Veles star Bryce Harper He will undergo elbow surgery to repair a damaged ulnar collateral ligament next Wednesday, baseball operations chief Dave Dombrowski announced today (Twitter link Via Scott Lauber of The Philadelphia Inquirer). Imaging didn’t definitively determine if Harper would require a full Tommy John surgery (i.e., ligament replacement) or if an internal brace procedure would suffice, so the team won’t have a timeline for the surgery to take place.
Harper was diagnosed with a torn NCL in May, but was able to continue his season in 2022 as the starting designated hitter for the Phillies. Position players with Champions League tears are often able to continue hitting, but throwing is clearly not an option with such an injury. Even in the event of Tommy John having full surgery, it should be noted that Harper is very likely to return to the field as a DH for a notable portion of the 2023 season.
Shuhei OhtaniFor example, he only spent the first five weeks or so of the 2019 season on the injured list before returning as a designated hitter. The surgery took place in early October of 2018 — about seven weeks earlier in the offset than Harper would go under the knife. Each player’s rehabilitation is different, of course, but a summer comeback would seem plausible even in a worst-case scenario for Harper. If the in-brace action is enough, Harper could return with a shorter order.
Even with a damaged UCL, Harper remained a force in the middle of the Phillies lineup. Harper pitched himself in three straight games after the diagnosis and hit . 295/. 381/. 510 the rest of the way after learning of the tear. A broken thumb injured when he was hit by a pitch sidelined him for a notable portion of the summer, but no injury prevented Harper from mashing when he was healthy enough to play. The postseason has swung historically, as Harper batted . 349/. 414/. 746 with six home runs and seven doubles in just 71 plate appearances. His NLCS game-winning home run against the Padres will forever be etched in Phillies lore.
Harper is still just four years out of the 13-year, $330 million contract he signed as a free agent prior to the 2019 season, but up to this point it’s hard to call the contract anything other than a smash hit. Since putting pen to paper and making Philadelphia his long-term home, Harper has batted a combined .282/.384/.546 (not including postseason exploits for the year), won the NL MVP award and helped return the Phillies to the postseason for the first time in a year. 2011. He still owes $222 million over the remaining nine years of the deal, though with typical AAV for premium players now north of $30 million, $24.667 million looks like a bargain for Harper.
