PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. — The Phillies’ 3-1 Grapefruit League loss to the Rays on Tuesday afternoon was very much a spring training affair. Their defense was sloppy. Rafael Marchán failed to block a wild pitch in the first inning. He and shortstop Erick Brito made throwing errors, and Brandon Marsh misplayed a ball in right field.
But there were some positives — Marsh’s health among them. After suffering a minor hand injury while sliding during practice in late February, he returned to Grapefruit League play on Tuesday.
Marsh went 1-for-3 with a strikeout, but most importantly, did not feel pain in his hand when he was swinging.
“It felt good,” Marsh said of his hand. “Today was great. Health-wise, felt good. Performance-wise, some a little bit better [than others], but the whole goal was to get through today without feeling it, and we did. So that’s perfect.”
Justin Crawford, who was playing in his sixth game of the spring, roped a hard-hit single to left field in the first inning that came off his bat at 100.2 mph. He’s slashing .316/.350/.474 in 19 at-bats.
Designated hitter José Rodríguez put the Phillies on the board with an RBI single to center field in the fifth. The Phillies combined for eight hits, two walks, and eight strikeouts.
Phillies center fielder Justin Crawford singles during the first inning on Tuesday.
Who stood out
Infielder Aroon Escobar showed some pop in the fifth, hitting a ground-rule double that traveled 328 feet and left his bat at 110 mph. It was Escobar’s second hit of the spring (and the hardest hit of the day).
On the mound
Right-handed pitcher Alan Rangel made the start. He threw 43 pitches in 1⅔ innings, 23 of which were strikes. He allowed two runs (one earned) on one hit with two walks.
Righty Jack Dallas entered in relief of Rangel and allowed one hit. Reliever Lou Trivino entered in the third, pitching one frame, allowing one unearned run on one hit with one walk.
Rule 5 pick Zach McCambley, who would need to be added to the opening day roster or be placed on waivers, made his fourth appearance of the spring. He threw a 1-2-3 inning with one strikeout, lowering his spring ERA to 2.25. Seth Johnson followed that with a 1-2-3 innings of his own in the fifth.
He returned for the sixth and retired his next two batters on a flyout and a strikeout before being replaced by Nolan Hoffman. Hoffman pitched 1⅓ innings and allowed two hits with one strikeout.
Andrew Walling pitched the eighth, recording three strikeouts with one hit.
Manager Rob Thomson was particularly impressed with the last four.
“Johnson has pitched extremely well his last two or three times out,” Thomson said. “Hoffman has been good throughout. It was good to see McCambley using the cutter and the slider and throwing strikes.
“And Walling had a rough outing his last time out and bounced back and really threw the ball well.”
On deck
The Phillies will play an exhibition game against Team Canada at BayCare Ballpark on Wednesday (1:05 p.m., NBCSP+).
CLEARWATER, Fla. — Brandon Marsh stood in the outfield of the main stadium here the other day alongside a half-dozen teammates when it dawned on him.
“I was the oldest guy out there,” he said, a toothy smile forming above his lumberjack beard, “and I was like, ‘What the heck?’ I’ve never, ever in my life been in this position.”
Don’t tell Marsh, then, that these are the Same Old Phillies.
Other changes: A 22-year-old rookie (Justin Crawford) in center field, and a righty-hitting utility man (Otto Kemp) who might see most of his playing time in left field whenever the Phillies face left-handed pitching.
And — voila! — Marsh is the new dean of an outfield that critics believe will be among the worst in the majors.
Brandon Marsh didn’t have a hit in April but batted .303 over the final five months of the season.
“It’s going to be almost a complete different outfield, I know that,” said Marsh, limited in the Phillies’ first full-squad workout Monday because of a cut on his foot that Thomson didn’t consider serious. “But we have some incredible guys here that are going to step up. As humans, we always want to challenge ourselves. It’s going to be a fun challenge for us, and nothing that we’re not capable of doing.”
Maybe. Crawford did bat .300 at every level of the minors despite hitting a high rate of balls on the ground. García, a two-time All-Star, is three years removed from 39 homers and a dominant postseason for the World Series-champion Texas Rangers. Kemp impressed team officials with his grit last season while playing through shoulder and knee injuries.
But any improvement over last season, when the Phillies ranked 19th in the majors in outfield OPS (.710) and 21st in wins above replacement (3.2, measured by Fangraphs) must involve Marsh.
It has been nearly four years since the Phillies traded for Marsh. With Bryson Stott and Alec Bohm, he comprised a group of young, often goofy players dubbed by teammates as the “Daycare” along the way to the 2022 World Series. He has been a supporting cast member ever since.
Marsh is 28 now. He has two seasons before free agency. And still, there are questions about his ceiling as a player.
Take last season, for instance. Marsh was 4-for-42 — and hitless in April (0-for-29) — when he strained his right hamstring. The injury was mild. Physically, he was ready to return after the minimum 10-day term on the injured list. Mentally, he was a wreck.
“Honestly, I’ve never been on a baseball field and felt that low before,” Marsh said. “Not low as in depression or anything, but just like self-belief and just realizing like, ‘Dang, am I really cut out for this?’
“But I think the second half of last year really proved — not to anyone else but just to myself — that I can get through the thick of it. You know?”
Indeed, upon returning May 3, Marsh batted .303 with 25 doubles, 10 homers, and a .358 on-base percentage for the rest of the season. Among 96 National League players with at least 350 plate appearances after May 1, Marsh ranked 17th with an .836 OPS.
Brandon Marsh’s .836 OPS from May 3 through the rest of the season ranked 17th in the National League among players with at least 350 plate appearances.
Never mind, then, that Marsh continued to struggle to hit left-handed pitching. The Phillies would sign up for his post-April production from last season and install him as the strong (lefty-hitting) half of a left-field platoon.
But can they count on Marsh being that player?
“I’ve got to go off what the last five months looked like,” Thomson said. “All our analytics and what we see with our eyes has told us that that’s who he is. Now, maybe he’s becoming that. Hopefully he has a full year of that type of performance.”
If anything, the depths of Marsh’s struggle were surprising because of when it occurred.
Given the length of the season, with a game almost every day for six months, most players, especially veterans, downplay April slumps. It’s early, they insist, while falling back on clichés about the numbers on the back of their baseball card.
But Marsh — Bohm, too, his roommate and close friend who started in a 9-for-60 tailspin — was drowning.
“You play in Philadelphia and you’re hitting .090,” Marsh said. “… And I deserved every bit of boos I got and every bit of bashing that I got, and I just had to wear it the best I could. Some days were harder than others, for sure.
“I remember saying that to someone, like, ‘It’s April.’ But it’s easy to get overwhelmed, and there were days where I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, this mountain might be too steep to climb.’ I might be too low, fighting for keeping a job and stuff like that. There was a whole bunch of stuff going on.
“Me and Bohmer, I remember us just driving home and we were like, ‘Bro, it can’t get any worse.’”
The Phillies signed Adolis García this offseason to replace Nick Castellanos in right field.
It helped that the Phillies gave Marsh a few extra days on his injury rehab assignment at triple-A Lehigh Valley. He credited catcher Garrett Stubbs for changing his perspective.
“Show up and smile,” Stubbs said.
“When Brandon Marsh was with us, we had some epic wins, a couple walk-off home runs, and he was just as happy as anybody on our team,” triple-A hitting coach Adam Lind said. “Maybe that’s just what it was. Sometimes a rehab assignment can just reignite that joy in the game. You can take a deep breath.”
In any case, Marsh salvaged his season. He batted .280 overall, “but it felt like I hit .800.” And the Phillies chose to remake their outfield around him.
Garcia represents “a very big bounce-back candidate,” as Bryce Harper put it.
“I think he’s going to have a lot more fun hitting in Philly than he did in a big Texas stadium,” Harper said. “But also, you’re not really sure until it happens.”
Ditto for Crawford, whom the Phillies expect to bring speed and energy to the bottom of the lineup. But he also would be the youngest player in a Phillies’ opening-day lineup since Freddy Galvis in 2012.
So, Marsh looked around the outfield the other day as the constant at the one spot on the Phillies’ roster that has undergone massive change. Last April, he never would’ve guessed it.
“I’m glad that bad stretch happened because it showed just to myself what I could crawl out of,” Marsh said. “I have that self-confidence now of feeling like you’re a dude, like you’re supposed to be here. That’s kind of where I’m at.”
