Carlos Santana experiencing early struggles in first season with Phillies
Carlos Santana has shown solid offensive production throughout his career but has struggled early in his first season with the Phillies.
When the Phillies signed Carlos Santana to a three-year deal last December, the team was adding an experienced, solid power-hitting bat to a good young core. While his veteran presence has undoubtedly been felt early this season, Santana has struggled at the plate.
A brief overview of Santana’s career: He played his first eight major-league seasons with the Cleveland Indians. He had a career-high 34 home runs and 87 RBI in 2016 and has surpassed 20 home runs in four other seasons. While he’s never hit higher than .268 for a season, Santana’s 175 home runs entering the season and .363 on-base percentage were a great addition to the young core the Phillies are building around.
Hitting mainly out of the number two slot, Santana has undeniably struggled in his first few weeks with the Phillies. Some of this may be getting adjusted to pitchers in a new league, so there is no worry yet. However, his poor start is worth noting.
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Santana belted his first home run as a Phillie in his second game but went just 3-for-22 over his first six games with six strikeouts. After a two-hit game and his second home run of the season April 7 against the Marlins, Santana was hitting .192 but had a good OPS of .781.
Quickly things spiraled downward after that game. Santana has gone just 3-for-33 since then with one double and six strikeouts. His season average is at .136 with a .548 OPS and a WAR of -0.4.
Looking for a positive, Santana has shown plenty of discipline at the plate, drawing 11 walks, which puts him on pace to surpass 100 for the season.
Perhaps Santana’s numbers will be slightly lower overall this season due to the adjustments period needed seeing many of these NL pitchers for the first time.
However, I feel he will pull out of this early season funk and approach mid 20 home runs, 80 RBI, and .250 average.
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With the likes of Rhys Hoskins, Scott Kingery, Odubel Herrera, an improved Santana down the road will pay huge dividends.