Plagued early by injury, how much depth do the Phillies have?

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This morning, we learned that Chase Utley had a cortisone injection in his knee on Friday after an MRI showed patellar tendinitis. Next, Domonic Brown left today's game against Pittsburgh (which they subsequently lost 4-3) with the trainer at his side. It was later reported that Brown has fractured a bone in his hand and will more than likely require surgery therefore sidelineing him for approximately 3-6 weeks. Immediately after the news spread, you could almost smell the stench of tear-stained jerseys being packed away for the season as the high hopes of some Phillies fans were being doused in kerosene and lit aflame.

Let's start from the top: Chase Utley.


Chase has always been a rough and tough kind of player - the kind where it eventually catches up with you and something is always hurt. First it was his wrist in 2007, then his hip in '08, and then his thumb just last summer. He's had three surgeries in the last four years and now there's something else that could potentially be added to the list: his knee. The team says they haven't explored the option of surgery just yet, but truth be told, it may only be a matter of time.

So where does that leave the Phillies if the start second baseman winds up having to go under the knife? Last year, Utley only played 115 games due to his thumb injury. In his place, Placido Polanco (who is a Gold Glove second baseman) and the ever versatile Wilson Valdez primarily stood the watch until Utley was able to come back full-time. So far this spring we've seen Valdez, Pete Orr, Josh Barfield, and Delwyn Young start at second, with Young spending the majority of the time there. We've also seen flashes of Jeff Larish starting at third sprinkled into the mix.

It's entirely too early in the spring to speculate on any of this, but if in the event that Utley is not ready come opening day, we could very well see a mix of Valdez and Young at second, with a very rare instance of Polanco at second and perhaps Valdez at third. This of course all depends on how Charlie feels about the depth charts in the coming weeks when cuts begin.


After eight games, Valdez is 4-12 with 3 walks and 2 stolen bases. Young is 7-17 with a walk. Last year, Valdez was a very serviceable substitute for Rollins at short while he was nursing an injury for the better part of 2010, batting .258 over 111 games. He isn't going to be All-Star material anytime soon, but look at it this way: on just about any other team besides the Phillies, he could be an everyday starter - easy - and I don't mind him singing backup while the guys earning the big bucks rest up one bit.

Something Valdez brings to the table that I've already mentioned is his versatility. Last year we saw him play all over the infield. He's played in the outfield twice this spring, a few innings in center and right, and as usual did a respectable job. It's clear that Charlie and his staff are experimenting with all of their options just in case the plague strikes again like it did last season. With Ben Francisco and Raul Ibanez slated to platoon most of the year in left, Victorino in center, and now with right field wide open, I wouldn't be taking any chances either. What happens if one of them gets hurt?

Remember when everyone was on the DL and the game went about 35 innings before Ryan Howard tried to eat an umpire for a midnight snack and they were left with one option: throw Oswalt in the outfield and move Ibanez to first to finish out the night? By testing Valdez in the outfield and by having Francisco taking grounders at first already this spring, the Phillies aren't taking any chances. The bulk of the roster may have no choice but to turn themselves into jacks of all trades just in case they are presented with the worst case scenario again in 2011.

This brings me to the other pressing issue: Domonic Brown.

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Brown has been, for lack of better words, inconsistent since he was called up to the majors last July. He was the number one mid-season prospect as ranked by Baseball America in 2010, and is the number four overall for 2011. Before Brown came to Philly, he was batting a fierce .327 combined in AA Reading and AAA Lehigh Valley. He was an offensive explosion at first, but it tailed off quickly. There was some concern that he wasn't getting enough at bats at the end of the season and into the post season, but realistically, had he gone back to the minors after Shane Victorino returned from the DL, he wouldn't have had much time there before the AAA season ended, and Charlie certainly wasn't going to sit his stars for a kid to get some in some work in October.

In the off-season he spent some time in winter ball and had a dismal showing: He went just 2-20 (.069) and actually wound up leaving early because Amaro thought he was looking sluggish. This spring, he went 0-15 before getting his first hit (a single) today before exiting the game with the hand injury.

An injury to a future star this early in his development is of course always cause for concern, but there are some bright sides. The injury requires a routine surgery that should only bench him for 3-6 weeks. He is still young (he turned 23 in September), so taking a couple of weeks off shouldn't affect him all that much in the long run. It's almost always easier to rehab at a younger age than if this had happened to someone like a Raul Ibanez or Jose Contreras. I know it's easy to panic, but maybe this will give him some more time to mentally prepare for the big leagues. Maybe when he comes back he'll be better than new. Nobody knows what the future holds, but let's wait until he takes that cast off in 6 weeks and see what he does before jumping to (very depressing) conclusions.

I hope everyone knows that I would never wish ill on a player, but let's reflect on a couple of things for a moment: the right field position was never, ever, ever promised nor guaranteed to Brown after Werth's departure to Washington. Not once. Not even as a joke. All spring long, Ben Francisco has been busting his hump to prove that he can handle an everyday spot in the lineup. John Mayberry, Jr. has seen a decent amount of playing time as well. Over the offseason, it was mentioned that more than likely Francisco would platoon with Ibanez as Raul starts the process of winding down his career.

With Brown's injury, Francisco is the likely opening day right fielder, and it may very well be his job to keep. Francisco may not bring the glamour most people want to see in the corner pocket, but he does bring veteran experience, and keep in mind he was an everyday starter before coming to the Phillies. Plus, to be fair, if Brown did secure the starting job, and he continued to struggle at the bat, how much offense would the Phillies really be losing by playing Francisco in his stead? So far this spring, Francisco is 8-19 with 2 home runs, 6 RBIs, 2 walks and a stolen base. Mayberry is 5-17, with a home run, 2 walks and 2 stolen bases. It's not inconceivable that we could see Francisco and Mayberry play all three areas of the outfield this season while they help both each other, Ibanez and Victorino with days off. With Valdez being tested away from the infield, he could be on standby in case the Phillies have a repeat of 2010 and need somebody, anybody, to man the helm for a few games.

Folks, we're barely a week into spring training. The injury bug is biting early, which is always better than later in the season, or spread out as much as it was last year. The worst case scenario is that the injured players come back with a case of the Joe Blantons, meaning that they never quite find their groove, or that they don't come back at all. But all we can do is assume that the 25-man roster Charlie Manuel puts together at the end of the month takes all of that into consideration.

And why wouldn't he? Pin It Now!