Phillies: Jean Segura looks shaky in 3B debut

It wasn’t Jean Segura’s best day when the Phillies put him at third base

Right now the Phillies are in a dead zone at third base, moving on from Maikel Franco but not ready to anoint top prospect Alec Bohm as their starter.

In the meantime, they’ll try Scott Kingery and Jean Segura, neither natural third basemen, over at the hot corner.

Segura, who has never played third base, got the start on Sunday over at third in his first action of the season.

There was the good, the bad, and the ugly when it came to Segura’s spring opener. He made several plays at third, but two stood out.

On one play he dove to his left in front of new shortstop Didi Gregorius, allowing Pittsburgh to score their first run of the game. He cut off Gregorius on another play where he tried to charge the ball.

Segura said after the game that he should have let Gregorius get those balls “but right now, I feel like I just want to catch everything.”

Obviously, now is not the time to worry over whether Segura can handle third base, especially after his first-ever action over there. As Joe Girardi has said, this is the time to get in shape and learn, not time to compete.

Hopefully Segura learns from those two plays from Sunday, because the Phillies really need his bat in the lineup. In vintage Segura style Sunday afternoon, he hit a clean line drive up the middle for an RBI in the first inning, exactly what he did last early year when the team was successful.