Phillies 2026 News and Discussion

[zambonir]

Adell's an option too but he's never been much of a bat (last year's HR total aside) and is having an especially bad year. Garcia might pass him (in WAR and OPS) by July 1. He's the perfect platoon RHB but we don't need one of those anymore.

[andyb]

Garcia has been better of late. I guess the real question is whether we can do a substantial upgrade on Garcia or perhaps downgrade him into a platoon if Rincones gets going later in the year.

As for trades for a right-handed bat CF may be a more logical upgrade. That depends on what we think of Crawford or a likely Crawford/Rojas platoon by the end of June.

[zambonir]

Adell as a platoon CF might make more sense even if he's not a good one. But hey, even Garcia has played his share of CF in younger days.

Rojas can certainly help the team get through the season or at least July, but even if he's absolutely great, he goes poof for playoffs.

[andyb]

The CF solution is NOT a platoon though. It is a replacement for the rest of this year that assumes another half year in AAA for Crawford to work on his defense would be useful.

Crawford and Garcia are both negative WAR players riight now. Garcia's offense might be improving to the point where he is positive. If that happens Crawford in CF is the biggest issue.

[zambonir]

Yeah but where do you find a CF? They got lucky last year. Except for Buxton it's generally the same batch of flawed guys who either should be platooned or shouldn't be CFs or both. Including Bader and Adell and Robert. And Trout in that group too (in terms of whether he should really be playing CF).

Marsh could end up back in CF or in RF I suppose, depending who they get or what they want to do. I think if Garcia bounces back significantly, you can live with Crawford in CF. What the team can live with and what's best for his development two different things really, .

[phillychuck]

It’s really a bad idea to yoyo a prospect back and forth to AAA when he struggles a bit, as predicted, in his first season. Stick with Crawford and let him learn.

[andyb]

The issue is how do we improve the team with a short term rental. While Garcia is more obvious than Crawford as a solution, the improvement might be greater with Crawford if Garcia's recent offensive improvement is real.

Your reasoning does not really improve the team. We retain Crawford for 6 more years if we send him down for more seasoning as well. I still like him long term, but now he is a low OBP CF with below average defense and no power.

[EDmuch]

Joe Adell is having a bad year ?????????? He currently has 10 HR, 37 RBI's and a .240 BA. That stretches out to about 25 HR, and 80 RBI's on a bad team. Put him batting 4th between Harper and Marsh and I think you could have a very interesting situation.

[VoteForKalas]

You just described Turner albeit he plays SS instead of CF lol

[julio]

Joe Adell is having a bad year ?????????? He currently has 10 HR, 37 RBI's and a .240 BA. That stretches out to about 25 HR, and 80 RBI's on a bad team. Put him batting 4th between Harper and Marsh and I think you could have a very interesting situation.

Lessee…
2026 bWAR: -0.2
2026 OPS+: 87
2026 OPS: .668
2026 OBP: .282
2026 SLG: .386

What do you want to give up for this below-average hitter, with negative WAR?

[zambonir]

Bohm, Stott and Marsh all had to go back to AAA. Several preseason ROTY candidates did last year too. Totally normal. Just not sure addressing CF addresses what ails and has long ailed this offense

[zambonir]

What do you want to give up for this below-average hitter, with negative WAR?

Garcia and nothing more!

[phillychuck]

I’m always going to err on the side of developing prospects and pushing them to their limits...just a long-term philosophical belief. I understand your position, but I just don’t agree...

[Austinfan]

Crawford or Rojas or some marginal trade isn't going to move the needle either way.
If Garcia can just OPS > .700 the rest of the way that would help.
But realistically, they need Bohm, Stott, Sosa, JT to all at least be decent, and Turner to get his mojo back.
They don't have to be world beaters, but .750+ OPS the rest of the way would make a big difference.

[andyb]

Trading for Buxton to play CF would move the needle.

[zambonir]

If Buxton's available they certainly have to consider, more so than Trout. But doesn't Crawford go into that deal, and probably Wood too? He's signed through 2028 and not expensive, if also aging and a longtime injury risk.

[zambonir]

Well, this team is trying to win games as much if not more than it is trying to develop one prospect. And when you look at Marsh, it's hard not conclude that it was right to control his exposure for three seasons, rather than "if he'd just started facing LHP in 2023 he'd have gotten this good sooner!"

The problem of course is they still don't have anyone good to play the OF on days Crawford sits. And the fact that that's really also the only reason Marsh started playing every day does suggest maybe he should have gotten more chances sooner (though it's not like he didn't get his chances).

I reckon there is a baseline level of awfulness that is both bad for the team and bad for the player (who will get frustrated or develop bad habits from repeated failure), and Crawford is well below that line (.393 OPS against LHP. Marsh's floor was .550). Especially since he's not playing good CF either.

Different if he was a RHB. A RH platoon player is a bench player, A LH platoon player is still the starter.

[EDmuch]

Judging Adell by his career stats is a bit of a cheap shot since it is generally recognized that last year was his break out year. Looking solely at his career stats is like judging Marsh based upon solely on his career stats without considering that something obviously finally clicked this year. Adell is a legit RH 30 HR outfielder. Now I am not saying we should go ga ga over him. But dismissing him on the basis of career stats is a bad argument.

[Philsmania]

Judging Adell by his career stats is a bit of a cheap shot since it is generally recognized that last year was his break out year. Looking solely at his career stats is like judging Marsh based upon solely on his career stats without considering that something obviously finally clicked this year. Adell is a legit RH 30 HR outfielder. Now I am not saying we should go ga ga over him. But dismissing him on the basis of career stats is a bad argument.

At the same time, shouldn't we also say "Let's see him do it for multiple seasons" to ensure that it wasn't just one standout season. Maybe he will be another guy like Josh Hamilton, Jose Batista, Marlon Byrd to name a few who took a few years (and typically multiple organizations) to figure things out. But, that's a tough call to make quickly.

[zambonir]

Those aren't his career stats, those are his season stats. They are better than Garcia but don't represent that big an upgrade for what the Phillies need this season, especially since Adell is no better defensively. He does have one more year of control, but that also means potentially overpaying for him. He is young enough to be a potentially useful player next year at least.

He currently has 10 HR, 37 RBI's and a .240 BA. That stretches out to about 25 HR, and 80 RBI's on a bad team. Put him batting 4th between Harper and Marsh and I think you could have a very interesting situation.

This is the same logic the Phillies used to signed Garcia. "He hit 19 HRs with 75 RBIs on a bad team. Put him in CBP batting 4th after Harper while working with Kevin Long, and you could have a very interesting situation."