PHILADELPHIA \u2014 More than three hours before an anticipated weekend series against the New York Mets began, Bryce Harper carried a bat and a glove to the Philadelphia Phillies\u2019 dugout. He stepped on the field to play catch with Howie Kendrick, a Phillies\u2019 front-office advisor. He fielded groundballs at first base. He sprinted in the outfield.<\/p>\n
And, finally, he carried his bat to the underground cage. He took 20 swings from a tee \u2014 the closest he\u2019s come to an actual swing in 15 days.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt felt better than I thought it would,\u201d Harper said. \u201cSo I\u2019m happy about that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Harper\u2019s recovery from inflammation in his right wrist has always been vague. The Phillies have not established any timetable for Harper\u2019s return. They have not detailed his treatment for an injury that bothered him late last season. Harper was not with the team earlier this week during a four-game trip to Miami; the team said he\u2019d travel but changed course because officials said Harper could do more work at Citizens Bank Park.<\/p>\n
He is nearing a return \u2014 the biggest test will be how his wrist feels with increased swinging. Harper, who answered questions Friday for the first time in two weeks, clarified this: The pain in his wrist is not due to a structural issue. He\u2019s met with various doctors who have assured him he would not need surgery \u2014 now or in the offseason \u2014 to fix it.<\/p>\n
While that is reassuring to Harper, the injury\u2019s recurrence remains a mystery.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe haven\u2019t really got too many answers about it,\u201d Harper said.<\/p>\n
\ufeff<\/p>\n
Harper is all but certain to play through some continued pain this season; the goal is to make it tolerable. Harper said the best treatment has been rest. He\u2019s now comfortable with beginning more activities on the field.<\/p>\n
The swings from the tee were an indication of Harper\u2019s progress.<\/p>\n
\u201cVery good,\u201d Phillies manager Rob Thomson said. \u201cI mean, we wouldn\u2019t do the tee today if there was any significant pain, for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n
But there is no timetable. Harper will repeat his pregame plan Saturday, then Thomson said the Phillies will assess things. Harper will not play in any minor-league games.<\/p>\n
With a few days of good swings, he\u2019d be ready to return to the Phillies sometime next week.<\/p>\n
It seems.<\/p>\n
Whenever he returns, Harper will evaluate his routine to manage the wrist pain. He hopes to avoid another situation like last season; it bothered him most in August 2024.<\/p>\n
\u201cI understand what I can tolerate and what I can\u2019t,\u201d Harper said. \u201cI\u2019ve played through pain in my career; I think everybody has at some point.\u201d<\/p>\n
He just doesn\u2019t know how he\u2019ll have to adjust things once he returns.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s a great question,\u201d Harper said. \u201cBut, like, it\u2019s a question that I can\u2019t really answer right now. Because I don\u2019t know. I\u2019m not happy that it came back. Right? I was pain-free for probably four and a half months, and then it came back just randomly. So that\u2019s always tough. But those are things that we\u2019re going to have to answer once I get going again. How many swings I\u2019m going to take. How many times I\u2019m going to throw a ball. It\u2019s tough not to take those swings or do any of those things. But we\u2019re just going to try to figure that out once we get there.\u201d<\/p>\n
(Photo: Nick Cammett \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHILADELPHIA \u2014 More than three hours before an anticipated weekend series against the New York Mets began, Bryce…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1525,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2084,1266,2083,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-1524","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-fantasy-baseball","9":"tag-mlb","10":"tag-philadelphia-phillies","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-united-states","13":"tag-unitedstates","14":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114719769510220180","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1524","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1524"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1524\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1525"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}