For the Philadelphia Phillies, part of their offseason work coming up likely involves looking for ways to bolster their outfield ahead of the 2025 season.
Despite both Johan Rojas and Brandon Marsh doing a solid job defensively this past season, their overall offensive output still left a lot to be desired. As a result, they could potentially work better as a platoon or actually have one of them be the team’s fourth outfielder going forward to open up a spot for the Phillies to find a suitable, power-hitting outfielder upgrade.
Just recently, the Los Angeles Angels worked out a trade in which they acquired slugger Jorge Soler from the Atlanta Braves in exchange for pitcher Griffin Canning. Even though Soler will likely have his fair share in the role as a designated hitter, Angels general manager Perry Minasian stated that Soler will likely also see playing time in the outfield as well. This has inadvertently created a logjam in the Angels outfield with Mike Trout, Taylor Ward, Jo Adell and Mickey Moniak all in play for the 2025 season.
Phillies should call the Angels for spare outfielder after Jorge Soler trade
The Phillies can certainly help out with that problem by calling the Angels and potentially taking one of their outfielders off their hands. With Trout likely still off-limits despite his recent injury history, the candidate that the Phillies should target is Taylor Ward.
The 30-year-old just set career highs in hits (144), doubles (26), home runs (25), RBI (75), stolen bases (6), walks (63), and total bases (249) this past year. More importantly, he has consistently provided 20+ home runs and 70+ RBI of offensive output over a 162-game schedule pace for the past three seasons with the Angels.
Just for comparison, Rojas has never topped 11 home runs and 52 RBI in any single season in his entire professional baseball career. Whereas for Marsh, his best MLB year came last season when he posted a career-high 16 home runs and 60 RBI. Ward would represent a significant upgrade over either player when it comes to overall offense.
Ward can also play all three outfield positions, posting a lifetime .988 fielding percentage with 19 outfield assists over 471 games in his major league career. He might not be the same caliber defender as Rojas, but he can certainly come close to matching Marsh, which should be sufficient enough for the Phillies.
The fact that Ward is already on the wrong side of 30 (he'll be 31 on Opening Day), along with the Angels having younger options in Adell and Moniak likely getting more playing time going forward, the Phillies should be able to obtain Ward’s services at a decent price without putting a severe dent in their farm system. He's under team control for two more years and is arbitration-eligible.
It may be the perfect time for Philadelphia to jump in and provide the practical solution to both the Angels and themselves in the process.