I am not saying he is a gold glove but I see no reason to think he can't continue be a .725 guy who catches what he's supposed to catch. And he came here with significant defensive WAR (and no offense). To assume he would revert to the slow start of his early career, well, we can still fear the same about Stott and Bohm. In Marsh and Stott's case they don't have to do quite as much at the plate, especially not on this team.
The AL Gold Glove was for LF and he is probably among the best there. Agree he is probably an average CF now. Pretty good instincts. His speed is good, though merely around average for a CF as there are very few CF with below average speed. I think he is fine there. He'll cut down the handful of mistakes like most young fielders do.
We just don't know if he can hit that well. There is so much movement in his setup that the coaches probably can settle that down and speed up his bat a bit. But will he ever have the batspeed to hit a good fastball? Not sure. There is probably more power in him though. Could easily see him hitting 20 HRs.
Long is a good coach, but he is also no miracle worker. Hopefully he can connect with Marsh and smooth out his issues a bit. But we also should not expect Long to make batters be something they are not. It is very possible that Marsh and Vierling are destined to be platoon partners. Like it or not we traded for Marsh to improve what we had (which he did), but there is no guarantee that Rojas won't take the job by the end of next year. Rojas offers even better defense and speed, though also a lower floor on offense.
If Rojas takes the job and turns Marsh into a 4th OF that's just fine. There might also be a period where improved defense and an average bat makes him just as good a LF as anyone else the Phillies have as these bats get older and move around. But either way I think Marsh is clearly a work in progress. He was drafted the same year as Moniak and started his major league career a year later than Bohm. Because we traded for him at the deadline I think he's perceived differently (because deadline deals are usually prospects for veterans/finished products).
Jury's still out on Matt V too. He profiles the same as Marsh from the weak side of a platoon of course but I wonder if that's the one bench spot they could upgrade next year (especially if they still need a RF for several months, maybe more if Harper has to ease back into it). You'd still have Guthrie as the young depth and Maton behind Sosa. And there's still no spot for Hall in the long run.
I think of him as cheap injury insurance for an injury to any one of Harper, Hoskins, Schwarber, or even Castellanos. If Harper can play the field next year then Hall could easily be up for half the season if any one of them is out. We don't have too much power on the bench or the upper minors so Hall does fill a need even if it is the 27th man on the roster.
Oh for sure I wouldn't trade him. And the cheap young bench has been good/fun. But I'm still imagining a non-existent world where they could actually have better corner OF option to replace Bryce, and/or pair with Schwarber (if RH). Hall if he could actually play OF. Or a better-hitting version of Vierling who you'd actually want to play everyday while Bryce is out (instead of Castellanos).
I am a born in 1969 Gen Xer and the Phillies weren't good for most of my mid twenties to early thirties (and their roster was something of a revolving door during those rebuild years of the late '90's), so I kind of missed them being my contemporaries. They pretty much went from guys who were all older than me to guys who were all younger than me.
As a St. Joe's basketball fan, I'm seeing the kids of guys who played when I was there now playing college ball (and Jameer Nelson, Jr. whose father stepped on to campus eight years after I graduated).
One thing to remember about the hitters 25 and under, most had two years of development disrupted by COVID, some more than others, but most missed as much as 500 PA and also dealt with other issues during that period.
So I'd expect more surprises from players (league wide) over the next couple years as they get into normal routines and catch up on lost development time. It's also a good reason to buy low on young players who may have been rushed and struggled (look for these kind of bargains to fill out your AAA roster).
After this season, I expect the "COVID effect" to gradually diminish, but this offseason provides both an opportunity to bargain hunt and a reason to be patient with your own players.
Castellanos is under contract for four more years at $20 million per. He's 30. I don't think he'd bring much in the way of prospects; if that contract is tradable, I would expect it would be in return for taking on somebody else's big, suspect contract, not for prospects who are actually worth getting.
Nola would be very tradable, IMHO, but more likely to be traded at next season's trade deadline than this winter (if the Phils are not contending - but they will be). The Phils hold a $16 million club option for 2023; that's a very reasonable price for a pitcher who has now pitched more innings than any other NL pitcher in 2022, and put up 6.0 bWAR. I mean, $16 million for 6 WAR? I know people are unhappy with him because he's kind of hit the wall here...but 205 innings, 3.25 ERA, 6 WAR? Yeah, they could get prospects for Nola, but they have holes in the rotation as it is (Wheeler, Nola, Suarez, ??, ??). Gibson and Syndergaard are free agents; Eflin is likely going to stay in relief (I'm assuming it's a better use of his creaky knees). After that, it's Falter, Sanchez, Painter, Abel, McGarry. Three of them in the Opening Day rotation (assuming Nola is traded)?
The Phillies have hung together deep enough into the post-season and Hoskins has done enough to argue they should keep him for next year and if they are a strong contender at trade deadline should keep him and QO him next off-season. This off-season a SP and SS are the priorities. Let Segura walk, move Stott to 2B. Maton can be a bench IF sub.
I want the Phillies to extend Nola this off-season.