Realistically, the Phillies have two jobs up for grabs this spring training. One is backup catcher, which is relatively straightforward. Rafael Marchan is the favorite, in part because he’s out of options and Garrett Stubbs isn’t.
The other is the final bench spot. That competition is a bit more convoluted. Right now, it’s a four-man race between Weston Wilson, Kody Clemens, Buddy Kennedy and Cal Stevenson.
No one will say quite yet, but Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski and manager Rob Thomson hinted on Wednesday at a possible frontrunner.
“We think Wes Wilson gets sorta swept on the side,” Dombrowski said. “He’s done a nice job for us when we’ve given him the opportunity, and he can play infield and outfield. One of the things that I’ve talked to Topper over the winter time — ideally, he would like a club with two extra infielders on it.”
In theory, that would put Stevenson on the outside looking in, given that he’s never made an infield appearance in his professional baseball career. (He has an option remaining, too.) Wilson played 55 innings in the infield last season compared to 150 in the outfield, while Kennedy didn’t appear in the outfield and has seldom done so in pro ball.
That premium on flexibility would boil things down to Wilson and Clemens.
Both hitters have had their moments across two seasons with the Phillies, but the more productive hitter, overall, has been Wilson, albeit in a smaller sample. He slashed .284/.347/.489 in just under 100 plate appearances with the Phillies last year. Much of that damage came against left-handed pitching, whom Wilson walloped to the tune of a 1.025 OPS.
That — perhaps even more than how much more time he spent in the outfield last season — could be what ultimately keeps the pendulum on Wilson’s side. The Phillies will likely enter Opening Day with five of their nine starters hitting from the left side and Edmundo Sosa their only legitimate right-handed pinch-hitting option, barring unforeseen offensive developments from Johan Rojas. (Thomson on Wednesday called handedness a “pretty important” factor in determining that final job, before noting that doesn’t mean Clemens won’t make the team.)
The catch: Between Wilson, Kennedy and Clemens, Wilson is the only one with a minor-league option remaining. While that may not flip the equation enough for one of Kennedy or Clemens to win the job, it does present a conundrum if Wilson is the victor. In that scenario, Kennedy and Clemens would have to clear waivers for the Phillies to keep them in the organization.
If camp rolls on and it becomes clear that Wilson is indeed going to win the job, the Phillies might want to get a little proactive.
“If they don’t make the team, then we’re in a position where it might be tough to get them to Triple-A,” Dombrowski said of Clemens and Kennedy. “So we’re open-minded to depth from a positional player perspective.”
They may also get a little creative. Thomson said the Phillies are going to give Clemens, Wilson and Kennedy some reps in the outfield this spring — along with Sosa. In past springs, the Phillies have touted the idea of giving Sosa time in center field, but the experiment has never fully taken off. “I think,” Thomson said, “we’re gonna force it a little bit this year.”
That’s another factor that could alter the entire puzzle. It’s something that will sort itself out over the next month-plus. It’s also something that may amount to a mere footnote in the Phillies’ overall roster puzzle by, say, May or June. But position players haven’t even reported to Clearwater yet. For now, it’s all we’ve got.
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Berksbaseball
February 13, 2025 at 12:30 pm
They could still send Rojas down.. He never did get to spend time in AAA to improve his hitting