The Phillies won’t say it, but they are platooning in left field
The timing of Weston Wilson’s activation from the injured list wasn’t an accident. With left-handed pitcher David Peterson on the mound for the New York Mets on Wednesday, the Phillies wanted the right-handed hitting Wilson starting in left field. They activated him a few days short of the expiration of his rehab clock. Kody Clemens was designated for assignment as the corresponding move.
He went 1-for-2 with a base hit and a run scored in his first game back from an oblique injury suffered in spring training, then was lifted in the sixth inning for pinch hitter Max Kepler when the Mets replaced Peterson with right-handed reliever Huascar Brazobán.
The Phillies on Wednesday were aggressive in their deployment of the left-handed bench bats. Edmundo Sosa, who started at second base, was replaced by Bryson Stott in the top of the seventh. Cal Stevenson batted for center fielder Johan Rojas in the ninth.
With the Phillies offense struggling to get going, Rob Thomson could be more inclined to pursue the matchup advantage at the bottom of the order. Left field is a prime spot. Thomson said before Wednesday’s game in New York that Wilson will get at-bats in left field against left-handed pitching.
Just don’t use the word platoon.
“I wouldn’t call it a platoon,” Thomson said when asked about left field. “[Wilson] could spell Stott [at second base], and Kepler plays left.”
“I have not been told anything. Whatever they need, I’m ready to go,” Wilson said before Wednesday’s game. “I’m sure that will be communicated at some point, or I’ll get a sense of it. I don’t really know much at this point.”
The Phillies signed Kepler to a one-year, $10 million deal in the offseason to have him be their everyday left fielder with some strings attached. Dave Dombrowski at the time recognized that the left-handed hitting Kepler had better numbers against lefties than righties in 2024, but over his career, he has typically hit better against righties. They also liked Wilson against left-handed pitching.
Even before Wilson’s activation, the Phillies have treated Kepler as a platoon bat. He has not been in the starting lineup the last four times the Phillies have faced a left-handed starting pitcher. His 4-for-20 with seven strikeouts against lefties is too small of a sample size to make a fair conclusion, but the Phillies, with the lineup struggling as a unit, can’t afford to give him more leeway if better options against lefties exist.
The Cubs have three right-handed starters lined up to face the Phillies over the weekend, so Kepler could start all three games in left field. He’s off to an uneven start at the plate. After going 5-for-34 from April 2 to April 12, Kepler is batting .303 with an .803 OPS since the start of the Giants series. His season so far mirrors the on-base, no slug trend throughout the Phillies’ lineup. Kepler’s walk rate (11.2%) is back to resembling his career norm after falling to 5.5% in 2024, but the power isn’t quite there yet. He has one home run and four RBIs.
A platoon that nobody wants to call a platoon in left field may be the best solution moving forward for the Phillies. Wilson has hit well in his multiple brief stints with the club, but an extended big league opportunity has been hard to come by for the 30-year-old. The front office’s preference to retain 2023 trade deadline acquisition Rodolfo Castro’s last option year pushed him off the major league roster two years ago. He finally got a chance to make an impression last July, when the Phillies released the struggling Whit Merrifield in favor of getting Wilson some more looks. The trade for Austin Hays weeks later ate into his playing time.
At the very least, this is an opportunity for the Phillies to evaluate what they have in left field well before the trade deadline.