10 Excellent and terrible centerfield options for the Phillies
Who will be the Phillies’ centerfielder in 2022?
It’s February 1, and the Philadelphia Phillies look miles away from game-ready.
They’re not even ready to be a Spring Training team, though you can blame a lot of that on the MLB lockout, which prevents them from signing, trading, or even contacting major leaguers.
Ahead of the lockout, the Phillies addressed one of their top needs, adding Corey Knebel and Kent Emanuel to their bullpen. They also signed several pitchers to minor-league deals, the only kind of transaction allowed during the work stoppage.
Their other major hole was the outfield, and in that way, they’re further off than they were at the end of the season. Outfielders Andrew McCutchen, Odubel Herrera, Jorge Bonifacio, Travis Jankowski, and Roman Quinn all became free agents, essentially leaving Bryce Harper all alone in the Phillies outfield.
Unlike other teams, the Phillies weren’t exactly aggressive ahead of the lockout and lost out on several players who would’ve been massive improvements, including top centerfielder Starling Marte. The CF market is slim in this year’s free-agent class, but free-agency isn’t the only route they can take. Here are 10 options, ranging from terrible to excellent, for the Phillies…
In-house: Mickey Moniak & Adam Haseley
Starting off, the Phillies have two in-house options, whom we’re counting as one big ‘No.’
It’s unclear what exactly is going on with Adam Haseley, who only played nine games for the Phillies in 2021 before stepping away for personal reasons. He returned to the minors in June, got injured, began rehabbing, and then went on the COVID-related injured list. He finished out the season in Triple-A.
Surprisingly, Dombrowski was more bullish when it comes to Mickey Moniak, the former first-overall pick, who has struggled to stick at the big-league level:
"“Moniak, we liked. He was up and down and got quite a few at-bats.”"
Moniak played 21 games with the Phillies in 2021 and hit .091/.167/.182 with a .348 OPS. He only managed three hits in 33 at-bats, though one was his first major-league home run.
At the end of the season, Phillies POBO Dave Dombrowski made it clear that signing outfield talent is one of the club’s top priorities this offseason. In November, he elaborated that he was not “counting on either [Moniak or Haseley] to be on our club next year to start off.”
The Athletic‘s Matt Gelb recently specified that the Phillies do “not view any of the internal options in center field as viable everyday players in 2022,” which means you might see Vierling, Moniak, or Haseley out there, but hopefully, not.