When is Bryce Harper returning to the Philadelphia Phillies lineup after wrist injury? Hopefully sooner than later.
Bryce Harper had a positive outlook on his wrist injury, even if he isn't exactly sure when he'll be back in the Phillies lineup.
Harper had a reason to be positive regarding the injury that kept him on the injured list since June 7, the same wrist injury that lingered throughout last season.
Harper took 20 dry swings and 20 swings off a tee for the first time since going on the IL. To say the results were encouraging is an understatement.
"It felt better than I thought it would," Harper said before the Phillies' showdown against the Mets on Friday. "So I'm happy about that."
Harper also fielded groundballs at first base and threw outside 60 to 75 feet, so he and the Phillies appeared to be ramping up a possible return to the lineup. He'll do the same routine Saturday before taking the next steps toward coming back.
While neither Harper nor the Phillies has a timetable for a return, he doesn't want to be playing through the pain he felt before going on the injured list. This wrist pain Harper couldn't tolerate, as he was only aggravating it more.
"I understand what I can tolerate and what I can't," Harper said. "I've played through pain in my career. I think everybody has at some point. When I can play through the pain, I do. And it got to the point where I just couldn't do it."
"I hope the pain gets out of there. I don't want to play in pain at all," Harper said. "I think that's something we'll see as that comes around. Hopefully, it can get out of there, or stay out of there...It just got to the point where I couldn't do it, and I didn't want to put myself in the position that I wasn't going to play well for my team."
Harper hasn't received too many answers on this wrist inflammation, just that he needs to calm it down "as best as he can." Harper also won't need surgery as there are no structural issues with the wrist.
Rest is the solution. The "rest" is what Harper can play through and what he can't.
"I'm not happy that it came back," Harper said. "I was pain-free for probably 4 ½ months, and then it came back just randomly. So that's always tough. But I think those are things we're going to have to answer once I get going again."
"How many swings am I going to take? How many times am I going to throw a ball? And things like that. It's tough not to take those swings or do any of those things. But we're just going to try to figure it out once we get there."
Harper does appear to be returning to the Phillies lineup sooner rather than later. That timetable of returning may be significantly shorter in the coming days.
