Phillies’ Brad Lidge Might Not Be Ready By Opening Day

If in spring training last season, you had told me the Philadelphia Phillies would be without closer Brad Lidge for the first week or two of the regular season, I would seriously be worried.

Now if you told me Lidge might miss one or two weeks at the start of season, I would say so what, no big deal. Funny what a difference a year makes.

In an interview with MLB.com’s Todd Zolecki, the Phillies’ closer doesn’t think he will be ready by Opening Day.

“It’s going to be really tough to be ready for the opener,” Lidge said. “In my mind I’m still shooting for it, but I don’t know if that’s realistic. I definitely will like I’ll be ready for (the April 12-15 series against the Nationals at Citizens Bank Park) if I progress the way it should. … I want to be out there as much as I can, but we’ve got a deep bullpen. Obviously, we’ve got guys that can get it done while J.C. (Romero ) and I are getting our arm speed back. If we were on a bubble team and we had to be ready from Day 1 that’s one thing, but I think our team can cover just about anybody at any position for a week or two. That’s the fortunate part of being on a team as good as us.”

A couple of thoughts about what Lidge said.

“Obviously, we’ve got guys that can get it done while J.C. (Romero ) and I are getting our arm speed back.” Lidge is referring to Danys Baez and Ryan Madson. Both are decent fallback options, but at the same time, they are as shaky as Lidge at this point.

I wouldn’t trust either of them to close out a game.

“If we were on a bubble team and we had to be ready from day one that’s one thing, but I think our team can cover just about anybody at any position for a week or two.” Lidge hit the nail on the head on that one.

The Phillies are five to 10 games better than the next best team in the National League East. Losing Lidge now shouldn’t be a factor down the stretch for Philadelphia.

Look for Madson to get the first shot at the closer’s role until Lidge comes back.

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