By Jordan Long
The Philadelphia Phillies will be missing one of their top hitters and outfielders, Andrew McCutchen. He hurt his knee on Monday night against the San Diego Padres. The Phillies were hoping he would be alright and would return to the lineup. Unfortunately, an MRI revealed a torn ACL and McCutchen will miss the rest of the season.
McCutchen was able to help the Phillies on offense. He hit .256 with 10 home runs and 29 RBI’s. He was reliable moving his teammates on the base paths and score them when they were in scoring position. McCutchen was seeing the ball well and drove the ball to the gap in the outfield with 12 doubles. Those[JL1] extra base hits allowed the next man in the lineup to drive him in to add to the Phillies lead.
When it came to defense McCutchen was placed at center and leftfield. He rarely dropped the ball in the outfield with 2 errors so far this year. Opponents couldn’t try to advance on him because of his strong arm. If they tried McCutchen would throw them out trying to move up with a total of 2 outfield assists.
The Phillies know how big a loss this is. According to ESPN, Manager Gabe Kapler said, “Even at the outset of the season when he wasn’t as productive as he has been recently, he was still a really good baseball player for us. He got on base consistently and did the job of seeing pitches and setting the tone for the rest of the lineup. He’s a weapon for us because he can play center field and left field, is a very aggressive baserunner and through the entire season he has unquestionably been one of our better players. So it is a loss.”
The Phillies are going to need to find a way to replace him in the lineup. They acquired Jay Bruce last week. Bruce can play all parts of the outfield but is more comfortable at right field. He may have to shift over to center and left field.
Philadelphia called up Adam Haseley from the minors. This is his chance to shine since this will be his first time in Major League Baseball. He must play well in order to stay with the Phillies. If he can, he might be the answer in the outfield, otherwise he will be sent down.
It will not be easy to replace him especially on defense. They have plenty of athletes who are going to need to step up their game. Philadelphia is a team on paper who has the talent to go all the way to the World Series. If they fall short, they don’t want to look back and say the injury to McCutchen was the turning point of their season.
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