Philadelphia Phillies OF Brandon Marsh undergoes arthroscopic knee surgery
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Spring training begins next week, but the Philadelphia Phillies will be down an outfielder in Clearwater, Florida. The Phillies said Friday that outfielder Brandon Marsh had arthroscopic debridement surgery on his left knee.
The Phillies expect Marsh to miss three to four weeks but will be ready to play on Opening Day.
Marsh missed two weeks last season with a left knee injury.
In his first full season with the Phillies, Marsh made improvements that saw him set career-highs in home runs (12), RBI (60), doubles (25), hits (112), runs (58) on-base percentage (.372) and on-base plus slugging percentage (.829).
In 133 games, Marsh hit .277/.372/.458 and had a 3.4 Wins Above Replacement (WAR).
The 26-year-old enters the 2024 season as either the Phillies' starting center or left fielder depending on how Johan Rojas performs in spring training.
His righty/lefty splits improved from 2022 to 2023, but not enough to convince the Phillies he could be an everyday player. He still platooned in the outfield in the final months of the season.
Marsh had a .864 OPS against righties, compared to a .717 OPS against lefties in 2023.
Phillies manager Rob Thomson said last month that he expects Marsh to continue to improve against lefties this season.
"Time will tell. If he's swinging the bat against left-handed pitching - I do expect him to improve there," Thomson said. "And if it does, he's probably going to be an everyday guy."
What is arthroscopic debridement surgery?
The National Library of Medicine says arthroscopic debridement surgery "is a surgical treatment that extracts any loose material that may be in the knee joint and can smooth the surfaces inside the knee."