The Philadelphia Phillies have been jarred by the injury bug in Spring Training with regard to their offensive depth, and on Friday morning, news broke that utility man Freddy Galvis had been hospitalized with a staph infection.
Freddy Galvis is likely to start season on DL with a staph infection. He is hopsitalized. Ronny Cedeno and Reid Brignac move up depth chart.
— Matt Gelb (@MattGelb) March 21, 2014
News that Galvis will likely be placed on the disabled list is no surprise given the staph infection announcement, but it’s a brutal blow to Philly’s roster. There have been all kinds of rumblings about the team’s starting shortstop, Jimmy Rollins, in the Spring after some questionable comments and a well-publicized benching, but with slugger Darin Ruff on the shelf, the Phillies bench is now the “walking wounded” and this doesn’t help.
In actuality, the 24-year-old Galvis is nothing special statistically with a career .230/.269/.375 slash line over 422 career plate appearances, but he was a mortal lock to be on the roster to provide defensive flexibility for manager Ryne Sandberg, and with the Rollins issues, Galvis could have been given a larger role in the early going. As noted above by Matt Gelb of the Philadelphia Inquirer, this opens up space for guys like Reid Brignac and Ronny Cedeno, but all eyes will now likely shift to Rollins.