Bryce Harper is returning while Zack Wheeler is taking a break

We all kind of knew that Bryce Harper was going to come back earlier than expected from his rehab assignment in Lehigh Valley. Call it knowing the competitive nature of the man, but when Harper laid waste to minor league pitching over the two games he played there, it felt like an inevitability that he’d be back earlier than his expected return of next week in Arizona. Today, Rob Thomson made it official.

There is always going to be the risk that Harper re-injures his thumb, does something else, what have you, but the preference is that he do that in the major leagues rather than in the minors on a rehab assignment.

These are the times to rejoice.

Of course, being Philadelphia, those times were short lived.

Mere days after saying how good he felt, Zack Wheeler went on the injured list with forearm tendinitis. Philadelphia can’t have anything nice, can they?

Interviewed by the reporters, Dave Dombrowski talked about how they don’t think the injury is that serious.

If this does come to pass, the Phillies are probably dodging a big bullet. We have to wait and see, but there is some good news to go along with that bad news.

Harper is coming back and we’ll all be happy for it.