NL East Notes: Schwarber, Harper, Luzardo, Arcia

The Phillies were shut out in today’s 6-0 loss to the Braves, dropping Philadelphia to a respectable 5-4 record in its nine games without injured sluggers Kyle Schwarber and Bryce Harper.  The good news is that at least Schwarber will be activated from the 10-day injured list for the Phils’ next game on Tuesday, and Harper seems on track to be activated at some point this week, even if Tuesday is still up in the air for the former NL MVP.

Both players ran the bases prior to today’s game, with MLB.com reporting that Schwarber has now been running at full intensity for two straight days, while Harper was running “either at or close to 100% intensity.”  Schwarber was sidelined with a groin strain and Harper with a hamstring strain, so baserunning is essentially the final step in assessing whether either player is fully ready to return.  While neither injury was thought to be overly serious, it is obviously a great sign for the Phillies that the initial assessment seems to be accurate, so the team won’t have any longer-term concerns about two key members of their everyday lineup.

More from around the NL East…

• Even though Jesus Luzardo is on the 60-day injured list, teams are still checking in with the Marlins about the left-hander’s availability, USA Today’s Bob Nightengale writes.  Luzardo’s initial IL placement took place on June 19, so he won’t be back until August 18 at the earliest as he recovers from a lumbar stress reaction.  If Luzardo was indeed able to return around that date and return in good form, there would be plenty of time for the southpaw to contribute to a contender for the remainder of the season, yet naturally his health situation would make for some tricky trade negotiations with Miami.  From the Marlins’ perspective, it is hard to imagine they would agree to sell low on one of their top trade chips, especially since Luzardo is still under team control through the 2026 season.
• Orlando Arcia entered today’s action hitting .209/.245/.332 over 314 plate appearances, and with the lowest wRC+ (58) of any qualified hitter in baseball.  It has been an ugly dropoff for a player who had roughly a league-average 101 wRC+ for the Braves in 2022-23, and Arcia was even an All-Star last season after moving into the starting shortstop role.  Justin Toscano of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution writes that the Braves are seemingly okay with letting Arcia try to find himself at the plate, since he is at least continuing to deliver strong glovework at the shortstop position.  While Atlanta has been aggressive in promoting prospects in recent years, Toscano doesn’t think the team is considering bringing the hot-hitting Nacho Alvarez up to the majors as a potential replacement for Arcia, as Alvarez only just made his Triple-A debut last month.