Back in the swing of things — the return of Bryce Harper

by Brandon King

It has been just 160 days since Bryce Harper went in for Tommy John surgery. On day 161 he will make his return to the roster. The shortest time ever a player has come back to play after this specific surgery was back in 2004, almost 20 years ago, when former second baseman Tony Womack did it in 182 days.

Setting records and being the star of the show is nothing new to Harper, but this is historic. According to a study that was posted by the Journal of Shoulder and Elbow Injury in 2018, position players in the MLB had an average recovery time for a player to return to his past professional level of 382 days, just over 12 months. This is more than twice the length of Harper’s return.

Harper will likely return as a Designated Hitter, which is not mentioned as part of the study done in 2018.

To put this in perspective, the only other player to do this was Shohei Ohtani who returned in 218 days.

Tommy John surgery is a process where doctors have to reconstruct all of the Ulnar Collateral Ligament with a completely different tendon from the body; such as wrist, forearm, toe, etc. It most commonly happens with repetitive stress to the elbow, and with some of the plays Harper has made with his arm, it’s almost a surprise it did not happen sooner.

Last season he was limited in his role as he could only play designated hitter due to this injury, still he had yet another remarkable season where he proved most of his remaining doubters wrong. Harper won NLCS MVP, and in game five against the San Diego Padres, he would have the swing of his life to send the Phillies to the World Series.

Harper averaged a .286 on the year with 18 home runs. In the playoffs, “Mondo” as Harper is called by his teammates, turned it up a few notches averaging a .349 with 6 home runs in just 17 games.

Harper will reportedly make his return Tuesday to a team that could use a bit of a spark on offense. The Phillies’ pitching is coming together after two solid outings from the aces Zach Wheeler and Aaron Nola where the two accounted for a total of 13 innings pitched with 11 strikeouts and 1 run allowed between the two. The Fightins have fought their way back into contention and are now sitting at 15-14 as of May 1st. Here’s to seeing MV3 back to his peak form – perhaps by late August.

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