September 09, 2025
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Trea Turner is sidelined with a Grade 1 right hamstring strain, but should be healed in time to be back at shortstop for the Phillies in the postseason.
Phillies shortstop Trea Turner went on the 10-day Injured List Monday, with bad news and good news.
The bad news: Obviously, he's hurt. Turner suffered a Grade 1 right hamstring strain while running out a ground ball in the seventh inning of Sunday's 5-4 loss at Miami. He removed himself from the game immediately, and after an MRI confirmed the injury upon the club's return home to Philadelphia, the Phillies are now facing a pivotal stretch in the regular season without their highly productive leadoff bat at the top.
The good news: It's a Grade 1 right hamstring strain. Turner felt something wrong and immediately prevented himself from doing any further damage. He's expected to be back in time for the postseason, Phillies manager Rob Thomson said Monday, in a situation that he went on to note "was better than what we expected."
Better yet, when Turner does come back, whether that's in October or for whatever might be left of the regular season, the star shortstop should be at full strength, according to Dr. Dinesh Dhanaraj during a phone interview to discuss the nature of Turner's hamstring strain.
Dr. Dhanaraj, the Attending Orthopedic Surgeon at St. Mary Medical Center in Langhorne, broke down the different grades of hamstring strains in a call on Tuesday, which led to the point that Turner and the Phillies are in the best-case scenario with his injury.
Before getting into the details, though, a note: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and guest authors and do not reflect any official policy or position of any MLB club or a club's athletic physicians.
Hamstring strains are usually graded out in three tiers, Dr. Dhanaraj explained.
Grade 1 is a stretch of the muscle fibers, but not a tear, and is the least severe. Grade 2 is a partial tear of the fibers, but with everything still intact. Then Grade 3 does the most damage as a full tear, "like a rupture," Dr. Dhanaraj said, and takes the most time and treatment to come back from, with surgery required.
Turner's injury fell into the Grade 1 camp, which is a big positive for how well the strain can heal and how quickly.
"The Grade 1s heal well because most of the hamstring injuries are kind of in the muscle belly, like the back of the thigh," Dr. Dhanaraj said. "So there's good blood flow and they heal."
"It sounds like it's the best-case scenario where he's got a Grade 1 strain of the muscle belly," Dr. Dhanaraj continued, going on to say that those Grade 1 strains typically take anywhere from 1-3 weeks to recover from, with the 2-week point usually being when patients know if they can resume activities or need to wait just a bit longer.
"Let pain be your guide," is a phrase Dr. Dhanaraj often says about the recovery process from sports injuries, and the case is no different for Turner here.
He could be ready again by the time those 10 days on the IL are up, but at the same time, the Phillies also have the advantage of not needing to rush him back either.
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Ahead of Tuesday night's game, they were 84-60, well into the postseason picture and up eight games over the rival New York Mets for first place in the NL East.
They're near locks for October and have a pretty sizable cushion toward a bye past the Wild Card round if they can manage their way through this week against the Mets and down the stretch for the rest of the regular season, with Edmundo Sosa presumably handling the bulk of the workload at short in Turner's absence.
"It's ideal," Dr. Dhanaraj said, acknowledging that postseason seeding is still a major factor at stake for the Phils.
So was how quickly the injury was caught on Turner's part as he was running down the first-base line on Sunday. The recognition saved himself and the team from a much bigger problem.
"It's smart," Dr. Dhanaraj said, calling back to how Turner was sidelined with another hamstring strain, though to the left leg, in 2024.
"He already knows what it feels like," Dr. Dhanaraj explained. "And he's exactly there, letting pain be his guide, and would rather kind of just know what it is and not push it."
Along with getting it fixed now, so that he can be back to help the Phillies when it counts the most: In October, in a chase after the World Series.
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