Philadelphia Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski acknowledged Friday afternoon that the club has tried in each of the past two trade deadlines to acquire outfielder Austin Hays. They were finally successful in 2024, sending reliever Seranthony Domínguez and outfielder Cristian Pache to the Baltimore Orioles for the 29-year-old former All-Star outfielder.
Hays isn’t in the starting lineup Friday, but he has reported to the Phillies and is active for this evening’s game. He’ll be wearing No. 9.
Dombrowski deferred to manager Rob Thomson on how the lineup will be made out on a nightly basis. Listening to Thomson, you came away with the clear impression that Hays is likely to get the bulk of the starts in left field moving forward.
“I do not see him as a platoon, to tell you the truth,” Thomson said candidly Friday. “This guy was an All-Star last year. And for whatever reason — I don’t know Baltimore’s situation — but he wasn’t playing every single day. So I think that’s maybe affected his numbers a little bit. So I want to see what we have here.”
Hays has relatively drastic offensive splits this year, as he’s hitting .328 with an .894 OPS against left-handed pitchers, as opposed to .204 with a .585 OPS against righties. However, for his career, Hays has a .791 OPS against lefties, and a .727 OPS against righties, so he hasn’t previously been someone that has needed to be platooned.
If Hays isn’t a platoon player, does that mean that Brandon Marsh and Johan Rojas will platoon in center field?
“I don’t know that yet, I’ve got to talk to a lot of people,” Thomson said.
After The Athletic‘s Matt Gelb followed up with a question about where left and center field stand, he acknowledged when trying to formulate another question that “you’re not gonna answer” and Thomson, with a smile, replied “that’s right.”
Hays has played 483 innings in center field in his career, but Dombrowski said Friday that the Phillies are “not getting him for that purpose.” Dombrowski did point out that Hays started in center field for the AL All-Star team a year ago, so you can’t rule out the possibility of him seeing some time in center field. But Dombrowski added “we don’t look at him as an acquisition to be our center fielder.”
As for adding anyone else, it seems Hays is likely to be the big move in the outfield.
“I think so,” Dombrowski said when asked if the Phillies are now set in the outfield. “…Now, when I say that, I never know what will drop down at this point. But if we ended now and this was our outfield going forward, we’d feel good about it.”
With Nick Castellanos entrenched in right field and Hays in left field, that would leave Marsh and Rojas competing for at-bats in center field. Neither has necessarily taken the offensive steps forward that the Phillies hoped for prior to the season.
Rojas has six outs above average in center field, but a meager .563 OPS. He’s struggled to get bunts down consistently, and while he’s very fast, Rojas hasn’t displayed the best baserunning instincts.
“Well, I mean he’s an outstanding defensive player,” Dombrowski said. “He’s been playing very well defensively. He can run the bases. He’s still growing as an offensive player. That’s the way I would basically summarize it.”
There’s a case to be made for Rojas’ best value to a team being as a player that comes into the game in the sixth or seventh inning with a chance to swing a game with his speed, in the field and/or on the bases. He doesn’t need four at-bats per game to do that.
Rojas has hit .180 in 61 at-bats against lefties this season, as opposed to .249 in 173 at-bats against righties. He isn’t someone that profiles as a perfect platoon partner for Marsh. But it still seems to be a pretty safe bet that the majority of his starts in center field the remainder of the season comes against southpaws.
That’s because Marsh has been unplayable against lefties this season, despite working hard to improve. The good news for Marsh is he mashes right-handed pitching, with an .842 OPS in 225 plate appearances against righties this year. He’s only had 50 at-bats against lefties, but hasn’t earned more, as he’s struck out 26 times and hit .140 against them.
It’s a disappointing development after Marsh hit .229 with a .717 OPS in 110 plate appearances against lefties last year, showing real signs of improvement.
“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,” Dombrowski said of Marsh. “Because he made some progress last year, I’m a little bit surprised, actually. We still think he will do it, but it’s not something he’s done so far this year. We still think he has a chance to be an everyday player.
“I’ve seen this happen to a lot of guys, he’s not the first,” Dombrowski continued. “Where they do have downtimes and struggle a little bit when it comes to facing those guys, same-side deliveries. But it’s not where we thought it would be at this time this year.”
Marsh has been a Gold Glove-caliber left fielder this year, with 11 defensive runs saved over 460 2/3 innings. He’s a good enough athlete to play center field, and the Phillies reached the World Series with a platoon of him and Matt Vierling playing there two years ago. But he doesn’t take command in center the way that Rojas does. Perhaps no one in baseball does currently.
Still, it may be a mix of those two in center field the rest of the year. Maybe late in games Marsh will slide to left field and Rojas will be in center field, although Hays has 13 career defensive runs saved in left field, so he may not be someone the Phillies are inclined to sub out. Perhaps only one of Marsh or Rojas will be on the field in most situations moving forward.
When Thomson was asked to evaluate how much the Phillies lose in center field if Marsh is there as opposed to Rojas, the manager refocused the conversation to the topic of the day.
“Well, it all depends on how Austin hits,” Thomson said.
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