Phillies Off-Season 2024-2025 (Part 2 including Spring Training)

The day’s formal workout for Phillies pitchers and catchers had been finished for about 20 minutes, but the action continued Friday afternoon on the half field adjacent to BayCare Ballpark. Larry Bowa sprayed Alec Bohm with groundball after groundball to third base. On the other side of the diamond, Kyle Schwarber practiced some drills with infield coach Bobby Dickerson.

Schwarber even brought his first baseman’s mitt.

Goes on to say JT does want to catch 120, but could also DH or play 1B (both still more likely than LF).

And Schwarber will probably play more than five in LF this year. And that it also helps Schwarber's free agency if he shows he can stand in LF or at 1B occasionally. (And not necessarily a bad thing for Harper to have DH days.)

Sosa is also actually going to work out in, and maybe even play, OF this spring too.

Commitment to winning over catering to player preferences would mean Turner getting reps in left field.

I think they're just improving roster flexibility, with the short rosters these days, you really don't want a pure DH.

Right now, they don't know what they'll have at Lehigh, both the top prospects but also the AAA plus guys, who'd have thought Wilson would come up last year and give them a solid 98 PA with 130 RC+? Can he repeat that as a platoon corner OF this season? You find out in June whether they're ready to come up and fill in for injuries, in April it's a guess.

Miller could start at Reading and tear apart AA or struggle for a couple months, Crawford could struggle with swing adjustments or the light could go on and he forces a promotion, Kemp might be for real and quickly adjust to corner OF to go with 2B and 3B, Abel could fix what's ailing him and push for a BP role, and so on. And a couple veteran "show me" signings might pay off like Hoffman and Ruiz.

But you can't predict which, if any, of these guys will be able to help you in July, so you have to have enough flexibility to take advantage of a hot minor league player - he may not be the direct injury replacement you want, so you may have to shuffle players around.

Is anyone talking about Kepler in right, Schwarber in left and Castellanos as designated hitter?

You think Schwarber would be better in LF than Castellanos?

It'll be up in the air all season.

If Kepler hits, at least RH pitching, and Marsh can hit RH pitching, Crawford LH hitter, may depend on Rojas, whether his winter ball performance shows improvement. Wilson in LF, Castellanos in RF against LH pitching.

I can see Castellanos becoming a platoon OF b/c his hitting against RH isn't good enough to compensate for his fielding.
Last three seasons, against RH pitchers, 93, 94, 98 RC+. Given his fielding that's below replacement - better off playing Rojas, 106, 77 RC+ against RH pitching last two seasons.
Meanwhile, against LH pitchers, 100, 149, 125.

It's funny how the narratives are one thing but what actually gets said in the story doens't always match. For instance in this one Harper says he won't lead off (but would hit 2nd or 4th) and in one of the others he said he doesn't want to play anywhere other than 1B (i.e. no DH days).

Rojas's platoon splits are a small sample, and also full of noise from his highs and lows. The Phillies and Thomson almost always ignore that (if they are platooning that is. They also ignore it when they have just decided a guy should play every day, whether they are right or wrong).

In CF as things currently stand it is pretty much guaranteed Rojas will play against LHP and Marsh against RHP. Even if Rojas continues to hit RHP better by his own standard, he's nowhere near Marsh's standard (or Kepler's).

And there's also no indication Castellanos will be platooning in any way. Nor should he, if he's able to avoid a slump and pick up where he left off last year. If he craters that's another story. And he should actually get one game a week off this year.

I doubt Marsh is subpar in CF (I.e. he will still be positive value). Just not as good as Rojas or as good as his own work in LF

Hopefully this plan works and they are not once again looking for a RHB OF or talking about Luis Robert. Crawford could still be traded, could be the 2026 starting CF or could just be the next Rojas. I'd be surprised if he's a factor this year (and if he is that means Kepler has gone the way of Merrifield).

Castellanos should platoon b/c his L/R split the last three years says he's a 95-100 RC+ hitter against RH pitching, which combined with his poor fielding makes him below replacement level.

Now will they platoon him? Depends on whether they want to win or placate an overpaid player.

Agreed, but they won't do it, especially since they are equally determined to let Kepler play against LHP (just as they intended to let Hays play against RHP) and don't seem especially eager to play Rojas more. So there isn't actually anyone to platoon with him.

Now, if he repeats his start from 2024, or if Crawford really does force a call-up, it will be a different story. Then you can also start the process of imagining 2026 without Nick as a starting OF (whatever that looks like) which would allow them to put Marsh in RF or sign a FA. But I would rather still hope Nick has the offense he showed from June to September last year, even you'd still rather he was a DH. His second-half OPS was .839 and 2/3 to 3/4 of those ABs were still likely against RHP (full-season it was 74%).

They aren't catering to his ego or in a sunk cost fallacy; our HOF President and winningest all-time manager both actually believe he's good. Not saying they are right, but he's still better than his haters think (just like Bohm).

It seems like their philosophy is also that the pitching is so good that the defense can be bad, rather than needing the defense to help the pitching staff. They want offense more.

Actually, Kepler has an OPS of .672 against RHP (last season, when in VSSS he actually hit better against LHP), so he is not a thunderous bat to compensate for not great, or even good, D as a CF. Rojas had a .633 OPS against RHP and was significantly worse against LHP last year, so you don't buy a ton of offense by sacrificing D to sit Rojas.

Is he really? His OPS+ last season was only His OPS+ last season was only 106 with huge split differentials. If the Phillies analytical staff are as good as reported and have the courage of their convictions to honestly report the stats to the manager and DD, then they all know that Castellanos is a below average hitter against RHP and in night games. He should not be an every day player. You have to look deeper than the back of the baseball cards, and even by that naive measure, Casty hasn't been all that good, averaging 0.8 WAR per season in Philly. Marsh is far better. Rojas and Kepler are both coming off down seasons, but they both possibly may provide more overall value than Castellanos. Make Casty a platoon guy and let him put up better numbers in that role. I think it likeliest that the 3.4 WAR season that earned him his big Philly deal was a fluke, that his total of 2.4 WAR over the past 3 years in Philly is the more accurate gauge of his current value and that at age 33 we should ezpect that he is on a downward trajectory. If Phillies' management chooses to play him every day to keep the vets happy, they are throwing away wins in a season where we likely need just about every possible win to reach the post-season.