The Philadelphia Phillies will be approaching the trade deadline with a clear and obvious need for a right-handed bat, and it sure wouldn't hurt if he happened to be an outfielder. The team still hasn't found a suitable replacement for Adolis Garcia, who wasn't having the best season in right field anyway before going down with a lat injury.
Still, there's some time between now and the deadline, and if there's going to be a chance for the team to find an internal solution to this vexxing problem, it's right now.
To that end, the Phillies will apparently try to catch lightning in a bottle; former Marlins and Braves outfielder Bryan De La Cruz, who joined the 40-man roster earlier this month via an upward mobility clause in his contract, is expected to be called up to Philly this week.
Phillies will face a bunch of lefty starters this week; De La Cruz is expected to be active Tuesday. Wrote today about how it would make sense to see him now: https://t.co/XBtO3nhafH https://t.co/wnRuwdtNWg
— Matt Gelb (@MattGelb) July 20, 2026
Bryan De La Cruz will get world's shortest audition as right-handed-hitting outfielder for Phillies
If you want the most basic reason for De La Cruz's arrival, look no further than the upcoming schedule. The Phillies will face two southpaws (Justin Wrobleski and Eric Lauer) in the final two games of their series against the Dodgers, and they're currently slated for a date with Yankees left-hander Ryan Weathers over the weekend.
De La Cruz (who is more or less split-neutral for his career) owns a .267 average and 90 wRC+ against lefties in the major leagues, which is a massive improvement over current right fielder Gabriel Rincones Jr. (4 wRC+ against left-handed pitchers this year). Of course, anyone who follows this team can tell you how much of a slog it's been to watch this lineup take on southpaws, but the issue has only been exacerbated in the wake of Garcia's absence.
That being said, it's not like De La Cruz is the savior we've been waiting for. His 15 minutes of fame came in 2024, when he hit 18 home runs in 105 games for the Marlins prior to being shipped off to the Pirates at the trade deadline. He was awful in Pittsburgh after that, playing his way out of town in just half of a season. Any hope of salvaging his standing as an up-and-coming star then died in Atlanta last year, when he struck out in 36% of his 50 trips to the plate.
Expecting him to be anything more than a short-term salve prior to the deadline is probably unrealistic. He is hitting .269/.358/.448 (110 wRC+) in Triple-A this year, but his career OPS in the big leagues is under .700.
Barring a miraculous performance this week against a trio of southpaws, De La Cruz's stay in Philly figures to be a short one. If he does impress, perhaps he can earn a permanent spot on the bench following the arrival of a trade acquisition.
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