Though Placido Polanco is eligible to return from the disabled list, his manager is not necessarily ordering the welcome-back balloon bouquet.

Polanco is 36 and has been often injured in recent years, most recently with an inflamed lower back. He said Wednesday that he will resume hitting either Thursday or Friday. His recent replacement, Kevin Frandsen, was hitting .281 to Polanco's .255.

For $1 million, the Phils can buy Polanco out after the season, rather than pay him $5.5 million for 2013.

“If he's healthy and can be 100 percent ….,” Charlie Manuel said. “But the last two or three years, he has missed quite a bit of time.”

Manuel said he would have trouble returning Frandsen to the minors.

“It would be tough,” he said. “He's done a good job for us. He has held his own. He has been doing OK.”

        

Check out the complete coverage of Wednesday's Phils-Braves game in the Daily Times Thursday and, as always, on delcotimes.coim