With them having the most productive starting pitching rotation in the league, the Philadelphia Phillies will only go as far as their bats will take them. Phillies fans know all too well that the team's demise for the last two postseasons has been their slump-happy offense. They can tally double-digit runs one game, then get shut down the next.
With the franchise needing a championship now more than ever this season, these three Phillies bats need to up their production in the second half before it's too late.
3 players who the Phillies need to wake up offensively in the second half
Bryson Stott, 2B
Already playing in his fourth season in the bigs, Bryson Stott is who he is as a player. His career .250 average and .685 OPS may be what should be expected from Stott at the plate. His 2023 season in which he slashed .280/.329/.419 now looks like an outlier, as he's on pace to bat under .250 with a sub-.700 OPS for the third time in his career.
Stott sees more pitches than any hitter in baseball, but he's often too selective and it appears that he's looking to walk nearly every at-bat. Because his 2023 was so productive, it was a shame that Stott hit .245/.315/.356 in 2024. He gets a slight pass for those numbers because he played hurt for most of the season with a pinched nerve in his right elbow.
That made 2025 a crucial rebound year for Stott, per MLB.com's Todd Zolecki, who's now even struggling while fully healthy. At the MLB level, Stott's a light-hitting middle infielder who's unplayable against lefties, which isn't what the Phillies expected from him when they drafted him 14th overall in 2019. Maybe his big game with a double and home run after welcoming his second child on Wednesday is the beginning of a turnaround the Phillies need.
Nick Castellanos, RF
Nick Castellanos isn't truly struggling when you look at his season stats. The 13-year MLB veteran is hitting .269 with an OPS of .742. He has also homered 13 times and has driven in 55 runs. However, the Phillies absolutely need more from their right fielder in the second half, especially given the fact he's usually hitting directly behind Bryce Harper.
Harper has produced tremendously since returning from the IL on July 2. Since July 9, he's hitting .400 with a 1.467 OPS, thanks to his Phillies' record 13 extra-base hits in eight games. Castellanos has been heading in the opposite direction over the same span, with his .225 average and .637 OPS.
Castellanos' numbers haven't been much better when you expand that sample size to the last month, as he's batting .215 with an OPS of .642 since June 24. His season on-base percentage of .310 is only slightly better than Stott's .303, and the biggest problem with Castellanos remains that he just he's just too undisciplined at the plate.
Castellanos has walked just 22 times this year, and he still chases (43.3 percent) far too much for a veteran with his extensive MLB experience. He'll shock you with the ugliest strikeouts imaginable and must improve his plate discipline down the stretch. Casty's stubbornness to change his approach at the plate is one of the reasons the Phillies could deal him before he hits free agency after 2026.
Max Kepler, LF
No Phillies hitter has lower stock right now than Max Kepler. To say that the lineup's lone offseason acquisition has struggled recently would be an understatement. Kepler has been so bad that he's a long shot to remain on the roster past the trade deadline. But let's say he stays on the team through the deadline for the sake of this list.
The 32-year-old Kepler signed a one-year, $10 million contract to join the Phillies this past offseason. He hasn't even been worth half of that, with his brutal .203/.300/.366 slash. Kepler is hitting only .172 over the last month, and fans have hit their breaking point with him, due in part to his comments about not getting enough playing time.
Kepler feels like he's not performing well because of the lack of playing time that he felt was promised to him when he signed, when in reality it's the opposite. He's not getting everyday action because he's struggling to hit MLB pitching.
Kepler's approach has been brutal lately, and the Phillies should replace him by either trading for an outfield bat at the deadline or riding with their impressive prospect Justin Crawford, who's hitting .325 with an .830 OPS in Triple-A.