The Philadelphia Phillies surprised the MLB world last season by reaching the 2022 World Series after winning 87 games in the regular season. Beating the St. Louis Cardinals in the NL Wildcard was impressive, but their run was encapsulated by the four-game victory over the defending-champion Atlanta Braves in the NLDS.
Bryce Harper, Rhys Hoskins and Kyle Schwarber led the offense of Philadelphia as their power and homers in the postseason were a welcome sight for Phillies fans. Making Harper's play even more incredible is that he was playing through a significant injury that will require him to miss a ton of time in 2023. Philadelphia still has the top-tier pitching of Aaron Nola and Zach Wheeler to lead the squad in that category.
As the 2023 season opens up in the next month, here are two position battles to watch for the Phillies in Spring Training.
2. Philadelphia's 5th starter spot
Many of the starting positions in Philadelphia are set for 2023. That excellent end to the 2022 season has raised the team's confidence in some players who did not previously have their positions locked up. Thus, the most exciting battle in Spring Training is the race for the fifth starter in their pitching rotation. Andrew Painter seemed to have an inside track on the position, but suffered an unfortunate injury in early March.
Painter sprained his UCL and will miss four weeks, so the job is now up for grabs. Some individuals being considered are Cristopher Sanchez, Bailey Falter and Nick Nelson. The top four have all proven they can succeed at the highest level, so manager Rob Thomson will need to make a difficult decision in choosing his fifth starter. Sanchez and Nelson still need to receive the necessary repetitions, and they will likely be inserted in the bullpen.
Falter has the inside track of claiming the fifth starter spot due to the injury of Painter. Since Painter is still a teenager, seeing the battle between Falter and Painter would have been more intriguing. With Painter hurt, though, Falter will have opportunities to prove himself and gain the trust of Thomson.
1. Phillies designated hitter
Without Harper for the first several months of the season, Philadelphia has a massive hole to fill at designated hitter. Harper had no choice but to play DH last season because he could not throw. With Harper sidelined, Thomson can mix and match his lineups by changing his DH almost every game.
Josh Harrison and Edmundo Sosa are two options the Phillies can tinker with at DH. Also, they can rest J.T. Realmuto at the backstop on some days and put him at DH. Other options could be Kyle Schwarber or Nick Castellanos at DH as well.
Moreover, Rhys Hoskins or Darick Hall could also moonlight as designated hitter so Philadelphia can start all of their most dangerous hitters. Hall will still need better numbers in the Spring to prove why he deserves a substantial shot at making the Phillies' final roster.
Thomson has changed his designated hitter in each of his team's last five Spring Training games. Clearly, the Phillies are still searching for answers at DH, but pretty much any solution should be a success given their wealth of available talent.
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