The Phillies are still hunting for outfield help at the trade deadline, but one name that once looked like a clean fit is now off the board in the messiest way possible. Harrison Bader’s season is done after a scooter accident that left him with a crushed foot, and the latest details around the incident make the Phillies’ decision not to bring him back look a lot better in hindsight.
Bader was a quick hit in Philadelphia last season after coming over from the Minnesota Twins. In 50 games, he hit .305 with five home runs and 16 RBI, enough to make plenty of fans want the Phillies to keep him around. Instead, he signed with the San Francisco Giants on a two-year, $20.5 million deal.
That move has not gone smoothly. Before the injury, Bader was already off to a rough start with San Francisco, batting .170 with five home runs and 14 RBI in 30 games while also dealing with multiple injuries.
The accident itself turned out to be more complicated than the initial report suggested. Last Sunday, it was first reported that Bader was hurt in a scooter accident while rehabbing from plantar fasciitis. But SFist reported that a witness saw his scooter hit the back of a San Francisco Fire Department truck near the Balboa Cafe, and the truck’s wheel “rolled over his foot, causing major injury.”
Matt Lively of KPIX in San Francisco later reported that multiple witnesses saw Bader drinking at multiple bars in the San Francisco area in the hours before the accident.
According to Andrew Baggerly of The Athletic, Bader was examined by the Giants' orthopedist, Dr. Ken Akizuki, and underwent an MRI. The team then stayed quiet on the MRI results because Bader initially refused to cooperate fully with an investigation into the incident.
Eventually, the Giants gathered the information they needed, and Bader’s pay was suspended for the rest of the season. Giants President of Baseball Operations Buster Posey said in a statement that Bader’s pay would be suspended until he was able to return to baseball activities, which, because of the injury, meant the rest of the year.
This was not Bader’s first scooter-related trouble. Back in 2014, when he was a sophomore at the University of Florida, he drunkenly crashed a scooter into a parked truck and was found unconscious. He was suspended for the final 19 games of that season.
For the Phillies, the whole episode is a reminder of how quickly a familiar face can turn into a problem somewhere else. Their outfield still needs help, but Bader is no longer part of that conversation.
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