Phillies news: Herrera and Altherr on rehab, Eickhoff to the DL

This is a good news, bad news day on the injury front. The bad news first: Jerad Eickhoff is headed to the disabled list. He left Wednesday’s start in the third inning with nerve irritation in his right hand, and didn’t accompany the team to Miami so he could have tests done on Thursday. Hopefully we’ll know more soon, but in the meantime the Phillies have “called up” Ricardo Pinto, who was their 26th man on Wednesday, who probably didn’t even have to rejoin the IronPigs in the middle of all this. At least I hope not.

But there’s also good news! Odubel Herrera and Aaron Altherr, who have been out with left and right hamstring strains (respectively), are starting rehab assignments with Double-A Reading.

Altherr has been out for a total of six weeks, with a brief trip off the disabled list that only served to aggravate his hamstring again. His production has been sorely missed, and his injury stalled the best season of Altherr’s professional career. He’s hit .285/.357/.536 with 20 doubles and 16 home runs.

Altherr’s injury did have one interesting ripple effect, though. His initial trip to the disabled list in mid July essentially forced the Phillies to keep Nick Williams up in the majors. Soon, we’ll get both Williams and Altherr.

And we’ll also get Odubel Herrera, our beloved center fielder, who has been out since mid August with a hamstring strain of his own. Herrera had staged a great comeback since having a dismal May, and has a .343/.388/.579 triple slash since the start of June. He was looking great until this hamstring thing got him, and hopefully he’ll take it slow on his way back. He’s in the starting lineup for Reading tonight (Altherr is not).

So we’ve got Nick Williams, Odubel Herrera, and Aaron Altherr in the outfield. Oh, and there’s Rhys Hoskins, too. And Freddy Galvis might start in center field. Yikes. This seems like too many outfielders. The Phillies have some decisions to make.