Phillies Trying Edmundo Sosa in Centerfield During Spring Training

Spring Training is officially underway as full team workouts began Tuesday in Clearwater for the Phillies.

While most of the roster questions will be easily answered this spring, one question that will be experimented with is who the backup centerfielder will be. In 2022, Rob Thomson and the Phillies used a platoon.

Centerfield has been a position that has not had a true owner in Philadelphia since the likes of Odubel Herrera. Going from Shane Victorino to Ben Revere then to Herrera gave the position stability.

Herrera was the everyday centerfielder from 2015 to 2019. However, half way through the 2019 season, Herrera was suspended due to a domestic violence case. Since that time, the position has been held by many names. Scott Kingery was the main contributor for the rest of 2019. In 2020, Roman Quinn followed suit. Herrera even returned after his suspension in 2021 and became the everyday centerfielder once again.

In the time frame, the Phillies also used the first overall pick in 2016 in Mickey Moniak and the eighth overall pick in 2017 in Adam Hasely. Both players are now fighting to make the opening day roster on other clubs.

2022 started with Matt Vierling being the everyday centerfielder. At the trade deadline, the Phillies acquired centerfielder Brandon Marsh for top-catching prospect Logan O’Hoppe.

For the remainder of the regular season and the postseason, Marsh and Vierling were used as platoon players, Vierling batting against lefties and Marsh batting against righties.

In early January of 2023, Philadelphia shipped Matt Vierling in a package to Detroit that acquired reliever Gregory Soto. This leaves Marsh as the only true centerfielder on the team.

Marsh was acquired to become the everyday centerfielder the team has been missing for some time now. His defense is great and he can hold down a large sum of the outfield while making the corner outfielders work a little less. He had a .5 DWAR in 2022. While he was a great contributor to the team, his left-handed splits are what is so concerning to the Phillies’ organization. Marsh batted just .188 against lefties in 2022. For comparison, he batted .262 against righties.

With Vierling gone, Marsh will see more left-handed pitchers in 2023 than he has throughout his entire big league career. The organization has also shown repeated confidence in Marsh to approve those bad splits in 2023. After trading Vierling, they did not make any outfield signings although there were still names on the market.

However, with the marathon which is an MLB season, it is always important to have a backup plan. The Phillies have decided to make Edmundo Sosa that plan.

Sosa, 26, is arguably the best defensive infielder on the team. He was used frequently last year at shortstop to platoon with Bryson Stott.
Sosa will now be tested in spring training to see if he can provide the necessary backup to Brandon Marsh. When Rob Thomson asked Sosa about the idea of playing some centerfield, Sosa said he was “All in”.

Sosa is also able to fight off some left-handed pitchers if needed. In 2022, Sosa had a .851 OPS against left-handed starters. In game six of the World Series, Sosa just missed a three-run home run off Framber Valdez due to the outfield configuration in Minute-Maid Park. Sosa has shown the ability to hit lefties.

After the Josh Harrison signing, the Phillies seem to have a lot more infield depth than outfield depth to start the season. To fix this, they are attempting to make all infield bench options also into outfield options. Harrison has seen time in the corner outfield spots at times in his career.

Centerfield in 2023 is 100% Brandon Marsh’s position every day. However, if he were to continue to struggle against lefties, he was to get hurt, or if he simply needed a rest day, Edmundo Sosa could be slotted in.