A six-game sample size is far too small to induce any panic, but it's been far from an ideal start to the season for the Philadelphia Phillies. Touted as a World Series frontrunner by many, the Phillies have had a sluggish start to their 2024 campaign, with a 2-4 record and -14 run differential.
Of course, there's still so much time left in the season that it's hardly worth dwelling on the overall record. But the first six games have exposed some shortcomings for this Phillies squad, and there's no time like the present to address those glaring weaknesses.
What, exactly, are those weaknesses? And how should they be addressed? We're glad you asked. These are the three most glaring fixes the Phillies need to make to their early-season roster:
Trade for Marlins LHP Tanner Scott
There are some early-season slumps worth overreacting to and the Miami Marlins are mired in the middle of one. They're 0-8, they don't have a single hitter with a league-average OPS+ and the pitching staff has already crumbled under the weight of four injuries to starting pitchers.
If the Marlins are smart, they'll go into sale mode early and set their own asking price in the trade market. The Phillies, meanwhile, have four high-leverage relievers that could feasibly take on the closer role, but none seem comfortable doing so.
Trading for Tanner Scott, who made our top 10 closers list after a sparkling 2023, would allow manager Rob Thomson to return Jose Alvarado and Jeff Hoffman to their preferred fireman roles while perfecting the lefty-righty balance in a fearsome Philly bullpen.
And even though Scott is a premier reliever, would the asking price really be that high? An impending free agent, Scott doesn't add much value to a Marlins team that already looks finished in the 2024 season. It might take a low-end top ten prospect in the Phillies' system, or maybe two middle-tier prospects instead. Either way, it's worth pulling the trigger when the clearest issue with the Philadelphia pitching staff so far has been the lack of a true closer.
Trade 1B Darick Hall
This one hurts for a subsection of Phillies fans who became convinced, before Darick Hall slumped in September 2022, that the Phils had found themselves a diamond in the rough. But Hall is now stashed away in AAA, stuck on the wrong end of a brutal roster crunch as a first baseman/DH only behind Bryce Harper and Kyle Schwarber.
Maybe the 28-year-old Hall is destined to never fully break into a big-league lineup, but there may well be teams out there who think it's worth finding out. With a full six years of control available, Hall is exactly the kind of poker chip low budget teams love to try and cash in on. He'd get plenty of chances to break into the lineup on a team like the Oakland Athletics or Washington Nationals.
So not only would the Phillies do the player a service in sending him somewhere he'd get a chance to play, but perhaps they could secure a low leverage reliever to help them through the season, or an underrated prospect who breaks out after a year or two in the Philadelphia system. It's time to free Darick Hall.
Find a center fielder
We're cheating a bit with this last bullet point, because this is clearly the number one concern with the Phillies in their current configuration. But they'll need a little more time to figure out the perfect solution.
Coming into the season, it was every Phillies fan's dream for Johan Rojas, who can run down balls in the alley with the best ballhawks in the game, to prove he could do enough with the bat to solidify himself as the everyday center fielder. But Rojas is 1-for-15 at the plate to start the year and his swings haven't looked remotely close to a player ready to bust out of a slump.
So what's the solution? If Rojas really can't hack it at the big league level, he'll head back to AAA. The Phillies have Cristian Pache, a former top prospect, who really hasn't had a chance to start since his awful 2022 in Oakland.
More likely, though, is that Brandon Marsh slides over from left field to center, with veteran signee Whit Merrifield claiming the starting gig in left. The Phils would be sacrificing a fair amount of defense by doing so, but the old baseball maxim certainly applies here: “if you hit, you don't sit.”
Moreover, the Phillies could certainly look to address this need in the trade market at some point this season as well. If a couple months pass and it's clear the four names above can't solve the problem in some configuration, Dave Dombrowski will have no hesitation in finding the final piece to the puzzle, allowing the Phillies to field a lineup that can compete with the behemoths in L.A. and Atlanta in this year's hotly contested National League.
Follow Us
Subscribe