PHILADELPHIA — A few minutes before 3:30 p.m. Monday, Bryce Harper stepped onto the Citizens Bank Park grass for early work. That is when the Phillies’ temporary reality hit everyone. Harper tossed a ball with Weston Wilson. Edmundo Sosa played catch with Otto Kemp. Donovan Walton stretched nearby.
Then Harper took a seat on the grass in foul territory. He used his glove as a pillow. He pulled his sunglasses over his face and lay there for a bit before full infield practice.
“Obviously, it’s a tough situation we’re in,” Harper said. “But just have to keep going.”
The whole thing was dizzying; the Phillies put the entire left side of their infield on the injured list Monday afternoon. It was a foreboding development with three weeks to go in the season, but the club believed it could avoid significant absences for Trea Turner and Alec Bohm.
Turner, who is having one of the best seasons of his career, was diagnosed with a Grade 1 strained right hamstring. The Phillies expect him to be ready for the postseason; he could even return before the regular season ends, Phillies manager Rob Thomson said.
“Actually,” Thomson said, “it was better than what we expected.”
Alec Bohm, front, should return in 10 days, manager Rob Thomson said. (Rich Storry / Getty Images)
Bohm has played through left shoulder pain, Thomson said, and the team decided to give him time to recover. Bohm has a cyst in his shoulder that will need to be drained, according to team sources, and he’ll be treated with an injection.
He should return in 10 days, Thomson said. Bohm has a .518 OPS over his last 15 games. He missed time earlier in the year with a left rib fracture. It’s been a disappointing season.
In the meantime, the infield is disheveled. Sosa will be the shortstop, but Bryson Stott will also see some time there. Kemp will have the first chance at regular at-bats at third base. Wilson could see time at second and third base. Walton, a 31-year-old journeyman who the Phillies acquired earlier this season in a minor-league trade, will serve as a reserve.
But everyone in the organization felt things could have been much worse. The Phillies entered Monday with a four-game lead over the Los Angeles Dodgers for the National League’s second playoff seed, which comes with a first-round bye. If they secure that, they would not begin the postseason until Oct. 4. That would provide Turner with more than three weeks to recover.
“It’s always imperative to me,” Thomson said of the bye. “And especially now, I think we need to give these guys some time off. So we got to go for it.”
Turner suffered the injury in the seventh inning of Sunday’s loss to the Marlins in Miami. He missed 11 days for the Washington Nationals in 2017 with a mild right hamstring strain and 44 days for the Phillies last season with a Grade 2 strain of his left hamstring. Upon returning, Turner was tentative. He had viewed the summer as a chance to ease into things.
This time, he won’t have that luxury. But the current hamstring injury is less severe. In an ideal world, Turner could return sometime during the final week of the season for some at-bats.
No one can replace Turner, whose defensive improvements and offensive adjustments have made him one of the sport’s most valued players in 2025. Turner’s 6.6 WAR, according to FanGraphs, ranks fourth in the majors. His 179 hits are 21 more than anyone else in the NL. He is the only current qualified NL hitter batting above .300.
He’s still in a firm position to win the Phillies’ first batting title since Richie Ashburn in 1958.
Constructing the lineup without Turner won’t be an easy task for Thomson. He settled on Harper as the leadoff man Monday night. It was his first time since Oct. 4, 2022 — a hangover game after the Phillies clinched a postseason berth. Harper had batted leadoff 37 times before Monday. By keeping Kyle Schwarber second, the Phillies hope Harper sees a few more pitches in the strike zone.
“We just talked about it,” Harper said. “It’s something we all wanted to try, and we’ll see how it goes.”
Thomson indicated he’ll mix and match at numerous spots on the field. The organization is concerned about any further injuries; the only position players on the 40-man roster who are not in the majors are outfielders Johan Rojas and Brewer Hicklen.
The Phillies are already running two platoons on the outfield corners. (Nick Castellanos started Monday night against a righty only because Brandon Marsh was ill.) The current roster situation will require some creative thinking.
“We really have to pay attention to the health of our players now because it’s cut into our depth,” Thomson said. “So we need to make sure that we’re getting guys off their feet when we can.”
The club did not consider 21-year-old shortstop prospect Aidan Miller for a promotion; Sosa is on the Phillies for this particular scenario. Miller had a tremendous August at Double-A Reading and will finish his season at Triple-A Lehigh Valley over the next two weeks.
The timing of this roster shuffle wasn’t great. It never is. But, as the Phillies saw it, this could have been far worse. They have padded their lead. They have time to heal before October arrives.
“We’ve been here before, you know?” Thomson said. “We lost Schwarber and Harper on the same day last year and just kept rolling. We have to do the same thing. It’s the next man up. Kemp’s been playing well. Other guys have to pick it up. We move forward.”
(Top photo of Trea Turner: Emilee Chinn / Getty Images)