PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) -- One of the Phillies' best players is dealing with an injury early on in spring training. The team hopes it won't keep J.T. Realmuto from playing on Opening Day.
Phillies Manager Joe Girardi broke the news about the newly signed catcher. Realmuto injured himself during a bullpen session last week when catching new reliever Jose Alvarado.
"A ball bounced and hit the base of his right thumb, and he has a small fracture," Girardi said.
"It's definitely unfortunate timing," J.T. Realmuto said.
His thumb will be immobilized for two weeks before re-evaluation.
"Obviously, I'm disappointed it happened, but if it's gonna happen at any time this season, this might be the best time for it to," he said. "But I was still pretty shook when it happened."
Realmuto said it wasn't that bad a pitch.
"It was a breaking ball in the dirt. It was to my right, so I was sliding out to block it and my right hand slipped out from behind my glove and it just hit me right in the thumb area," he said.
Nonetheless — Realmuto is remaining optimistic.
"I feel pretty confident after that two weeks it'll be healed because it already feels quite a bit better than it did the day it happened," he said. "I'm confident I'll be back by Opening Day, but you can't set that in stone, just because you never know what could happen."
Girardi added, "A lot of it depends on how quickly he heals."
Realmuto said it would be better to miss the first few days of the season than to rush back and make the injury linger. For now, he says, he can still do everything except throw and hit. He doesn't want Phillies fans to panic.
"I'm not very worried about my thumb, so if I was a Phillies fan, I wouldn't be too worried about it."
