With Austin Hays’ acquisition, Brandon Marsh might get less playing time. Grace Del Pizzo/Nation of the Phillies
Dave Dombrowski, the president of baseball operations for the Philadelphia Phillies, revealed on Friday afternoon that the team attempted to acquire outfielder Austin Hays at each of the previous two trade deadlines. In 2024, they finally achieved success when they traded the 29-year-old former All-Star outfielder to the Baltimore Orioles for reliever Seranthony Domínguez and outfielder Cristian Pache.
Hays has reported to the Phillies and is available for this evening’s game even if he isn’t in the opening lineup on Friday. He will don the number nine.
Dombrowski yielded to manager Rob Thomson when it came to the nightly lineup selections. You got the distinct idea after listening to Thomson that Hays will probably hit the majority of the stars in left field going ahead.
To be honest, Thomson stated on Friday, “I do not see him as a platoon.” “Last year, this guy was an All-Star.” I’m not familiar with Baltimore’s circumstances, but he wasn’t playing every day for whatever reason. Thus, I believe that may have had a minor impact on his numbers. I so want to check out what’s available.
This year, Hays’s offensive splits are rather pronounced; he is hitting.328 with an OPS of.894 versus left-handed pitchers and.204 with an OPS of.585 against right-handed ones. Nevertheless, Hays hasn’t historically need to be platooned; over his career, he has a.791 OPS versus lefties and a.727 OPS against righties.
Does it imply Johan Rojas and Brandon Marsh will platoon in center field if Hays isn’t a platoon player?
Thomson remarked, “I have to talk to a lot of people, so I don’t know that yet.”
Matt Gelb of The Athletic followed up by asking where left and center field stand. Gelb recognized that “you’re not gonna answer” when he tried to construct another question, to which Thomson grinned and said, “That’s right.”
Dombrowski stated on Friday that the Phillies are “not getting him for that purpose,” despite the fact that Hays has played 483 innings in center field during his career. You can’t completely rule out the chance that Hays plays center field at some point because Dombrowski did mention that he started in the position for the AL All-Star team a year ago. “We don’t look at him as an acquisition to be our center fielder,” Dombrowski clarified, though.
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Regarding additions, Hays appears to be the obvious choice for the starting outfield spot.
When asked if the Phillies were set in the outfield going forward, Dombrowski responded, “I think so.” I never know what will come down at this moment, so I say it with caution. However, we would be satisfied if we finished today and this was our starting lineup moving forward.
Marsh and Rojas would be vying for at-bats in center field with Nick Castellanos firmly established in right field and Hays in left field. Neither has particularly advanced offensively in the way the Phillies had hoped before the season.
Rojas is a measly six outs above of average in center field.563 Units. Rojas is extremely fast, but he hasn’t shown the best baserunning instincts. He has also had trouble consistently putting down bunts.
Dombrowski remarked, “He’s an amazing defensive player, really.” He has been playing excellent defense. He is a capable base runner. His development as an offensive player is ongoing. I would essentially sum it up like that.
One could argue that Rojas is most useful to a team when he enters the game in the sixth or seventh inning and has the opportunity to use his speed to win games in the field and/or on the bases. To do that, he doesn’t require four at-bats per game.
This season, Rojas is hitting.180 in 61 at-bats versus lefties while hitting.249 in 173 at-bats against righties. He doesn’t fit Marsh’s ideal platoon partner description. However, it appears to be a very safe bet that he will face southpaws for the most of his center field starts the rest of the season.
This is due to Marsh’s unplayability versus lefties this season, despite his best efforts to get better. Marsh has an enviable record of slugging a.842 OPS in 225 plate appearances this season against right-handed pitchers, which is wonderful news for him. Despite having only 50 at-bats versus lefties, he hasn’t earned any more because he has a.140 batting average and has struck out 26 times.
It’s a disheartening turn of events considering that Marsh hit.229 with a.717 OPS in 110 bat appearances versus lefties the previous season, demonstrating significant progress.
Dombrowski remarked of Marsh, “Well, I mean, it’s a situation [where] I’m not really sure why he has struggled as much vs. left-handed pitching this year.” He did make some progress last year, so I must admit that I’m a little surprised. Though he hasn’t done it yet this year, we still believe he will. We continue to believe that he has a potential to play regularly.
Dombrowski went on, “I’ve seen a lot of guys go through this; he’s not the first.” When it comes to dealing with those guys, same-side deliveries are where they do suffer a little bit and have their downtime. However, at this time of year, it’s not where we had anticipated it to be.
This season, Marsh has played left field like a Gold Glove, saving 11 runs in 460 and a third innings. His athleticism allows him to play center field, and two years ago, he and Matt Vierling formed a platoon that helped the Phillies win the World Series. However, he doesn’t assume control in the center like Rojas does. Maybe nobody does in baseball right now.
For the remainder of the season, though, center field might see a combination of those two. Hays has 13 career defensive runs saved in left field, so the Phillies might not be tempted to sub him out. However, late in games, Marsh might slide to left field and Rojas to center field. Going ahead, it’s possible that only one of Marsh or Rojas will be on the field in most circumstances.
The manager brought up the subject of the day when Thomson was asked to assess how much the Phillies lose in center field if Marsh is there instead of Rojas.
Thomson remarked, “Well, it all depends on how Austin hits.”