Phillies News: Josh Harrison placed on injured list, Noah Song moving up
The Philadelphia Phillies have announced a few mid-All-Star Break roster moves.
The Philadelphia Phillies remain active on the transaction front despite the fact that we're right in the middle of the 2023 All-Star Break. After Nick Castellanos and Craig Kimbrel proudly represented the club in Tuesday evening's All-Star Game, the club announced a pair of roster moves on its Twitter account.
- Infielder Josh Harrison placed on the 10-day injured list (retroactive to July 9) with a right wrist contusion.
- RHP Noah Song moving his rehab from Single-A Clearwater to Double-A Reading.
For Harrison, this stint on the injured list may represent nothing more than some much needed time off for the 13-year veteran. After breaking into the league in 2011 with the Pirates, he had a strong eight-year career with the club before becoming something of a journeyman in recent years.
After a bit of a resurgence with the White Sox last season, the Phillies brought the two-time All-Star aboard in hopes of shoring up their bench a bit. Instead, Harrison has been one of the very worst players in all of Major League Baseball. In 38 games, the 35-year-old has two home runs and 10 driven in along with a .219 batting average and 61 OPS+. In that time, he has struck out 20 times with just three walks. In the past, he has been a decent defender, but even his defensive metrics have plummeted this year, suggesting that he may not even make it to season's end on the Philies.
The hope amongst Phillies fans is that Scott Kingery gets a well-deserved promotion back to the majors. The once-promising prospect is the most expensive minor leaguer in the game right now, thanks to some seriously unfulfilled potential he had early on in his career. At 29-years-old, the utilityman has 11 home runs and 30 RBI in 72 games to go along with a .277 average and .822 OPS.
It's worth noting that in his last 28 games, Kingery has a .330 batting average with six home runs, 17 RBI and a 1.013 OPS. Maybe it's time to give him another look.
In Song, the Phillies have a major lottery ticket in their minor league system. The 26-year-old was shockingly selected in the Rule 5 Draft from the Red Sox last winter and has been on the injured list for the entirety of the 2023 season. The right-hander is just now beginning his journey to the big leagues for the Phillies and has made a total of four rehab outings so far. In that time, the right-hander has a 1.93 ERA with seven strikeouts and five walks in 4.2 innings of work. His path to the majors is a bit of a foggy one, but if he continues to keep runs off the board, he'll be an intriguing big league reliever in no time.