Phillies need one of their right fielders to step up soon
By John Town
Neither of the Phillies’ right fielders has gotten off to a great start this season. The team needs one of them to start hitting soon.
The Phillies came into this season knowing they had a sticky situation in the outfield. Signing Carlos Santana and moving Rhys Hoskins to left field left Odubel Herrera, Aaron Altherr, and Nick Williams jockeying for two positions. There was thought that one of them could be traded during the offseason, but nothing wound up happening.
Manager Gabe Kapler has been forced to give everyone enough playing time, and it hasn’t really worked out so far. Herrera was left out of the lineup on Opening Day, much to his and the fan’s distaste. Williams expressed his frustration with being left out of the lineup saying the computers must be the ones doing the job.
Williams, Altherr, and Herrera were certainly put in a difficult position by the team. After signing Santana, Kapler was put in the difficult position of managing all their playing time. Scott Kingery garnering time in the outfield has further limited their playing time. Keeping all of them happy is a tough task for any manager, let alone a first-timer like Kapler.
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Herrera and Altherr have both started seven games, while Williams has started just three. Herrera is the only one who has been hitting well so far this year. So far, Herrera has a .321 average and .816 OPS. He isn’t off to as hot of a start as Hoskins or Maikel Franco, but he is certainly holding his own so far this year.
However, the team’s right fielders, Altherr and Williams, have not produced like they did last year.
Altherr’s grand slam Saturday night was just his second hit of the season and his first since Opening Day. He has drawn five walks in 32 plate appearances but has struck out 11 times.
Williams’ highlight of the year came Monday night with his pinch-hit, go-ahead home run against the Reds. Up until then, he was just 3-for-16 on the year with five strikeouts. His line is better than Altherr’s at .235/.235/.412 compared to .074/.219/.185, but it’s still not great.
William’s biggest issue is his patience at the plate. He swung at 48 percent of first pitches last year and eight of 16 this year heading into Monday night. He didn’t Monday night when he pinch-hit as he worked his way to a 3-1 count and came up big with the home run.
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Williams said that he is trying to adjust his approach at the plate: [quote via Todd Zolecki of MLB.com]
"“I’ve been trying to work the counts and just stay with my approach,” Williams said. “I think that’s helped along those lines. I was comfortable. I saw the first pitch going down instantly and said, ‘OK, wow.’ Stuck with my approach and it shows what happens when you do that.”"
Altherr has that patience already, leading the league with 5.16 pitches per plate appearance. It hasn’t translated to success at the plate for him yet. Meanwhile, Williams is seeing just 3.59 pitches per plate appearance. That aggressiveness worked for him last year, but it has not this year.
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Neither Williams nor Altherr has stepped up and come out of the gate hot to start this year. You can’t expect every player to be hot at the same time, but the team was hoping its outfield would be its strength offensively this year. One of Altherr or Williams needs to pick up the pace, and soon, to establish themselves as an everyday player.