Extent of Utley's injury is unknown

CLEARWATER, Fla.

The Philadelphia Phillies are supposed to win the World Series. They have the Roys. They have Cliff. They have Cole. They just have to stay healthy.

Well here we are, still a week shy of St. Patrick’s Day, talking about how the Phillies can’t seem to stay healthy.

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Ironic, don’t you think?

“I would guess so,” slugger Ryan Howard said with a rueful smile.

Tuesday brought a few more unhappy bulletins from the Philly infirmary.

• Domonic Brown, the stud outfield prospect, underwent surgery to remove the broken hamate bone on his right wrist. He could miss up to six weeks, at which point he will likely return to the minors. Brown was supposed to win the everyday job in right field this spring. Instead, he went 1-for-16 and ended up on an operating table.

• Ben Francisco, the next-best option in right, was scratched from the starting lineup. Sore neck. Supposedly, it’s not serious.

• And then there was Chase Utley, about whom the absence of new information is becoming a crescendo of concern.

Utley has yet to appear in a game this spring. But I witnessed him accomplish a number of tasks on Tuesday: He took batting practice. He shagged fly balls (sort of) in the outfield. He watched the first six innings of Philadelphia’s 4-3 win over Baltimore, in uniform, from the dugout. He returned to the clubhouse. He put on a trucker hat.

Of greater importance, he did not a) move side-to-side in a manner typical of a major-league second baseman or b) indicate when he might be able to do so.

The diagnosis, per a team press release, is patellar tendinitis, chondromalacia, and bone inflammation in Utley’s right knee. Not encouraging, if you believe that big words generally portend big problems. It’s been several days since Utley received a cortisone shot, and we have yet to hear Phillies manager Charlie Manuel speak those magic words: It’s gettin’ better.

If Utley had good news to share, I assume he would tell the world, if only to halt the media’s nonstop nosing. Instead, when approached for comment, he offered a quick, “Not right now.” Infer from that what you will.

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And it’s not as if the Phillies would be well-positioned to trade for a high-end replacement. As my colleague Ken Rosenthal wrote on Tuesday, the surprise signing of Cliff Lee left the team with little financial wiggle room in circumstances such as this.

So, journeyman infielder Wilson Valdez could become a pivotal player for this team. Astute Philadelphians are already boosting his ego. As Valdez returned to the clubhouse after batting practice on Tuesday, one fan shouted, “STROKIN’ IT THIS SPRING, WILSON!” (He is batting .529.)

Remember that there were questions about the Phillies’ lineup last year, when the No. 3 hitter (Utley) missed a month due to thumb surgery and the No. 5 hitter was Jayson Werth. Now Utley is iffy, and Werth is a wealthy Washington National.

On Tuesday, Jimmy Rollins was Manuel’s No. 3 batter. (He went 0-for-3.) On Wednesday, it will be Placido Polanco’s turn.

“Our third spot and our fifth are wide open,” Manuel said. “We had two real good players in those slots last year — the last couple years.”

Does that sound like the manager of a runaway favorite?

Accordingly, Philly fans have been downgraded from “justifiably cocky” to “confident … but moderately freaked out.”

“He’s the heart and soul of this team,” acknowledged Lee, who is pretty important himself. “To not have him is definitely going to be an impact on the team. But you can’t let something like that keep you down. If he’s not able to play, we need someone to step in and fill his shoes.

“I hope that he figures it out and gets back on the field. At this point in the season, you don’t want to push through something and make it worse in the long run. We really need him in there, but sometimes you can’t control your body. Things happen.”

The troubling part is that the Phillies and Utley aren’t certain what happened. (“We’re still trying to figure it out,” said one source with close knowledge of the situation. “It’s not a clear-cut issue.”) Utley’s teammates are concerned — without knowing precisely how concerned they should be.

“I don’t really know,” Lee replied, when asked what he knew about the injury. “I know his knee’s bothering him. It’s been kind of sore. I’ve talked to him a little bit, but he didn’t get into details. He keeps those things to himself.

“But you know he’s a tough guy. He’s a gamer. He really loves to be out there. If his body would let him, he would be. Knowing him, knowing how he is, for him to not be out there, it’s got to be something that’s pretty serious.”

Many baseball observers would agree with that last line:  For him to not be out there, it’s got to be something that’s pretty serious. Frankly, those words made me think about one of Lee’s former teammates — Cleveland center fielder Grady Sizemore.

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Like Utley, Sizemore is a left-handed-hitting grinder. Like Utley, Sizemore is revered in the game for his intensity and hard play. Like Utley, Sizemore has sustained injuries at an unsettling rate in recent seasons.

Sizemore has missed considerably more time than Utley, who remained relatively productive despite playing through pain during each of the past two seasons. Sizemore, in fact, injured his left knee around this time last year. He tried to play through it before realizing that he couldn’t.

He underwent season-ending microfracture surgery in June.

I’m not a doctor. I don’t know if surgery is even a consideration for Utley at this point. But I’m pretty certain of this: A serious injury to a five-time All-Star would be quite the buzzkill to the Phour Aces.