Phillies’ Brandon Marsh had wrist surgery; expected to be ready for spring training
Marsh, the outfielder whose season was marked by extremes, underwent a carpal boss excision Oct. 14 in Scottsdale, Ariz., the team announced Friday.
Brandon Marsh played all season with a bony overgrowth on the back of his left wrist and elected surgery last month, according to the Phillies.
Marsh, the outfielder whose season was marked by extremes, underwent a carpal boss excision Oct. 14 in Scottsdale, Ariz., the team announced Friday. He has full range of motion, plans to begin his offseason hitting program on schedule next month, and is expected to be ready for spring training, a club spokesman said.
But the Phillies have also let it be known that they’re open to discuss trading Marsh with one year left before he’s eligible for free agency, a rival club official said Friday. It’s unclear whether the condition of his wrist will impact those talks.
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The firm bump on Marsh’s wrist — a “carpal boss,” in medical terminology — developed in spring training and was treated non-surgically by the Phillies’ doctors and athletic trainers. It recurred on and off throughout the season.
Marsh, who turns 29 next month, opted for the surgery to prevent future flare-ups, the team spokesman said.
It was a season of drastic highs and lows for Marsh, who started the All-Star Game in Philadelphia but was among the worst hitters in the sport in the second half.
Before the All-Star break, Marsh batted .301 with an .829 OPS, tied for 34th among 164 players who qualified for the batting title. After the break, he batted .184 with a .502 OPS, which ranked 163rd.
It’s unclear whether the carpal boss affected Marsh’s swing. According to Statcast, his hard-hit rate dipped from 50.6% in April to 42.6% in May, 45.2% in June, and 40% in both July and August before bottoming out at 31.7% in September.
Marsh is due to make approximately $8 million through salary arbitration in 2027 based on projections from MLB Trade Rumors. Given his struggles against left-handed pitching, the Phillies view him as a platoon outfielder, president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski reiterated this week at the general managers’ meetings.
“I still think he’s a solid big-league player,” Dombrowski said this week at the general managers’ meetings in Las Vegas. “We do think that. ... We have to straighten out the second half of the year. There’s really no rhyme or reason that he should play like that the second half of the year. He’s just too good a player to do it. We need to straighten that out.”
The Phillies didn’t disclose Marsh’s surgery until after a report surfaced in The Athletic this week. Asked on Tuesday if any player on the 40-man roster underwent a medical procedure after the season, Dombrowski said, “None of our big guys have had anything, to my knowledge.”
In discussing Justin Crawford’s first year in the majors, Phillies manager Don Mattingly and president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski used the same expression: “He kept his head above water.” Moving forward, they will hold the 22-year-old center fielder to a higher standard. Crawford sat down with Phillies Extra to talk about his goals for 2027, including stealing more bases, improving his defense, and more. Watch here.
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