PHILADELPHIA -- It sounds like Luis Arraez's sprained left ankle is as bad as it looked on Thursday night.
Arraez got an MRI exam on Friday morning. Asked about the report, Phillies interim manager Don Mattingly said on Friday afternoon at Citizens Bank Park, “Yeah, kind of not a great one.”
Arraez’s availability for the Phillies’ final three regular-season games and the postseason is very much in doubt. He sprained the ankle in the sixth inning of Thursday night’s 5-1 loss to the Brewers, when he tried to avoid a tag following an errant throw to first base. Arraez writhed in pain on the ground before finally getting up and walking off the field with help from a Phillies athletic trailer.
“More than anything, it’s how it’s feeling,” Mattingly said. “He walked in stiff and sore this morning. We’ll see if over the course of the day it gets better. We’ll see if he’s going to be able to do anything.
“As we treat him during the course of the day, does he get better? Is he going to be able to swing a bat? Can he pinch-hit, but not run? That type of thing.”
Arraez has not commented publicly since leaving Thursday’s game. But Mattingly said he would be “a little surprised” if Arraez improved enough to play in the field this weekend against the Rays.
“You don’t feel great about it because he was so sore this morning,” Mattingly said.
The Phillies have not placed Arraez on the 10-day injured list in part because they’re hoping to see improvement, but also because if they place him on the 10-day IL it would keep him off the active roster until Oct. 5, meaning he would miss the NL Wild Card Series and NL Division Series.
“I think it depends where it goes,” Mattingly said about Arraez’s IL chances. “If it's something that we know he's not going to play, then that’s what we're going to have to … you don't want to play short, so we'll just see where it goes. Got to give it a day.”
The Phillies entered Friday night’s game needing to beat Tampa Bay and needing the Diamondbacks to lose to the Padres to clinch an NL Wild Card spot.
Alec Bohm hit cleanup in Arraez’s place. Arraez had hit fourth since the Phillies acquired him from San Francisco on Aug. 3. The Phillies also moved Bryson Stott from third base to second base and played Edmundo Sosa at third.
Arraez has hit .278 with a .678 OPS in 46 games with the Phillies. He hit .324 with an .800 OPS in 105 games with the Giants.
It’s a blow for the Phillies’ offense.
“Obviously, Luis is a guy that can really, really hit,” Mattingly said. “So yeah, it's a blow to the offense. It’s a guy that’s come in and got his hits. He’s been a stabilizer. He kind of mixes up our lineup up a little bit. A different kind of guy. I think anytime you lose a guy that's hitting .300, getting on base, that type of thing, it hurts you.”