The day of the trade deadline brought an outfield upgrade for the Phillies in Harrison Bader, who arrives from the Twins in exchange for Henry Mendez and Geremy Villoria.
The plan for the newly acquired outfielder? Well, that’s to be determined.
“We think he can play both (left and center),” president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski said on Thursday evening. “We do like him in both situations, maybe very dependent upon how (manager Rob Thomson) plays (the lineup) on a particular day.”
So, it will remain unclear until Friday how the Phillies will handle their outfield situation. Bader, at least, is a strong defensive improvement. He won the 2021 National League Gold Glove in center field and is among the sport’s top defenders in recent seasons, leading all outfielders in outs above average since 2017 (76). He’s played left in 2025 and could play either in Philadelphia.
The Phillies’ current center field platoon features Brandon Marsh and Johan Rojas, while Max Kepler has platooned in left field with Weston Wilson and Otto Kemp at points. Where Bader fits in, Dombrowski said, is up to Thomson. So is whether Bader will be an everyday player or the right-handed side of a platoon.
The club has roster decisions to make regardless. One option could be designating Kepler for assignment. The lefty, signed for $10 million in the offseason, is hitting .203/.297/.357 through 94 games.
“He’s part of our roster at this time,” Dombrowski said Thursday.
Rojas, with a .569 OPS in 172 plate appearances this season, could be optioned — though Dombrowski said the “possibility exists” to keep him and Bader on the roster.
And where does Justin Crawford, the Phillies’ hot-hitting outfield prospect, fit into all of this?
“We think he’s ready to play at the big-league level,” Dombrowski said. “We could bring him up. If we do bring him up, he needs to play a lot. I’m not sure that we’re in a position to do that at this point today. But he’s not somebody that we would hesitate to bring up, if we decided that was the right thing to do.
“He, like (Andrew) Painter, like a lot of those youngsters, they can use more development time. It will never hurt them. When they’re going to get here, they’re going to have to make some adjustments. But he’s also in a position where we think he’s ready to do that when called upon.”
Should Crawford be called up, he could fit nicely into a left-field platoon alongside right-handed Bader, or Bader could pair well with Marsh in center.
The Phillies were not in the business of announcing roster decisions Thursday night, mostly talking trades instead. But roster decisions will come Friday, with new faces and locker changes as August gets underway at Citizens Bank Park.
(Photo: Jordan Johnson / Imagn Images)