Following a strong effort scoring from second base on a walk/wild pitch in the fourth inning of Friday night’s game against San Francisco, Trea Turner exited the contest with concerns over a potential hamstring injury. Edmundo Sosa entered as shortstop in the top of the fifth inning in Turner’s stead, going 1-for-1 the rest of the night for the Phillies.
After today’s rounds of testing, the Phillies made the decision to place Trea Turner on the 10-day Injured List, officially listing the injury as a left hamstring strain. Infielder Kody Clemens has been recalled from Lehigh Valley in a corresponding move to fill the 26-man roster.
A Tough Injury to a Hot Bat
Trea Turner has had a fantastic 2024 campaign so far, hitting a .343 average while leading the team with 47 hits and 10 stolen bases. While that speed on the basepath is one of Turner’s biggest assets, it did, unfortunately, come back to bite Turner in this case as he felt his hamstring begin to throb just steps before reaching home plate on the wild pitch ball four to Bryce Harper in the bottom of the fourth.
Now, the Phillies will need to look to replace Turner not only in the lineup but also defensively, at least for the next ten days.
Who will replace Trea Turner?
Edmundo Sosa will likely get a lot of the playing time at shortstop over that stretch, starting tonight as Trea’s immediate replacement. The infielder has put up a respectable .286 average and .824 OPS over his limited 21 at-bats on the season, but he is also likely the best defensive shortstop the Phillies currently have available on the roster. It just may benefit the Phillies to slot Sosa further down within the Phillies’ lineup, give the hot-bat Alec Bohm a chance to slot in at the two-hole for a few days and see how the lineup shakes out from there.
One additional option, per Matt Gelb at The Athletic, would be to shift Bryson Stott back over to shortstop temporarily to cover Turner. Stott certainly has experience at shortstop but has not played the position since the 2022 World Series, so there would be a bit of an adjustment there. The advantage in taking this approach, however, would be that there is a natural second baseman on the bench in Whit Merrifield who can slot right in with no concern.
Regardless of which approach the Phillies take, likely both could be implemented over the next several days, the Phillies will certainly be feeling the impact of not having Turner in the lineup.
“I hate being hurt and I promise you it’s not going to be fun for the training staff because I just wear them out. So they’ll want me on the field more than I want to be on the field probably.”
Trea Turner on his injury post-game on Friday May 3rd
AP Photo/Derik Hamilton
