JayRo to rejoin the team in San Francisco.

He’ll be in that first-class seat this afternoon, and will fly to San Francisco. He’ll rejoin the Phillies when they open a three-game series there on Friday. The announcement doesn’t guarantee that Rollins will be activated from the disabled list, according to team officials.

Rollins played three days in Clearwater, Fla., earlier this week, the first two in an extended Spring Training game, and Wednesday with Class A Clearwater, and reported no lingering effects from the sprained left ankle that kept him out of the starting lineup since April 8, and on the disabled list since April 20.

Rollins will test the ankle in San Francisco. If he’s not ready, he could watch the weekend’s games and be activated on Tuesday, at home.

The Phillies have gone 16-11 without Rollins, and shortstop Eric Bruntlett has shaken off early struggles to bat .273 since April 20. Infielder Brad Harman will likely return to the Minors when Rollins returns.

Despite the fact that the team has played well, manager Charlie Manuel has missed his MVP.

“The fact that Jimmy’s a switch-hitter and the fact that he’s our basestealer — Jimmy makes our offense go,” Manuel said. “He had 30 homers and 20 triples and almost 40 doubles last year. He’s got a big bat. He’s a big part of our offense.” (H/T Phillies.com)

I hope that this will mean that Jimmy will be back to playing shortstop. Although the team hasn’t missed him too badly so far since being injured, thanks to Eric Bruntlett doing a good fielding job at short after that disaster of a first game against the Mets back in April and his hitting the ball during the last few games, the Phils are going to be needing JayRo’s bat, glove and speed over the long haul if they expect to recapture the flag this season and get back into the playoff.