Phillies plan to activate Turner, start him as Padres series short originally appeared in NBC Sports Philadelphia
BALTIMORE — If Trea Turner can avoid tripping over a crack or getting hit by a stray piece of space junk, the Phillies plan to activate him from the injured list and move him to shortstop when they return home to play the Padres on Saturday night. Monday.
“Unless something weird happens,” manager Rob Thomson said before Sunday’s series finale at Oriole Park at Camden Yards. “I feel good where he is.”
The corresponding lineup change was not immediately announced, but the decision of who to cut will likely fall to David Dahl, Cristian Pache or Johan Rojas. Dahl has started seven remaining games since being called up from Triple-A Lehigh Valley on June 3. Pache is out of options. The question with Rojas is whether his center defense outweighs his .235 batting average.
It may or may not be significant, but Brandon Marsh started in center against the Orioles on Sunday.
Turner was hitting .343 with an .852 OPS when he strained his left hamstring on May 3. At the time, he was expected to miss about six weeks, which turned out to be pretty close.
“I think he could have come back sooner if he had gone to a rehab (designation), but it is what it is,” Thomson said. “He probably would have played faster because the fact that you’re not being tested in a game means we have to do more things here and it takes more days to do that.”
The coach added that he has no idea if Turner will be able to pick up where he left off offensively.
“It’s hard to say,” he said. “He went into the World Baseball Classic last year basically without a hit. And he kills. So I don’t know what to really expect.”
Turner’s return also means that Edmundo Sosa will return to his utility infielder role. But he performed with such skill that to keep him in the lineup as long as possible, he will start to throw some fly balls in the outfield.
“If he doesn’t play every day, there’s nothing wrong with getting him some outside work just to see how it goes. Just make him comfortable,” Thomson said.
