The Philadelphia Phillies had gaping holes in their roster in 2026, perhaps nowhere more so than the outfield as a group. There was some sporadic success, but on the whole, all three positions were low points in the team’s roster construction. Let’s dive into each Phillies outfielder and give them a grade for 2026.
Brandon Marsh: C
2026 was a tale of two halves for Brandon Marsh. The shaggy Georgian was one of the most pleasant surprises in all of baseball over the season’s first half and was named an All-Star starter on the strength of a .301/.339/.490 slash line and 32 extra-base hits.
Unfortunately, Marsh cratered out of the All-Star break and never got back on track. The 28-year-old slashed .184/.243/.259 across 63 games, and saw his playing time against lefties dry up down the stretch. Fittingly, Marsh was pinch-hit for by Otto Kemp in the Phillies’ last at-bat of the season.
If Marsh were graded on his first half alone, he’d be a surefire “A”. Conversely, his latter half would earn him an unmitigated “F”, so it’s only fair to average his full campaign out to an uninspiring “C”.
Otto Kemp: F
Speaking of Otto Kemp, remember him? Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski had nothing but praise for the undrafted Swiss Army knife coming into the season.Kemp was supposed to be a legitimate contributor, getting regular innings in left field.
The 27-year-old played in just 13 big league games this year, collecting just two singles and a walk in 27 trips to the plate. He was banished to Triple-A in late May and never made it back to the Show, save for that one depressing at-bat in the Wild Card Series. Kemp may still be a useful bench piece in the future, but his 2026 season was a disaster.
Edmundo Sosa: C-
Jack-of-all-trades Edmundo Sosa has been a cult hero since he arrived in Philly at the 2022 trade deadline. He posted a .746 OPS across his five seasons with the team while bouncing all over the infield. This year, however, the Phils decided to give him some run in left field due to their paucity of quality outfielders.
The 30-year-old played perfectly fine defense out there for a guy with little experience coming into this season, but he never looked like his normal self at the plate. In 84 games, Sosa posted an underwhelming .712 OPS with 22 extra-base hits. It wasn't a dumpster-fire season, but he was far from his expected production. The timing is especially bad for Sosa in particular; the Panamanian is set to reach free agency for the first time this winter.
Bryan De La Cruz: B+
Bryan De La Cruz should have been in the majors well before the Phillies finally gave him a shot in late July. The 29-year-old crushed Triple-A pitching to the tune of an .806 OPS, while the Phillies were giving playing time to guys like Otto Kemp and Félix Reyes. Putting that aside, the 29-year-old performed quite admirably once he got to town.
The long-time Miami Marlin split his time just about evenly between right and left field, and posted a rock-solid .762 OPS across 86 plate appearances. Considering the Phils reeled in the former Fish on a minor league contract last winter, he was about as good as could be expected.
Some good, some bad; the Phillies' outfield was a mixed bag this year
Gabriel Rincones Jr.: D-
Hopefully this will be just a blip on the radar in a very nice career. 2022 third-round pick Gabriel Rincones Jr. made steady progress through his first three minor league seasons, topping out with a very encouraging .799 OPS across 119 Triple-A games in 2025. The Florida-born, Scotland-raised Rincones still struggled against left-handed pitching and was far from a finished product on the outfield grass, but he looked like he could become a solid platoon option in the near future.
Well, Rincones got that opportunity over the summer, and it did not go well. The 25-year-old appeared in 29 big-league games and posted a paltry .167/.202/.286 line in 89 trips to the plate with just two home runs. Even more worrisome was his sudden lack of plate discipline; he walked just twice and struck out 29 times. He deserves some grace as a kid who hasn’t even exhausted his rookie eligibility and has plenty of time to turn things around, but his first cup of coffee was uninspiring.
Félix Reyes: D-
The write-up for Rincones could pretty much be copied and pasted here. The 25-year-old Reyes had a fantastic 2025 season split between Double and Triple-A, where he posted a .923 OPS and crushed 54 extra-base hits. With Otto Kemp struggling, Reyes was called up to the majors on April 18th and took future Hall of Famer Chris Sale deep in his first at-bat, and it was all downhill from there.
Reyes put together an atrocious .421 OPS in 12 Major League games before he was sent back down in mid-May and never came back. He still has plenty of time to figure it out in the Show, but his first crack didn’t go well.
Justin Crawford: C-
2022 first-round pick Justin Crawford seems to be getting a bit of a free pass from the fanbase due to his youth and not-absolutely-horrifying rookie campaign. However, it’s hard to view a .264/.309/.353 slash line over his first 149 games as a massive success. The 22-year-old was given the starting center field job out of spring training and struggled defensively on top of his Punch and Judy offensive production.
It's certainly encouraging to see Crawford not bottom out in his rookie season, but he has a long way to go if he wants to become an above-average big-league regular. He has the talent to do so, but he’ll need to work on his swing-happy plate approach and lack of power. We’ll see what happens.
Derek Hill: B+
Journeyman Derek Hill came over in early June from the Chicago White Sox in exchange for a pair of fringe minor leaguers. Not much was expected out of the 30-year-old at the time, but he proved to be a Godsend once he arrived in Philly.
The 2014 first-round pick put up a solid .783 OPS in 67 games for the Phils and had a fair number of superhero-esque moments late in games. Combine that with top-tier defense in center field, and Hill made an excellent platoon partner for Justin Crawford. The Phillies have the ability to retain Hill for two more seasons via arbitration, and it’s more likely than not that they will, considering how he exceeded expectations in 2026.
Adolis García: D-
Former World Series hero Adolis García is yet another name in a long line of Phillies outfield Band-Aids that has included such forgettable names as Whit Merrifield, Jake Cave, and Max Kepler. The longtime Texas Ranger came to town on the heels of back-to-back subpar seasons, and things got much worse in Philadelphia.
The two-time All-Star posted a lackluster .599 OPS with just seven home runs in his 67 games in red pinstripes, and a torn lat muscle ended his season in mid-June. The only thing saving García from a flat-out “F” was his fantastic defense in right field, something the Phillies sorely lacked during the four years Nick Castellanos occupied the position.
Bryce Harper: A-
After García went down, the Phils tried to jerry-rig the right field spot with Rincones, Reyes, De La Cruz, and anyone else who could hold a bat. However, the real solution didn’t arrive until the trade deadline. The acquisition of second baseman Luis Arraez led to a musical chairs arrangement on the infield that shifted Bryce Harper back to right field, a position he hadn’t occupied since early 2022.
The nine-time All-Star had his fair share of miscues out on the grass, but his elite bat made that a price certainly worth paying. Harper had a typically excellent season at the plate, slashing .269/.380/.485 across all 162 games (43 of which he spent in right) with 29 dingers. He’s all but certain to move back to the cold corner in 2027, but he did yeoman’s work on behalf of the team down the stretch this past year.
Dylan Moore: F
Longtime Seattle Mariners utilityman Dylan Moore probably isn’t even worth spilling ink on in this list, but it’s worth remembering that the guy with a .690 career OPS was given a spot on the Phils’ Opening Day Roster. Like García, Moore was another low-risk, low-reward attempted outfield patch by this front office, and he failed to collect a hit in 15 trips to the plate before the Phillies cut him loose in the beginning of May. Yuck.
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