Bryce Harper to have Thumb Surgery - Out Until All Star Break-ish

ESPN - Washington Nationals left fielder Bryce Harper will undergo surgery Tuesday to repair a torn ulnar collateral ligament in his left thumb and is expected to be out until at least early July, according to multiple sources. Harper, 21, injured his hand during a head-first slide into third on a bases-clearing triple in Friday's victory overSan Diego. He stayed in the game for an inning before being replaced. The extended loss of Harper is a significant blow to a Nationals roster already riddled with injuries to key players, among them catcher Wilson Ramos, third baseman Ryan Zimmerman (both with hand injuries) and starting pitcher Doug Fister (back). Harper missed 44 games last season, his second in the majors, with a leftknee injury. He was injured in mid-May when he slammed into the right-field wall at Dodger Stadium. He is not the first star player to suffer a similar injury recently. Los Angeles Angels slugger Josh Hamilton is out with the injury as well, and Boston Red Soxsecond baseman Dustin Pedroia played through it all of last season before having surgeryin November. All three players suffered the injury sliding into a base.

So far the reaction to this has been pretty mild - everyone seems to think it's a shitty break but Bryce will only be out for 2 months and then back in time for a summer playoff push. But I'm thinking this could turn out to be a lot worse for the Nats depending on how the team plays in his absence.

Bryce hasn't been himself this year - he's been benched, banged up, and has played average ball up til this point. I think the most obvious thing though is that he doesn't appear to be happy. I'm not gonna sit here and speculate as to why (even though I think he hates Matt Williams) but anyone with half a brain can see his attitude has been pissy this season.

With that being said, if the Nats keep playing the way they have been, the playoffs look less and less likely. If you combine that with how disappointing last season was, Bryce might come back to a struggling team two seasons removed from the playoffs, a shitty manager, and one year left on his contract. Could you blame him, at that point, if he doesn't decide to re-up and instead pursues a mega contract after the '14-'15 season? I sure couldn't. So the Nats better pull their heads out of their ass so that their star player has something promising to come back to after surgery.