Philadelphia Phillies Center Fielders on Pace To Make Some Brutal Franchise History

There have been a few contributing factors to the struggles of the Philadelphia Phillies recently.

The main culprit has been their offense, which has gone ice-cold over the last few weeks, with a troubling trend developing.

Nearly the entire lineup has seen a drop-off in slugging percentage against non-fastballs in 2025. It is something their opponents are beginning to pick up on, throwing more and more breaking balls against the Phillies' lineup, knowing they cannot do damage against them.

Coincidentally enough, the only player who has not seen a drop-off in their slugging percentage against non-fastballs is center fielder Brandon Marsh, who is part of a group that is on pace to make some ugly franchise history.

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Center field has been a disaster for Philadelphia this season offensively.

Marsh has struggled when he has not been on the injured list and his main backup, Johan Rojas, has not performed at a much higher level.

“Phillies center fielders have a .609 OPS through 65 games. That would be the franchise’s worst mark at that position since at least 1901 and probably in the entire history of the Phillies,” shared Matt Gelb of The Athletic (subscription required).

That is an abysmal number, yet somehow, it isn’t the worst in baseball thus far this season; six teams have worse OPS production from their center fielders.

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This has been a problem for years, with the team’s center fielders ranking 26th in OPS since 2020.

For Philadelphia, it is a weakness that needs to be addressed in some way, whether it is via trade ahead of the deadline or calling up a top prospect like Justin Crawford to help.

Normally, when there is a position that is as light-hitting as center field has been for the Phillies, they are at least receiving elite defense as the trade-off.

Marsh has been the biggest disappointment, as he isn’t even providing his normal production against right-handed pitching. 

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He is suffering through a concerning power outage with his last extra-base hit against a righty coming on May 25 and not having hit a home run against one since the second game of the season.

After hitting 15 home runs off right-handed pitching in 2024, this is a steep drop-off in production.

Expect Philadelphia to aggressively seek upgrades on the trade market so that it can keep pace with the other contenders in the National League.

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