Philadelphia Phillies’ Freddy Galvis completes 50-game suspension - MLB Update
The Philadelphia Phillies’ second baseman Freddy Galvis has now completed his 50-game suspension. However, he is still far from playing in the season right away as he endures a fractured back. During the month of June, Galvis tested positive for using performance
enhancing substance and therefore was banned for 50 games in the season.
Before the punishment was enforced, Galvis was playing as a second baseman for the Phillies in place of the injured Chase Utley. Although he was not able to neutralise the impact of the absence of Utley offensively, defensively he was impressive in the field.
The suspension was the big blow for the team as the Phillies still had the chance to improve their winning percentage drastically. Unlike now when they are out of contention and are almost certain to not to be able to defend their Division Championship title
in the last year, back then they could afford to think about qualifying for the post-season.
While there were many other issues that led to the decline of the Phillies, the absence of a reliable replacement of the veteran second baseman Utley was one of them.
Their production was falling as the likes of Ryan Howard and Utley were missing in the line-up and the rest of the batters they had were in-consistent. Their shortstop Jimmy Rollins and the outfielder Shane Victorino were struggling on the plate regularly.
As a result, whatever number of quality innings their starters were throwing, the outcomes of the games were not coming in the Phillies’ favour. Even in some of the matches their starting pitchers ended up leaking least number of runs and yet they suffered
the loss because the offence was completely quiet.
In light of this, the end of the suspension of Galvis is a healthy sign for the line-up, which is still struggling to provide enough run support to the pitchers.
However, unless Galvis recovers soon he will keep missing the matches.
As per the general assessments, Galvis will not return until the first week of the next month. However, nothing is certain yet as he undergoes the rehabilitation process.
Within the next few days, he will be doing work-outs and making sure he convinces the team officials of his ability to play the rest of the season smoothly.
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