Bryce Harper’s knee injury should force Phillies to finally bench or cut Alec Bohm

Bryce Harper’s knee injury should force Phillies to finally bench or cut Alec Bohm originally appeared on The Sporting News.
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The Philadelphia Phillies traded for Luis Arraez at the MLB trade deadline with the hopes of improving their offense. While he’s struggled a bit lately, one major beneficiary has been Bryce Harper, who’s walking a lot more than before Arraez’s addition.

But by bringing Arraez in, the Phillies had to adjust their defense, moving Bryson Stott to third base, which then forced Alec Bohm to first base and Harper back to the outfield. However, there’s now a real issue for the Phillies.

According to Charlotte Varnes of The Athletic, Harper is dealing with a sore knee that has flared up since his move to the outfield. This knee injury for Harper should finally force the Phillies to do something they should’ve done a while ago: move on from Bohm.

Phillies should cut or bench Alec Bohm amid Bryce Harper’s knee issue

“In the aftermath, he dealt with soreness in his left knee that lingered into the Home Run Derby the following week,” Varnes writes. “The pain eventually subsided until he started playing the outfield again last week.”

Harper himself added to this issue, revealing that, “I was not feeling it, but the more I’ve ramped it up, I’ve gotten sore. I think the more I play, I think it’ll help me – just getting in condition more.”

While Harper believes that he can shake this knee soreness since moving to the outfield, the Phillies need to look themselves in the mirror and ask themselves a question.

Should the Phillies really be moving Harper to the outfield, risking injury, just to keep Bohm in the lineup? Is that really the best thing for this franchise this season?

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The answer is incredibly simple: No. There is no reason for the Phillies to keep sending Bohm out there when he’s one of the worst players in MLB this season.

Among all players in baseball this year, Bohm’s -1.2 bWAR ranks as the fifth-worst in the Majors. He’s played 116 games. No other player in the bottom five in bWAR has played at least 80 games.

He’s hitting .228 with a .649 OPS this season, isn’t providing any value on the basepaths, and he’s not been a good defender, whether it’s at first or third base, either. He also happens to have grounded into 16 double plays, the third most in baseball. 

Harper, who’s dealing with knee soreness, should not be forced to the outfield to accommodate Bohm, who’s been one of the least valuable players in baseball this season.

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To risk Harper’s knee injury getting worse by putting him in the outfield, just to keep Bohm in the lineup, is a massive mistake. The Phillies should end this experiment, move Harper back to first base or DH, and have Kyle Schwarber play first base.

The Phillies have plenty of better options to fill an outfield spot if Harper moves back to first. Edmundo Sosa, Derek Hill, Bryan De La Cruz, and even minor leaguers in Gabriel Rincones Jr. and Felix Reyes would make more sense than Bohm at this rate.

Harper’s knee injury isn’t getting any better out in right field, and Bohm isn’t producing remotely close to enough value to justify keeping him in the lineup.

Whether it’s benching Bohm or getting him off the big-league roster with a DFA, release, or an option to the minor leagues if he’ll accept it, the Phillies need to move on, as the injury risk to Harper is not worth the sub-par production from Bohm this season.

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