Phillies Reportedly 'Keeping Close Tabs' on Slugging Outfielder

On Monday, it was hard not to feel good about the Philadelphia Phillies.

They defeated the New York Mets in dominating fashion on Sunday Night Baseball to secure a series win and cap off an incredible turnaround compared to how they looked at the beginning of the month.

But the feeling is a whole lot different after the Phillies were swept against the Houston Astros.

Despite getting elite pitching performances from their starting pitchers -- and staff as a whole -- Philadelphia lost all three because they managed to score just one total run during this three-game set.

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It was an embarrassing and pitiful display of hitting for a team that has aspirations of winning a World Series, and it also made Dave Dombrowski's recent comments about being comfortable with this offense look foolish.

The same things that have plagued Philadelphia the past couple years were present again.

The lineup went ice-cold at the same time, they all chased and weren't patient during their at-bats and they couldn't find a way to scrape across runs when the home run ball wasn't present.

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It's clear that there needs to be some improvement to this offense if they are truly going to reach their ceiling of winning a championship.

Perhaps this series puts another hitter towards the top of Dombrowski's wish list.

According to Bob Nightengale of USA Today, that is the case.

In his recent article discussing some trade deadline rumors he's hearing, he reported the Phillies "are keeping close tabs on" Chicago White Sox slugger Luis Robert Jr.

This is interesting timing when considering Dombrowski's own comments and how poor this outfield unit continues to perform, especially after reports circulated that stated the White Sox are looking to do whatever they can to get him off their roster by potentially paying some of his remaining salary.

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Robert could be an upgrade.

It's hard for this outfield unit to perform much worse with center field ranking 19th in the Majors in terms of fWAR while left field ranks 23rd and right field ranks 29th.

However, Robert isn't exactly tearing the cover off the ball.

He's slashing .185/.270/.313 with just eight homers and 32 RBI, looking like a far cry from the player he was in 2023 when he blasted 38 home runs and had 80 RBI to go along with a slash line of .264/.315/.542 that earned him a Silver Slugger Award.

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His 30.9% strikeout rate this year is well above the league average of 22.7%, so it's hard to imagine he wouldn't have the same types of issues that are plaguing this offense.

Still, this report from Nightengale is notable.

Something has to get done when it comes to this offense and outfield.

Perhaps Robert could be the missing piece.

For more Phillies news, head over to Phillies On SI.