Phillies Already Have Glaring Hole That Needs To Be Addressed Ahead of Trade Deadline

The Philadelphia Phillies have gotten off to a very strong start in the 2025 MLB season with an 8-3 record, setting the pace just ahead of the New York Mets in the National League East.

It was certainly encouraging for them to have a good series against the defending champion Los Angeles Dodgers during their early season matchup, taking two out of three games. That should set the tone for the team moving forward, knowing they can not only hang with but beat the best.

As expected, the strength of the Phillies out of the gate has been their starting pitching.

Zack Wheeler, Aaron Nola, Cristopher Sanchez, Jesus Luzardo and Taijuan Walker have dominated to start, to the tune of a combined 1.8 WAR.

That production isn’t going anywhere, especially with Ranger Suarez and top prospect Andrew Painter waiting in the wings to help eventually.

Where the team should have some worries is in the lineup, more specifically the outfield, where issues have already arisen.

Coming into the year, Philadelphia surprisingly didn’t make a big push to upgrade their lineup. It was somewhat understandable to bring back basically the same core from a 95-win team in 2024, but some of the decisions with their positional players were questionable at best.

The only Major League addition made was signing Max Kepler away from the Minnesota Twins. It was going to be a risk deploying him as the starting left fielder, something he has never done professionally.

He has been underwhelming thus far with a .212/.350/.364 slash line.

Their biggest issue, however, has been production in center field.

It is a spot many people thought the team would look to upgrade last year, but they didn’t push all of their chips into the middle of the table, opting to acquire Austin Hays from the Baltimore Orioles instead.

He struggled, battling several ailments, and eventually found himself being deployed as a backup.

To start the 2025 season, it is Brandon Marsh handling center field and he has struggled mightily. He has a .143/.273/.250 slash line and isn’t providing the same kind of impactful defense he does as a left fielder.

It isn’t all too surprising that he is struggling, given his track record playing center field previously.

The Phillies would be best moving him back to left field, acquiring a legitimate center fielder to address their need and having Kepler as the left-handed hitting platoon partner in the outfield spots.

A major reason that Philadelphia fell short again in the playoffs last year was that they got next to nothing production-wise from their left field and center field duo. That cannot happen again, as they should be scouring the market already for help.