Phillies prospect has eye removed after freak injury

Philadelphia Phillies prospect Matt Imhof has lost his right eye after suffering a freak injury during a normal training session on June 25.

The 47th overall pick in the 2014 draft was taking part in an arm care program with Single-A Clearwater when a piece of equipment malfunctioned and hit him in the eye.

In the post, Imhof said doctors did everything they could to reconstruct the eye, but it had been "crushed like a grape" and nothing could be done.

"The first surgery was somewhat a success but overall nothing had changed, so after discussions with my family and my doctors, it was decided that the best chance I had to live a normal life was to have my right eye removed and have a prosthetic one put in," he said. "This decision was not an easy one to make but to me it seemed like the right one so on Tuesday afternoon I went forward with the surgery."

In three seasons of professional baseball, Imhof owns a 3.69 ERA.