GDT 4/7/26 Philadelphia Phillies (Sánchez, C) @ San Francisco Giants (Ray)

[Philsmania]

Looks like a flat loss all around.

[kmc1019]

Robbie Ray is a former cy Young winner and extremely tough on lefties. Pitching matchup is back in Phillies favor today to win the series.

[andyb]

As Matt Gelb points out, we are just not that good against lefties especially with Bohm not in the lineup. Schwarber and Harper are decent against left-handed pitching but really the points where they were better (like last year with Schwarber) are more SSS data points against a larger record of more traditional platoon splits.

Bigger problem is our right-hand bats are only slightly better than their left-handed platoon partners and not dramatically better. Kemp really needs to hit to offset some brutal defense. Garcia needs to be more than he has been so far. Sosa has been as expected but again, he does not move the needle.

My solution is the lineup really needs Aidan Miller playing somewhere and that seems unlikely to happen this season unfortunately. Until then we are just going to be a better lineup against right-handed pitching.

Another lefty, another night of questions for how the Phillies approach a...

[zambonir]

And even a healthy Miller who tore it up in AAA for 100 ABs wasn't necessarily going to tear it up in MLB right away. Certainly makes you see the value of the Bichette move, though that would have been in Bohm's place and probably also a new catcher.

It really is the same old problem. Rhys left (and would have declined), JT declined, Casty cratered and Garcia was a lottery ticket, offensively. At least we know Harrison Bader wasn't the answer either. Nor was Kyle Tucker (LHB) for that matter.

But they'll win some of these games (and have) with better pitching and against bullpens. Just wasn't their night. And Monday still an outlier in terms of how they play in SF.

[andyb]

If the question is who can be a full-time 850+ OPS RH bat in this lineup the only answer outside of a trade or free agent is Miller even if it is highly unlikely to happen this year. Turner has not done that since 2021. Bohm did it briefly in a short rookie year but has not even done 800 since then. Realmuto is long past that level too.

Miller is really the only answer to that question and finding a place for his bat is important next year (likely SS or 3B). Not trading him this year is also probably important given the left-handed tilt of the lineup. I'd also let him learn LF on the fly if that got him in the lineup later this season (he can't be worse than Kemp out there).

[LoneStarPhan]

Ray was even tougher on the right hand hitters last night.

[phillychuck]

Miller is hurt pretty badly and rumor has it that he won’t be back any time soon. It’s hard to hitch your wagon to him given how serious and debilitating back injuries can be.

[andyb]

Not quite hitching the wagon but the other option at the moment is Griffin Burkholder and he has not left the station yet. I guess we'll wait for Francisco Renteria who is also right-handed. Juan Soto made his debut at 19, right?

[zambonir]

Oh for sure, I just hope he actually is one.

It's pretty amazing that they they have had the same hole, and failed to fill it well enough, almost every year. Whether it was the Kemp-type spot (Hays and Merrifield in 2024, Harrison and just sticking with Wilson in 2023) or CF (Pache, Rojas). Bader certainly made the team better and more flexible but I doubt he was gonna put the offense over the top last October had he been healthy. If Miller isn't the calvary this year and Kemp doesn't produce they will have to do it again. Miller as platoon LF temporarily seems like a fine idea though

I suspect Garcia is safe, he's pretty much doing what they need him to do. Not really realistic to think he'll go back to 2023 but he's already 0.2 and 101 OPS+ with as many HRs as Schwarber. Hopefully he still hits more but he'd have to revert back to last year (93 OPS+) to be someone you might replace.

[andyb]

I did sort of enjoy Bader celebrating a hit to get his average over .130 last night. He was fine as a player but almost certainly they made the right call not bringing him back.

[Callison]

Good observation about Ray, who had a really good night, though the Phils made him look even better than he is.

I am glad to see Bohm out of #4 for any reason. Invitation to Garcia to recover his glorious past, but he didn't do anything and left 5 on base.

Kemp finally getting a shot but didn't do anything. Was hoping for more from him. Marchan finally getting a shot but didn't do anything, save picking off Oliva.

Sanchez off his game, too - Realmuto calls a better game than Marchan, IMHO. Hope he's OK.

[phillychuck]

It’s pretty weird how few functional RHB there are in the majors right now that are acquirable via trade. DD needs to figure something out. It used to bar you could get a short-sided platoon RH OF or corner IF pretty cheaply.

[andyb]

We could have had Curtis Mead. HR last night and 5-15 with a 1000 OPS so far with the Nats. He has really not played the OF much but again it is hard to be worse than Kemp. He is only platooning with the Nats so far but I could see him winning a full time job (which for them is probably 1B/DH) since they are thin at those positions with Crews and Hassell in the minors and Luis Garcia not hitting as much as you would like in a 1B.

[phillychuck]

I’m not confident Mead is much of an answer at RH platoon bat. It’s harder to get minor league splits than it used to be, but I’d be interested in seeing Mead’s.

[zambonir]

They are somehow both undervalued and scarce. And the ones that are good are too good to platoon (or think they are). But also the Phillies tend to pick wrong. Purely hindsight (and too early to say) but Taylor Ward and Luis Robert are both looking good. They had higher acquisition costs though. Robert also expensive but with that one extra year of possible control, and similarly good defense to Garcia.

[andyb]

The Baseball Reference "enhancements" are definitely a bit confusing. The left navigation menu has choices for both major and minor league splits but when I click on Mead's minor league splits it looks like it is mixing his major and minor league appearances. I guess so many players play at multiple levels they thought this would be better but I definitely think the major leagues should be split off.

Mead does have typical splits going back - about 100 points higher against LHP. No career option unfortunately.

[flyers19rw]

Might be time to give Bryan de la Cruz a shot? He had a good winter ball season and ST. Not a great start at LHV though.

[andyb]

If Kemp continues to struggle we will almost certainly see De La Cruz who might offer similar platoon offense with better defense.

His start at LHV is actually pretty good. Low batting average (.212) but 3 HRs and 9 BBs in 9 games has him with a .866 OPS. Will he be much better than 700 OPS in the majors in a platoon role? Hard to say. Major league OPS is .698 and his splits are 698/697. Good that he has no platoon split. Bad that he has no obvious strength as well.

The high minor league walk rate is a new thing for him, but it could be a SSS artifact of early season pitcher wildness.

[zambonir]

That would probably mean optioning Kemp (rather than DFAing the more versatile and expensive Dylan Moore) so a bit soon for that.

[phillychuck]

I wouldn’t rush to change things up before about mid-May...gotta give things a chance to equalize.