Big bats return to Phillies' lineup in time for Dodgers showdown

The Phillies announced Tuesday that first baseman Bryce Harper and designated hitter Kyle Schwarber have been reinstated from the injured list. In corresponding moves, infielder/outfielder Kody Clemens was optioned to Triple-A Lehigh Valley, while outfielder David Dahl was designated for assignment.

The Phils had to subtract two big bats from their lineup when Harper and Schwarber landed on the 10-day IL on June 28. Harper was injured with a left hamstring strain, and Schwarber had a left groin strain. Thankfully, both are now back after just a minimum stay on the shelf, and the club managed to go 5-4 without them.

But the club is moving on from Dahl to get them back onto the roster. He seemed to be engineering a nice comeback story as of about a month ago, but the magic faded. After several years of injury struggles, he had to settle for a minor league deal with the Phillies in February and then demolished Triple-A pitching. He hit 12 home runs in 43 games for the IronPigs and produced a slash of .340/.416/.660.

He was selected for the big league club in the first week of June as Brandon Marsh was on the injured list. He seemed to be carrying the good vibes over with a home run in his first game and then another in his third contest of the year, but things have tailed off significantly since then, as he has a dismal line of .154/.196/.231 in his 56 most recent plate appearances. He has more than five years of service time and can’t be optioned without his consent, so the Phils have been forced to bump him off the 40-man entirely.

He’ll now be in DFA limbo for a maximum of seven days. Since waivers take 48 hours, the Phils could take five days to find a trade partner. Dahl was once a solid regular with the Rockies, slashing .297/.346/.521 in 240 games from 2016 to 2019, but the injury bug has bitten him hard since then. He has suffered a lacerated spleen that led to the organ needing to be removed entirely, as well as a stress fracture in his ribcage, a broken foot, a high ankle sprain, a shoulder strain, multiple back injuries and a quad strain.

He has received 390 plate appearances in the majors since the end of the 2019 season but has hit just .200/.237/.318 in those, bouncing to the Rangers, Padres and Phillies. That’s unsatisfactory production, but Dahl has the past track record and the recent run of success in Triple-A this year. If any club believed in him and gave him a chance, he could be retained via arbitration for the 2025 season. If he were to pass through waivers unclaimed, he would have enough service time to reject an outright assignment and elect free agency.