How Jean Segura’s injury impacts the Phillies

Phillies
PHILADELPHIA, PA – APRIL 17: Philadelphia Phillies second baseman Jean Segura (2) bats during the Major League Baseball game between the St. Louis Cardinals and the Philadelphia Phillies on April 17, 2021 at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia, PA. (Photo by Cody Glenn/Icon Sportswire)

It’s no secret. The Phillies’ luck has to rank 30th in baseball. Two Disgusting losses in a row wasn’t enough for the Phillies. In the 7th inning of Tuesday night’s loss to the Giants, Jean Segura squared around to bunt and got hit on the right hand.

Segura was removed from the game. In postgame interviews, it was revealed that Segura suffered a broken finger and will be headed to the Injured List.

Jean Segura had been one of the Phillies’ most consistent hitters early in the season. He was hitting over .300 not long ago on May 17th. He had cooled off a bit, hitting just .203 after May 17th with a .463 OPS.

His season slash line was still a respectable .275/.324/.407 when he went down with his finger injury.

Segura’s injury adds to the laundry list of gut punches the Phillies have endured of late. The entire month of May was a rough schedule for the Phils and it shows in their record. Playing 8 games under .500 in an entire month is a tough hole to emerge from but that’s exactly what the Phillies did in May. They went 10-18.

On June 1st, the Phillies are 12.5 games behind the New York Mets.

With May behind us, the question now is “who’s going to play 2B?”.

The Phillies have a few options. Bryson Stott would be the first option as the Phillies’ top hitting prospect could use some consistent playing time. There’s just one problem. Stott is hitting a cool .123 with a slugging % below his OBP. He did recently endure a 0-14 stretch that broke when he came in for Segura and roped a double in his second at bat.

The next option would be to recall Didi Gregorius from his rehab early and move Johan Camargo to 2B. But with that move comes another problem. After his torrid start, Camargo has hit a horrid stretch. Since April 23rd, Camargo has hit just .190 with a .559 OPS.

Lastly, the Phillies could call up Nick Maton from Triple-A. While he’s only hitting .240, Maton has an excellent .822 OPS this season. It wouldn’t be an oddity to see Maton perform better than that in the bigs as he did last year. In 2021, he hit .199 in Triple-A Lehigh Valley. He hit .256 in the majors.

And of course, there’s always the emergency button of signing someone like Joe Panik (literally pressing the Panik button) or Brock Holt. Both are former 1X All-Stars who are still free agents. Hell, bring Chase Utley out of retirement. I know that’s not realistic but I, as I’m sure you are, am fed up with the Phillies at the moment. Maybe if we all yell at the Phillies to do the craziest things imaginable, they might just do something sensible.

Maybe.

Photo Credit: Cody Glenn/Icon Sportswire