The Philadelphia Phillies have been on a roll ever since firing beloved manager Rob Thomson, but the recently successful team is still a house of cards. The offense has barely any firepower, and that just took another blow on Wednesday when right fielder Adolis García went down with an arm injury. It’s unclear what his recovery timeline will be, but it’s certainly poor timing for the Phils.
García came over from the Texas Rangers this past winter with an impressive resume as a World Series hero, two-time All-Star, and Gold Glove Award winner who boasted a career .237/.293/.441 line.
García has never been one to work many walks, but at his best he’s a defensive stalwart who cuts down opposing baserunners and blasts homers. Unfortunately, the Rangers gave up on him for a reason, as his last two seasons in Arlington amounted to a rough .225/.278/.397 output.
The Phillies had a need in right field, as $100 million bust Nick Castellanos had finally burned all his bridges with the organization, and president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski was determined to move on. Not wanting to break the bank in order to address the gaping hole, Dombrowski signed García to a one-year, $10 million pact, hoping to catch lightning in a bottle.
Dombrowski is no stranger to these sorts of far-fetched gambits, as veterans Josh Harrison, Whit Merrifield and Max Kepler had all been earlier versions of the same one-year band-aid in previous seasons. Unfortunately, none of them worked out.
García has largely gone down the same path as his Phillies predecessors, as he’s been even worse than his twilight years in Texas, slashing .195/.270/.329 for a brutal .599 OPS over 67 games in red pinstripes. The one saving grace of García’s tenure has been his elite fielding ability; a marked improvement of his woeful predecessor.
Despite his atrocious overall numbers, there was some reason for optimism, as the 33-year-old had been on a bit of a heater before he went down. In nine June contests García popped three home runs, leading to a more than serviceable .774 OPS for the month. That production will be hard to replace for a Phillies team that already doesn’t have enough quality hitters behind the excellent trio of Kyle Schwarber, Bryce Harper and Brandon Marsh.
There's not much the Phillies can do right now to replace Adolis García
The current outfield alignment of Marsh, Justin Crawford and García doesn't have much depth behind it, with Quad-A players Felix Reyes and Otto Kemp having gotten the first cracks at stealing playing time. Neither one has been able to hit major league pitching, and both sit currently in Triple-A Lehigh Valley.
Jack of all trades Edmundo Sosa has gotten some run in left field, but his defense there has been an adventure to say the least, and he’s best served filling in on the infield dirt. The only outfield prospect who could help is Gabriel Rincones Jr., but his left-handed bat is an awkward fit for a Phillies lineup in need of righties, and he’s only appeared in a dozen Triple-A games this year due to knee injuries.
One newcomer to the mix is journeyman centerfielder Derek Hill, who Dombrowski acquired from the Chicago White Sox on Thursday. The 30-year-old has an ugly .629 OPS in 715 career plate appearances, and has been largely the same this year with a .659 mark through 50 contests. While Hill doesn't offer much of anything with the bat, his blazing speed and decent glove give him at least a smidge of value as a stopgap.
If García ends up missing any prolonged amount of time things will get even uglier in the Phillies’ outfield. They don’t have any good internal options to replace him with, and with close to two months to go until the trade deadline, it’s unlikely another team would part with a difference-making player at this point.
A trade deadline splash is still the best course of action to shore up an ineffective outfield, but until then García is the best option. You never appreciate what you have until you lose it, and Phillies fans are realizing how true that is with Adolis García.
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