Bryce Harper tests right wrist injury, remains unsure when he will return to Phillies lineup

Bryce Harper pulled on a plain white T-shirt, fastened the Velcro straps on a protective brace, and tested his injured right wrist with 40 swings, including 20 off a tee, in the Phillies’ indoor batting cage.

And?

“It felt better than I thought it was,” Harper said Friday. “So, I’m happy about that.”

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As for the most pressing question — when will he return to the lineup? — Harper didn’t have an answer, as much as he wanted to with the Mets in town for three nationally televised games before jam-packed houses to begin the summer.

“I don’t know,” Harper said. “It’s the first day swinging a bat, so I’ve just got see how it feels tomorrow, see if we can progress. And then once we do, then I’ll ramp up and see where I am.”

Harper has been on the injured list since June 7 with what the Phillies characterized as “inflammation” near the lunate bone at the top of the wrist near the hand, according to Harper. It’s a recurrence of a problem that hampered him last season and didn’t go away until December.

While the Phillies played in Miami this week, Harper stayed home for treatment. He said he didn’t get an injection. He remains hopeful that not playing through the discomfort will enable it to subside completely.

“I mean, I hope the pain gets out of there,” Harper said. “I don’t want to play in pain at all, so I think that’s something that, we’ll see as that comes around. But hopefully it can get out of there and stay out of there.”

But Harper also noted that multiple doctors “haven’t really gotten too many answers” about what’s causing the inflammation or why it came back early in the season. He said he did receive one reassurance: There isn’t structural damage to his wrist.

“I won’t need surgery,” Harper said, “or anything like that.”

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It might be a case, then, of Harper’s having to manage the pain whenever he does return. Maybe he will have to limit the number of swings he takes between games or make other changes to his routine.

“That’s a great question, but like, it’s a question that I can’t really answer right now because I don’t know,” Harper said. “I’m not happy that it came back, right? I was pain-free for probably 4½ months, and then it came back just randomly. So, that’s always tough. But I think those are things that we’re going to have to answer once I get going again. How many [practice] swings am I going to take? How many times am I going to throw a ball? Anything like that.

“It’s tough not to take any of those swings or do any of those things, but we’re just going to try to figure that out once we get there.”

Harper missed five games last month after getting hit on the right elbow by a fastball from Atlanta’s Spencer Strider. The Phillies went 1-4 in those games, then got swept in a three-game series in Pittsburgh after Harper went on the shelf with the wrist problem.

But they won eight of 10 games to pull into a first-place tie with the Mets entering Friday night.

“Pretty jealous on a Friday night in the Bank against the Mets, you know?” Harper said of sitting out a big series in June. “It’s always a fun atmosphere. Their fans usually come in and they’re pretty rowdy, so it’s always a fun series.”

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With the Phillies set to face a lefty (David Peterson) in the series finale Sunday night, manager Rob Thomson signaled that rookie infielder Otto Kemp could make his first start in left field.

Kemp made only seven starts in left field in triple A.

“We were moving him around the infield for the most part,” Thomson said. “That’s where our focus was because Weston [Wilson] was here.”

But the Phillies sent Wilson to triple A earlier this week and called up utility infielder Buddy Kennedy. Thomson said he views Kennedy as a first base option against left-handed pitching, with Kemp moving to left field.

“I feel comfortable with [Kemp] because I’ve seen him out there before and he works diligently at it,” Thomson said. “Here in BP, it looks like he takes good routes. He sees the ball off the bat.”

Kemp was 11-for-39 (.282) with a .682 OPS entering Friday night.

Left fielder Max Kepler (.220/.717) had nine hits, including three homers, in his last 30 at-bats. But with a .621 OPS against lefties, he hasn’t started against a non-opener lefty since April 2.

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Top prospect Andrew Painter is scheduled to start Saturday for triple-A Lehigh Valley. Painter has a 4.35 ERA in 31 innings over seven triple-A starts. ... Rookie right-hander Mick Abel (2-0, 2.21 ERA) will get his first taste of the Phillies-Mets rivalry at 7:15 p.m. Saturday against Mets righty Griffin Canning (6-3, 3.80). The game will be televised by Fox.