The Phillies announced this morning that they’ve placed outfielder Brandon Marsh on the 10-day injured list due to a right hamstring strain. Outfielder Cal Stevenson was recalled to the MLB roster in a corresponding move.
Marsh, 27, has struggled badly to open his fourth season as a Phillie. Once a consensus top-50 prospect in the sport, Marsh found himself limited to part-time duties when he arrived in the majors with the Angels due to a crowded outfield mix that included Taylor Ward, Jo Adell, Mike Trout, and Justin Upton at the time. That eventually led the Angels to be comfortable dealing Marsh to the Phillies in exchange for well-regarded catching prospect Logan O’Hoppe. It’s a deal that’s generally worked out for both sides, as O’Hoppe has blossomed into one of the top young catchers in the sport with Anaheim while Marsh has been able to fill a vacancy in the Phillies outfield over the years.
From the moment he first suited up for the Phillies, Marsh has been a quality player for the club. When the 2024 season wrapped up, Marsh carried a career .266/.346/.440 slash line (116 wRC+) in a Phillies uniform. That’s strong production for an offensively inclined center fielder, and when looking specifically at his work against right-handed pitching Marsh has posted an even more impressive .281/.362/.489 (128 wRC+) over the years. Marsh has always come with his flaws, however. Notably, he strikes out more than 30% of the time and has never been much of an effective option against fellow southpaws, with a 70 wRC+ against same-handed pitching as a Phillie entering this year.
Unfortunately, things have taken a nose dive in the early going this year. Marsh has slashed just .095/.220/.167 in his first 17 games (51 at-bats) this year while striking out at a 31.4% clip. While he’s maintained a strong 13.7% walk rate, Marsh’s high strikeout rate, lack of power production, and .115 BABIP have combined to make him one of the least productive regulars in baseball this year. Marsh hasn’t recorded a hit since March 30, and given that protracted slump it’s hardly a surprise that the Phillies took the opportunity to get Marsh a bit of a reset when he tweaked his leg in the outfield earlier this week. He hasn’t played since that incident occurred on April 16, and now will sit down for at least another week. Once Marsh’s hamstring is feeling up to snuff, the 27-year-old will have the opportunity to get some reps in against Triple-A pitching on a rehab assignment before returning to the majors and looking to get his season back on track.
While Marsh is out of the picture, everyday duties in center field will fall to Johan Rojas. The 24-year-old is off to a hot start in a part-time role this year, slashing .345/.406/.414 over his first 12 games. He hit quite well in a limited look during his debut year of 2023 but struggled when given an expanded role last year, hitting just .243/.379/.322 in 120 games. Marsh’s injury will provide Rojas with the opportunity to prove himself capable of performing as a regular in the outfield, though the lefty-swinging Stevenson was promoted to the majors as a potential backup option should it be necessary. The 28-year-old has just 47 games of big league experience under his belt between Oakland, San Francisco, and Philadelphia but posted league average numbers in a brief 18-game stint with the Phillies last year. Stevenson has struggled at Triple-A this season, however, with a .192/.328/.289 slash line that suggests he’ll most likely be limited to a pure depth role for the time being.
He can stay as long as he wants.
You Sir are the weakest link
With the greasiest hair.
He slipped in hair grease and hurt himself
Marsh enjoys more flak from phans than he deserves. We expected a guy that might grow into being a stud – instead he has been solid. Not quite the defender that we hoped, and has not hit lefties although the exposure has been minimal…but quite good against righties.
We should give him some more rope – at worst until we see if Crawford is the guy, the Marsh / Rojas CF platoon is an overall positive.
This from a guy that always hated the O’Hoppe trade – understood it but I really liked Logan and wasn’t sold on Marsh.
I would almost say he gets more leash with fans than he deserves honestly. Everyone loves his beard and his “stay loose and sexy” schtick. I never bought it. O’Hoppe was a massive overpay.
@pphan – Look; I disliked the deal at the time…that does not mean that DD was wrong. He made a decision that Logan was a luxury that could be used in trade due to JTR and that made sense.
I am biased as a former catcher; I value them far higher than most and O’Hoppe is turning into a really good one. I would not have done the deal, but that does not mean that it was a bad deal. Traded from strength to fill a weakness, and the timelines worked. Marsh has been solid and helped to fill a need. But sure – the deal is not going to age well. That does not mean that as fans we should neglect perspective just so we can prove that we are smarter than our own GM. We aren’t.
Perry masterclass
Yeah, a bad 52 PA makes this a fleece… smh
52 PA, nothing lol. We’ve had years to look at this trade and it’s always looked bad. O’Hoppe is clearly the better player.
ML teams are built around their Catchers.
O’Hoppe was not going to move Realmuto. But he has developed into a top-1/3 of ML catchers.
“Years” lol. You act like this trade happened 10 years ago. Marsh had more bWAR and fWAR than O’Hoppe last season in just 1 more game played. Marsh has consistently been an above average hitter and a solid fielder since the trade. Statistics don’t lie.
Statistics don’t, but obviously some fans do. Above average hitter? Solid fielder??
He didn’t have to ‘move’ Realmuto. There is no reason he couldn’t have been a backup catcher for 2 years and get the chance to work with the pitchers and learn how to pitch opposing hitters. Darren Daulton was a backup catcher for 4 years before becoming the starting catcher.
There’s a few RH bats that could potentially be available if the Phillies wanted to make a trade. Chas McCormick makes about $4mil and has a career .865 OPS vs. LHP. He’s barely playing for the Astros and maybe they would take Kody Clemens to compliment their all RH hitting INF, as Kody is also rotting on the bench. Chas has an Elite OF glove too, remember the catch at the bank off the bat of JT in the World Series? I was there. Another interesting name I’ve been floating around is Byron Buxton. The Phillies could hope to buy low on him and possibly acquire one of the Twins wealth of RH RP’s. Here’s the trade I proposed on the radio:
Phillies acquire:
Byron Buxton (3/$45.5M)
Griffin Jax RHRP (Arb2/3)
Twins acquire:
Johan Rojas CF
Gabriel Rincones Jr. RF (#9)
Mick Abel RHP (#8)
Micha Ottenbriett RHP (#26)
The Twins look like this could be a lost season and they have a lot of young INF’ers. Rojas is a cheap, quality stop gap CF and Rincones could join the Twins by September 1st if he continues to hit at AAA. Mick Abel is a former top 100 prospect that needs a change of scenery. Phillies fill that black hole in CF with a 31 year old that’s still well above average defensively and sprint speed. When Crawford comes up next year, Buxton bumps over to LF. He’s be a great mentor for Crawford, in my opinion, with similarities in their game. Phils also get a RH set up guy so we can use Romano in mop up duty until he gets right.
That would be an awful trade for the Twins. If they were looking to move Buxton, they could do much better than your proposal. And you want to include Jax as a throw-in?
You give us quality; we provide you with junk. Typical talk radio trade idea.
Lol. Buxton can’t stay healthy and on the field any more than Trout can. Sorry, but horrible trade proposal. As bad as the O’hoppe trade. The Angels obviously knew Marsh can’t hit left handed pitching and had no problem with letting him go. There is absolutely no reason O’Hoppe couldn’t have been a backup for 2 years at the most. Darren Daulton was a backup catcher for 4 years before becoming the starter. Instead of being stuck with the declining Realmuto now, he could and should have been traded away by now, with O’Hoppe starting.
Somebody yanked that shaggy Starsky and Hutch shag rug, that why he hurt
Have you seen my dog?
Not that 42 at bats means anything, but his flyball rate has spiked, while his line drive rate has cratered. He is still hitting the ball hard. I wonder if the emphasis on elevating the ball is having negative effects on some players. In every game I watch I notice that hitters’ uppercuts are becoming more pronounced. Marsh is a big guy that I’m sure every coach he’s ever had wanted to “fix” to get more power. I call it the Jason Heyward effect.
DonOsbourne;
He’s playing in a park that Mike Schmidt said was suited for “Arena Baseball”. That team lives to get the ball in the air playing at home.
.243/.279 correction needed
I was thinking a DL stint and a rehab assignment in triple A was in the works.
Can’t believe he’s still in the league with a 32.7 K%.