DENVER, CO - APRIL 3: Kyle Schwarber #12 of the Philadelphia Phillies walks to the field during the Colorado Rockies home opener at Coors Field on April 3, 2026 in Denver, Colorado. (Photo by Justin Edmonds/Getty Images)
The Philadelphia Phillies have struggled after opening the season with largely the same roster that won just a single playoff game last year.
But one of the significant changes to the personnel group was the addition of platoon outfielder Otto Kemp to the Opening Day roster with a chance to seize a big-league role for the entire season. As the team fell short of expectations in the first tenth of the season, though, Kemp was moved down to the minor leagues and the Phillies called up Felix Reyes as his replacement.
Then, in Reyes’ first major-league at-bat on Saturday, he hit a home run off of nine-time All-Star Chris Sale and it seemed like the team might have found a new sparkplug for their batting order.
“Before the game, (manager Rob) Thomson said he hoped Reyes might provide “a little bit of a shot of energy” to a struggling offense,” Todd Zolecki wrote for MLB.com. “Reyes had replaced Otto Kemp, whom the Phils spent the entire offseason touting as their right-handed bat in a left-field platoon with Brandon Marsh… Reyes got an ovation as he returned to the Phillies’ dugout. Fans cheered him as he ran to left field in the third.”
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Though Reyes wasn’t in the lineup on Sunday or Monday, the Phillies will be looking to work him back in as Kemp’s replacement in left field against left-handed pitchers, or possibly at first base or in the designated hitter spot, which would mean a move for veteran slugger Kyle Schwarber.
“It’ll be all right,” Schwarber said of returning to left field to free up the designated hitter spot, per The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Scott Lauber. “Just try to go out there and get to the balls I can get to and try to catch them. It’s not like anyone’s expecting me, (Reyes), whoever to try to make the spectacular diving catch, right? You’re going out there trying to make the plays you need to make and get the ball to where it needs to be.”
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Schwarber has only started in left field sparingly over the last two seasons, generally occupying the designated hitter spot for the Phillies. In 2023, when Harper was recovering from an elbow surgery, Schwarber ranked as one of the worst outfielders in baseball.
But as he raised the possibility of moving back to the outfield, Schwarber sent a message about the knee injury that hampered him during that 2023 campaign.
“That’s pretty much all said and done now,” Schwarber said of that knee injury, per Lauber. “I feel like I would be moving around better than how I used to be moving around out there.”
Though the Phillies look like they could use a jolt on offense, they would likely need to see a better version of Schwaber in the outfield to consider moving him there for any extended period.
This article was originally published on Forbes.com