Bryce Harper has an outside chance to be ready to throw (and play right field) in August after a small tear in his UCL was confirmed late last week. It’s obviously a worrisome situation, though Harper took off offensively immediately upon hearing the diagnosis, delaying his PRP injection a couple days to dominate the Dodgers over the weekend before missing games versus the Padres. (He obviously decided he didn’t want to miss the Dodgers.) 

Harper could fashion a second straight MVP from the DH spot, but a questionable Philadelphia defense becomes that much iffier when one of its better defenders can’t play the field. 

Brandon Nimmo looks like a potential fit as a free agent for the Phillies, who took back Odubel Herrera because they couldn’t find anyone better. Of course, Steve Cohen isn’t easy to bid against. Anyway, Nimmo is earning himself a lot of money with his performance this year. 

Jarred Kelenic’s demotion seemed suspiciously well-timed, coming as it did with the Mariners embarking on their rare trip to Queens, where he would have faced a question barrage. In any case, he earned the demotion, having batted .140 this year and .173 over exactly a year in the bigs. … One scout opined Seattle’s methods didn’t help Kelenic, 22. The M’s way, according to the scout, is: “Try to hit everything in the air, pull everything, don’t worry about the strikeouts,” before adding, “That kid was just a really good hitter, used the whole field, battled with two strikes. They convinced him to just hit for power, and it messed him up.” …

I’ll repeat: the Kelenic-Robinson Cano-Edwin Diaz trade was won by the Mets. The Amazin’s have 3.6 WAR and a bona fide closer, the M’s a minus-0.2 WAR and a puzzle. … A worse trade for the Mariners: Pablo Lopez to the Marlins for David Phelps. At some point, the M’s need to stop churning. The only record they are setting is for number of trades. … Scouts do love Mariners rookie RHP George Kirby (Rye HS).