Phillies Lineup
The Philadelphia Phillies have one of the best offenses in all of baseball. Some of the key hitters they have in the lineup are outfielder Nick Castellanos, outfielder Kyle Schwarber, third baseman Alec Bohm, shortstop Jean Segura, catcher J.T. Realmuto, and first baseman Rhys Hoskins. Philadelphia is a hard lineup to get out, to begin with, and they will even be harder to get out with the addition of outfielder Bryce Harper.
The offense has not been the reason why they were struggling at times this season. Philadelphia is currently in fifth place in the National League overall and they are in third place in the National League East with a 70-55 record so far this season. The Philadelphia Phillies are probably going to be stuck there because they are too far back of the Atlanta Braves and the New York Mets in the division.
They are going to be a tough out when the postseason rolls around in October as long as they don’t have an epic meltdown and they shouldn’t with the way they have been playing baseball as of right now.
Happy Fans
The Philadelphia Phillies fan base has been very happy that they have been winning a bunch of baseball games as of late. Adding Bryce Harper back will make this fan base even happier. They know what kind of special talent he is. Harper draws a lot of people to the ball and the Philadelphia Phillies fan base has been very good at showing up to the ballpark this season even when he was out due to injury.
There will be some fans that will want his autograph. However, what if he returns to the lineup and they all of a sudden go on a cold spell?
Messing Up Chemistry
Is it possible for a superstar player to mess up chemistry when a key player returns? Well, in baseball it might be hard because it is usually 1-on-1 with a batter and a pitcher. It isn’t like basketball, football, or hockey in regards to that stuff. Bryce Harper has sometimes not been a winner and that is a concern for some people.
It shouldn’t matter really too much because outfielder Bryce Harper is one of the best in the game. Their pitching was more of their problem at the beginning of the season rather than Bryce Harper’s performance. We will see what happens down the stretch with this baseball team.