Don Mattingly explains roster decisions as Phillies prepare for Wild Card Series without cleanup hitter Luis Arraez

ATLANTA — The Phillies will be without their biggest trade-deadline acquisition for the National League Wild Card Series in Atlanta.

Second baseman Luis Arraez will not make the roster for the club’s upcoming best-of-three playoff set against the Braves, interim manager Don Mattingly announced Monday at Truist Park. The three-time batting champion sprained his left ankle on Thursday and did not appear in Philadelphia’s crucial final series of the regular season over the weekend. Mattingly said Sunday that Arraez was starting to feel better, but he had still not swung a bat since the injury.

Arraez wore a boot — covered with a plastic grocery bag — on his foot during the Phillies’ clubhouse celebration after clinching the NL’s No. 6 seed at Citizens Bank Park.

“We still get improvement every day,” Mattingly said, “but not enough. He was going to try to hit today and just wasn’t able to do it. So we kind of crossed that bridge today.”

Added in early August, Arraez became Philadelphia’s unorthodox cleanup hitter who provided a different, contact-first look. But the career .316 hitter batted only .278 with a .678 OPS in 46 games for the Phillies. Still, the lineup looks thinner without him, and his bat-to-ball skills would be useful in the postseason.

Infielder/outfielder Otto Kemp will take Arraez’s place on the Wild Card roster after spending the last four months of the season at Triple-A Lehigh Valley. He was summoned to Citizens Bank Park for a day on Sept. 5 in case Bryson Stott needed to go on the paternity list, but Kemp was not activated. This time, he’ll actually be on the bench.

Defense is not Kemp’s strong suit. While he’d be a capable pinch-runner, he’s probably not going to steal a base. But with left-handed ace Chris Sale on the mound for the Braves on Tuesday, it could be conceivable for Kemp to be needed as a pinch-hitter in a specific situation: If the Phillies start right-handed hitters like Edmundo Sosa, Derek Hill and Bryan De La Cruz and use Brandon Marsh or Justin Crawford as a pinch-hitter for one of them versus a righty in the middle of the game, Kemp could enter later if Atlanta uses a lefty on Marsh or Crawford.

The Phillies will continue to keep two reserve catchers behind J.T. Realmuto in Garrett Stubbs and Rafael Marchán. The team considered speedier minor-league outfielders like Kameron Misner (broken finger) and Steward Berroa (thumb) for baserunning and defense, but they were a bit too hurt to be legitimate candidates for a bench spot in this series.

“They’ve had a lot of health issues down below,” Mattingly said. “That’s kind of where it’s taken us.”

Marchán would probably only appear in an emergency or a blowout after racking up only three at-bats since returning from the injured list on Sept. 1. Mattingly is comfortable continuing to deploy Stubbs as a utility player when necessary.

“The third catcher is not terrible for us,” Mattingly said, “because our second or third catcher, however you look at it, is pretty versatile. We use him as a pinch-runner. We use him at first. We can play him at third. We can play him in the outfield. So he is a guy that gives us a lot of versatility, and really, not a true, true base stealer, but a guy that you really trust on the bases, that can get a bag if you don’t pay attention.”

Additionally, reliever Jonathan Bowlan will be active for the Wild Card Series, Mattingly confirmed without fully announcing the roster. Bowlan never went on the injured list in hopes of being available for this series, but he hasn’t appeared in a game since Sept. 17 due to a groin issue. Mattingly said the right-hander would have been available to pitch in Sunday’s regular-season finale, though the rainy conditions and a wet mound made the team want to avoid using him and risking further aggravation.

Bowlan, who had a rough finish after emerging as a setup man earlier in the year, might be needed on Tuesday. The Phillies will start left-hander Jesús Luzardo in Game 1 after he came off the 15-day injured list just in time to throw a crucial four-pitch inning in relief during Sunday’s clincher. Mattingly said he’s not sure how long Luzardo will go.

“I don’t think we really know what to expect,” Mattingly said. “He’d been down a while, pitched an inning, albeit short, yesterday. We kind of hope to get the game off on a good foot, a good note and see where it goes.”

The Phillies certainly have the top-end talent to hang with the NL East-winning Braves in the Wild Card round if all goes well. But a combination of injuries, a lack of depth and the fact that they had to keep throwing go-to pitchers through Game 162 will make it all the more challenging. With the season on the line, Philadelphia’s roster will now be tested in Atlanta.