There will be more clarity on the Phillies’ post-trade deadline outfield situation come Friday.
Dave Dombrowski purposefully kept the club’s outfield plans vague when talking with reporters after acquiring the right-handed hitting outfielder Harrison Bader from the Minnesota Twins. Bader, a plus defender in center field in the middle of a career year at the plate, will play “a lot,” per Dombrowski.
Bader has made 62 starts in left and 27 starts in center for the Twins this year. The difference is that the Phillies do not have Byron Buxton on the roster to block him from making starts in center.
“He’s played well this year offensively and defensively,” Dombrowski said about Bader. “He’s hit the ball with some pop. We think he helps us. I’m not sure which way he is going to go on a regular basis, if he’s going to play every single day or not.”
Rob Thomson will make the lineup, but Dombrowski gets the final call on which outfielders remain on the roster. The front office has until early Friday afternoon to decide, if they haven’t already.
The Phillies can go in many different directions. Bader can be added to the 26-man roster, with either Weston Wilson or Johan Rojas, two players with minor league options remaining, sent down to Triple-A Lehigh Valley as the corresponding move. Out of Wilson or Rojas, the one who sticks could platoon with Brandon Marsh in left field.
Dombrowski complimented Marsh’s at-bats in recent weeks. The 27-year-old is batting .409 with two home runs in his last seven games. It would be surprising to see Marsh lose significant playing time with the addition of Bader.
“All of a sudden, you see Brandon Marsh hit a couple home runs the last couple of days,” Dombrowski said. “We think he can drive the ball more than he has in the past. He’s starting to do that.”
The same cannot be said for Max Kepler. Dombrowski said Kepler is their left fielder “at this time.” That is subject to change.
Kepler, who signed a one-year, $10 million deal with the club in December, has struggled at the plate after getting off to a good start in April. Since May 1, he is batting .181 with eight home runs and a .610 OPS. There may not be regular at-bats for him come August.
The bigger question is whether or not the Phillies cut him completely from the roster or keep him as an extra outfielder on the bench who plays sparingly and slots in when an injury comes up. Kepler could also keep a roster spot until third baseman Alec Bohm is ready to come off the injured list.
Bohm is recovering from a cracked rib — and could be back with the team in mid-August. The Phillies in the past have preferred to maintain depth and send players with options to the minor leagues. Much of the decision depends on if they think Rojas or Wilson is a better use of a roster spot than Kepler.
Kepler is likely gone if the Phillies call up top outfield prospect Justin Crawford. The Phillies have insisted that they are comfortable with Crawford, who is batting .325 in Triple-A, playing in the big leagues. But they have not promoted him to the majors yet. Dombrowski indicated on July 21 that the team wanted to see how things shake out with the major league roster before making a decision on Crawford.
Now that Bader is in Philadelphia, is there a clear path for the 21-year-old Crawford to get regular at-bats in the outfield? The Phillies could run a platoon with Marsh and Bader in either left or center field with Crawford playing next to them. Though if the plan is to play Bader “a lot,” it’s hard to imagine him platooning and starting against only left-handed hitters. The Phillies would probably like to have Crawford be more than a platoon bat in the majors.
“No decisions have been made,” Dombrowski said. “We think (Crawford) is ready to play at the big league level. We could bring him up. If we do bring him up, he needs to play a lot. I’m not sure that we’re in a position to do that at this point today, but he’s not somebody we would hesitate to bring up if we decided that was the right thing to do.
“He, like (Andrew) Painter, like a lot of those youngsters, they can use more development time. It will never hurt them. When they’re going to get here, they’re going to have to make some adjustments. But he’s also in a position where he’s ready to do that when called upon.”
The IronPigs have a doubleheader on Friday in Worcester beginning at 4:05 p.m. following a rain out on Thursday. Alarm bells could be ringing if Crawford is not batting leadoff and playing either left or center field in game one for Lehigh Valley.
Either way, the outfield — and the lineup as a whole — has improved with the addition of Bader. He does not have the at-bats to qualify, but if he did, his .778 OPS would rank third among Phillies regulars ahead of Trea Turner (.774) and Nick Castellanos (.738). He has a .779 OPS against righties and a .774 OPS against lefties.
