Andrew McCutchen Out For The Year

The Phillies received devastating news about one of their outfielders after a serious injury had him leave the game against the Padres last night.

The Athletic's Matt Gelb is reporting via Twitter that outfielder Andrew McCutchen has been diagnosed with a torn left ACL and will end up missing the remainder of the season.

This past offseason, Philly signed McCutchen, 32, to a three-year contract worth $50 million. In the first two months of the season, McCutchen played well. In 262 plate appearances, he had a line of .256/.378/.457 batting with 10 home runs, 12 doubles, a triple, two steals and 43 walks, that last stat being the best in the NL. He had been the starting center fielder after Odubel Herrera was placed on administrative leave by MLB. However, with this injury, it will leave the Phillies two outfielders down.

2017 first-rounder Adam Haseley was flown in to San Diego to meet them for the Padres series in the event of a serious knee injury for McCutchen. It's likely now he'll step into center field on a regular basis, while recent acquisition Jay Bruce will take left field. Bryce Harper, meanwhile, will continue to man right field.

It would seem more than likely that the Phillies may end up having to look for center field help on the market this year. However, if Haseley's minor league numbers say anything (.275/.358/.466 in 204 plate appearances) it could be that Haseley will perform well in the interim and the Phils may not need to go to the market.

That being said, this is a devastating blow, not just to the Phillies, but to McCutchen as well, and you have to wonder if this knee injury will take him out for the rest of his career. I hope not, and I believe he will come back from this injury. However, he is either close to the end of his career or he's about to get to that point where injuries may have a say on when he retires.

I wish him the best in recovery, and I'm hoping the Phillies, and especially Haseley, can hold this down for the long term, especially if Herrera is going to be on leave for a while, and it looks like he may be. We wish McCutchen the best and hope he can come back from this injury.