Former Maligned Philadelphia Phillies Infielder Reportedly Breaks His Foot
During this past offseason, the Philadelphia Phillies didn’t do much when it came to bringing in players from the outside despite their disappointing elimination at home in the National League Championship Series.
Instead, the front office prioritized re-signing Aaron Nola and extending Zack Wheeler to keep this one-two punch at the top of their rotation during this World Series window.
Perhaps they could have done more, but with a roster already full of superstars and young, emerging players filling out the other lineup spots, there wasn’t much that needed to be upgraded.
The one notable move the Phillies made was bringing in superutilityman Whit Merrifield on a one-year, $8 million deal that looked like a bargain considering the veteran was coming off his third All-Star season in 2023.
Unfortunately, his tenure was a complete disaster for both parties.
He slashed .199/.277/.295 with three homers, eight extra-base hits and 11 RBI across his 56 games, putting up an OPS+ of 62 that was an eye-opening 38 points below the league average.
This forced Philadelphia to part ways with him on July 12 when they outright released him.
The Phillies and Merrifield saga didn’t end there, though.
The veteran infielder signed a deal with their archrival Atlanta Braves just 10 days later, joining them on their quest to chase down Philadelphia in the NL East standings.
Well, the maligned former player will now be out of action after reportedly suffering a broken foot when he fouled a ball off his left foot during this past Friday’s game.
However, after the initial fear was he would be out for the remainder of the regular season, Merrifield could return much sooner than expected.
“When they saw the CT scan and saw the small fracture, automatically it was six to eight [weeks]. Then they talked to the foot specialist, he said, ‘He’s not going to hurt it anymore. It’s about what he can tolerate,'” Braves manager Brian Snitker said per Mark Bowman of MLB.com.
So, the former Phillie seems like he’ll still be in the mix to help their archrivals try and chase down the team that cut him.
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Philadelphia Phillies Remain Elite in MLB Power Rankings
The Philadelphia Phillies might not have had the best weekend, as they split their series with the Miami Marlins, but it was still a solid week overall.
The Phillies continue to get closer to securing the NL East title after going 4-2 last week that helped them put some distance between themselves and the second place team.
Philadelphia is in good shape to win the division barring a huge collapse.
By playing good baseball again, they have their eyes set on trying to catch the Los Angeles Dodgers for the best record in the National League.
Entering Tuesday, the Phillies are even with them after the Dodgers lost to the Chicago Cubs late on Monday night..
Zachary D. Rymer of Bleacher Report recently released his MLB Power Rankings and kept Philadelphia ranked 2nd in the league.
“The phunk the Phillies were in for much of July and August is little more than a bad memory right now. They’re firmly on a World Series march again, with wins in 11 out of their last 15 games. With a 1.60 ERA in his last seven starts, Zack Wheeler is doing his darndest to challenge Chris Sale for the NL Cy Young Award. Kyle Schwarber otherwise had himself a week, notably going deep five times and driving in 10 within a four-game span.”
It certainly seems like they are finding their groove in September.
The Phillies are built to compete for a World Series and that starts with winning the division, a goal that is getting closer and closer to being achieved.
Philadelphia continues their six-game home-stand against the Tampa Bay Rays before facing off against the second-place New York Mets. While the Rays are out of the playoff chase, the Mets are one of the hottest teams in baseball and are emerging as a true contender.
This will be a massive series for the Phillies, as they would like to show their rivals that, despite their winning ways of late, the division and the NL still goes through Philadelphia.
If things go right for them this week, they could be wrapping up the NL East by next week at some point.