Bryce Harper played through pain last season with inflammation in his right wrist. The same issue has come up again this season, but has reached the point where he “…can’t really function on a baseball field or hit a baseball or anything like that.” With that in mind, the Phillies placed Harper on the IL following Friday night’s game in Pittsburgh.

The IL trip comes after Harper also missed five games last week following being hit by a pitch on his right elbow. Harper made it clear though that that injury and the wrist injury are not related and that the wrist had been bothering him before the pitch from Spencer Strider that sent him to the bench.

Last season, the injury slowed Harper’s offensive output over the second half of the season. Harper opened the season with 21 home runs, 61 RBI, a .301 average and .982 OPS in his first 81 games last season. In 64 games after that, Harper’s average dropped to .266 and his OPS fell to .793. He also hit just nine home runs and drove in 26 following the injury.

Harper and manager Rob Thomson both declined to speculate on how long Harper would be out. Harper said it took about two months for the pain to subside following last season, but neither he or Thomson believe it will take that long thanks to the in-season treatment that Harper will be getting from the Phillies training staff. As for Thomson, he noted that he is not concerned that the injury did not improve when Harper had six days off after the elbow injury, but conceded that he is unsure of whether the lack of improvement is concerning.

“Not really, because I don’t really know much about it,” Thomson said. “So I can’t comment much about that.”

To replace Harper, the Phillies selected the contract of Otto Kemp from Lehigh Valley. Kemp was the Phillies Minor League Player of the M0nth in April and also the International League Player of the Week from April 28 – May 4. Kemp has hit 14 home runs, driven in 55 and had a slash line of .313/.416/.594 for an OPS of 1.010 when he was summoned from the IronPigs.