Phillies faced with challenge of remaking outfield: ‘We’ve got work to do’

ORLANDO, Fla. — The Phillies remodeled their outfield on the fly this summer as they traded for the expiring Harrison Bader to play center field and ran two platoons in the corners. No, it wasn’t perfect. But it was capable.

This offseason, they’ll have to do it all over again, assembling another outfield configuration. The internal candidates are less than a sure thing. Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski is preparing for a variety of options.

“We’ve got work to do,” Dombrowski said on Monday inside the Phillies’ suite at the Winter Meetings in Orlando, Fla.

Bader is now a free agent, and a potential return is questionable. The lefty-hitting Max Kepler will not be back in Philadelphia. And Dombrowski reiterated that while the team is trying to find right fielder Nick Castellanos a “change of scenery” after a career-worst season, he has “no idea” when exactly that will happen.

That leaves Brandon Marsh as the lone regular from 2025 currently set up for extended playing time next year. He had a productive season with a .785 OPS, but he continued to struggle mightily against left-handed pitchers. He’s probably better suited as a part-time player.

“He hasn’t established himself versus left-handed pitching,” Dombrowski said. “He’s been better at times and maybe he will do it still, but I wouldn’t mind complementing him, supplementing him with a right-handed hitter.”

Dombrowski said he’d feel good with Otto Kemp, the former undrafted free agent, as an option to partner with Marsh, although the executive didn’t want to limit Kemp’s ultimate potential to that of a weak-side platoon bat. Kemp had a .709 OPS in 62 games as a rookie with a .786 OPS against lefties, playing mostly third base, first base and left field.

“If you said today we’re opening the season and that’s what we had — we played Marsh and Kemp in let’s call it left field today — I feel very comfortable that’s a productive position for us versus left-handed pitching and right-handed pitching,” Dombrowski said.

But the position is where it gets a bit complicated. Marsh has experience in center field and left field, but he’s stronger in left field at this point in his career. However, Dombrowski has said that the Phillies plan to give prospect Justin Crawford an opportunity to make the big-league roster next spring. The contact-hitting former first-round pick has also played both center and left, and there’s debate as to which spot he will end up manning.

If Crawford needs to play left field in his first season, that could force Marsh into either center field, where he’s worse off defensively, or into right field, where he would require a platoon partner other than Kemp. Or if Crawford and Marsh are too redundant positionally, it could be worth it for the Phillies to explore the idea of trading Marsh.

Dombrowski spoke about three other in-house outfield options on Monday: center fielder Johan Rojas, the recently claimed Pedro León and prospect Gabriel Rincones Jr. Rojas is a defensive specialist who would likely better serve the Phillies as depth. León has appeared in seven career major-league games and missed most of the 2025 season with a knee injury. But Dombrowski sounded optimistic about the chance of the left-handed-hitting Rincones being able to contribute if called upon in a platoon role.

“He doesn’t hit left-handed pitching very well at all, so you’d have to have somebody else out there that hits right-handed,” Dombrowski said. “But he’s close, and he’s dangerous. He’s got a chance to be a good player, so he also comes into play in that regard.”

While Dombrowski did not mention Weston Wilson specifically, he’ll also be in the mix again as a right-handed depth and platoon option. The Phillies will not consider moving either Trea Turner or Bryce Harper to the outfield at this time.

The team could need multiple external pieces added in order to field a productive outfield, and it’s unclear how it’ll all fit together at this point. But even though bigger names like Kyle Schwarber, who reportedly just signed a five-year deal to return to Philadelphia, might be the priority, the Phillies have an important challenge in front of them in the outfield.

“We’ve got work to do is what it comes down to,” Dombrowski said, “and we continue to try to make things happen.”