Pitchers and catchers reported to camp yesterday, and hope sprung eternal. But, almost immediately the Phillies have an injury on their hands, literally and figuratively. It comes in the form of a broken thumb from one of their top young pitchers expected to be a mainstay in the 2016 Phillies starting rotation: pitcher Jerad Eickhoff.
Ryan Lawrence of Philly Voice spoke to Eickhoff, who believes the injury is small:
“We were bunting and hitting for a good week and a half … and I took a hard ball, it was off the machine, up and in,” Eickhoff said. “I tried to kind of get out of the way of it, but at the same time my thumb came off the bat and it grazed my thumb. It kind bruised it pretty good, knocked it back. So I’ve just been kind of easing back into it I guess you could say. Just trying to get the soreness and everything out of there.”
An X-ray revealed a “slight, small fracture on the outside” of his thumb, something that’s “nothing serious,” Eickhoff said.
While the injury is on the smaller side, the broken thumb is on his throwing hand.
The Phillies have a large number of pitchers in camp, so if Eickhoff does miss a little bit of time, there are many options to start. Eickhoff projects to be the Phillies' fourth starter in 2016, behind Jeremy Hellickson, Charlie Morton, and Aaron Nola. The Phillies have depth in the form of newcomers Vincent Velasquez and Brett Oberholtzer, both of whom have experience starting in the Major Leagues, and Phillies pitchers David Buchanan and Adam Morgan.
