PHILADELPHIA — The Phillies put the left side of their infield on the injured list Monday afternoon, a foreboding development with three weeks to go in the season, but the club believes it could avoid significant absences for Trea Turner and Alec Bohm.
Turner, who is having one of the best seasons of his career, was diagnosed with a Grade 1 strained right hamstring. The Phillies expect him to be ready for the postseason; he could return before the regular season ends, Phillies manager Rob Thomson said.
“Actually,” Thomson said, “it was better than what we expected.”
Bohm has played through left shoulder pain, Thomson said, and the team decided to give him time to recover. Bohm has a cyst in his shoulder that will need to be drained, according to team sources, and he’ll be treated with an injection.
He should return in 10 days, Thomson said. Bohm is batting .272/.319/.384 on the season with only a .518 OPS over his last 15 games. He missed time earlier in the year with a left rib fracture.
Alec Bohm, front, should return in 10 days, manager Rob Thomson said. (Rich Storry / Getty Images)
In the meantime, the Phillies’ infield is something of a mess. Edmundo Sosa will be the shortstop, but Bryson Stott will also see some time there. Otto Kemp will have the first chance at regular at-bats at third base. Weston Wilson could see time at second and third base. Donovan Walton, a 31-year-old journeyman whom the Phillies had acquired earlier this season in a minor-league trade, will serve as a reserve.
Everyone in the organization felt as though things could have been much worse. Turner suffered the injury in the seventh inning of Sunday’s loss to the Marlins in Miami.
No one can replace Turner, whose defensive improvements and offensive adjustments have made him one of the sport’s most valued players in 2025. Turner’s 6.6 WAR, according to FanGraphs, ranks fourth in the majors. His 179 hits are 21 more than anyone else in the National League. He is the only current qualified NL hitter batting above .300.
Constructing the lineup without Turner won’t be an easy task for Thomson. He settled on Bryce Harper to lead off Monday night for the first of four games against the New York Mets. Harper will hit first for the first time since Oct. 4, 2022 — a hangover game after the Phillies clinched a postseason berth. By keeping Kyle Schwarber second, the Phillies hope Harper sees a few more pitches in the strike zone.
The Phillies entered Monday with a four-game lead over the Los Angeles Dodgers for the NL’s second playoff seed, which comes with a first-round bye. If they secure that, they would not begin the postseason until Oct. 4. That would provide Turner with more than three weeks to recover.
He missed 11 days for the Washington Nationals in 2017 with a mild right hamstring strain and 44 days for the Phillies in 2024 with a more severe left hamstring strain. Those injuries came in April and May, respectively, hardly a pressure-filled time in the baseball calendar.
But, now, the clock is ticking.
(Top photo of Trea Turner: Emilee Chinn / Getty Images)
