This is brutal news for the Philadelphia Phillies and their outfield.
On Friday, the Phillies placed starting right fielder Adolis Garcia on the 60-day injured list with a torn right lat. The team has recalled outfielder Gabriel Rincones Jr. from Triple-A Lehigh Valley to take Garcia's roster spot. This would be Rincones' MLB debut.
It's unknown if Garcia will return this season given the severity of his injury. At the very least, he will miss significant time, which is bad news for the Phillies.
Garcia injured his lat while throwing to home plate on a sacrifice fly by Kazuma Okamoto of the Toronto Blue Jays during the bottom of the seventh inning of Wednesday night's 7-4 win.
Phillies interim manager Don Mattingly admitted that there was some concern for Garcia following the injury. Philadelphia sent Garcia for imaging on Thursday, which revealed the worst-case scenario.
Garcia was having a rough start to his Phillies tenure offensively. In 67 games, the 33-year-old was slashing .195/.270/.329 with a .599 OPS, seven home runs and 21 RBI. However, he had a .774 OPS in June.
Philadelphia signed Garcia to a one-year, $10 million deal in the offseason. Despite back-to-back down years, Garcia put up some strong seasons with the Texas Rangers in the past and helped them win the 2023 World Series.
The Phillies acquired outfielder Derek Hill from the Chicago White Sox in a trade yesterday to help bolster their depth. It's possible that the righty hitting Hill could platoon in right field with the left-handed hitting Rincones while Garcia is out. It will be difficult to replace Garcia's strong defense in right field.
The Phillies got off to an abysmal 9-19 start to the season, which resulted in them firing manager Rob Thomson. Since then, Philadelphia has gone 28-12 under Mattingly. The team has climbed back into the playoff race at 37-31 and are in the second NL Wild Card spot.
They will be without Garcia for a long period of time, which is a big hit to their outfield.
