It’s Time The Phillies Put The Nail In The Coffin With Max Kepler

The first half of the 2025 MLB season is officially in the books, and the All-Star break is upon us.

At the break, the Phillies sit at 55-41, the seventh-best record in the MLB, and hold a 0.5 game division lead over the New York Mets in the National League East. It’s been an interesting season for the Phillies, who, talent-wise, are one of the best teams in baseball, but certain restrictions are preventing them from cementing this team as the sure-fire best in baseball.

Now, this could be for a multitude of reasons. The Phillies’ bullpen has gone from being one of the deepest in baseball to one of the worst. The team lacks a true right-handed bat that can be slotted behind Bryce Harper to protect him, center field is still an issue, and the team has lacked true power hitting all season, and because of it, are one of the worst offenses with runners in scoring position.

Now you have to point fingers at the entire offense, excluding Kyle Schwarber and Trea Turner, as they have all had their struggles. However, one name in particular that has been a focal point of this first half’s offensive failures is none other than Max Kepler.

Kepler signed with the Phillies this past offseason after playing with the Minnesota Twins for 10 years. In his 10 years in the Twin Cities, Kepler was an up-and-down player. He had his ups, like his 2019 season, where he recorded a 4.0 WAR, 36 home runs, 90 RBIs, and finished 20th in MVP voting. And then there’s his downs, like last season, where he only had eight home runs, had a .302 on-base percentage, and a .682 OPS.

The past couple of years have been a struggle for the aging outfielder, but with the right situation, an above-average player can be unlocked. So Kepler decided to sign a one-year $10 million deal with Philadelphia to fill the void of an outfield bat, but things have not gone the way the Phillies and Kepler hoped they’d go.

In 85 games this season, Kepler is hitting .210, while also posting a .307 OBP, a .678 OPS, and slugging .371. Those numbers rank either last or second-to-last out of all the qualified batters on the Phillies, and the .210 average is the fifth worst in baseball. Now Kepler has 10 home runs and 31 RBIs, but with a .210 batting average, those numbers are unacceptable.

It’d be one thing if he were batting .210 and had 20-25 home runs and 50-60 RBIs, but when you’re arguably the worst everyday offensive player on the team, stats-wise, you’re not going to be trusted to contribute to this team in October when it matters.

But what has caused this rapid decline this season? Is it the new city? A bad batting stance? Kepler feels that the Phillies misled him when he signed with them this winter, and that has caused his rough first half.

“The biggest challenge for me is not playing routinely,” Kepler said to reporters after a series against the Houston Astros a couple of weeks ago. “That’s the biggest challenge. I was told I was going to be the starting left fielder.”

It was true, Kepler had played in 72 of 81 games up to that point and had mainly not faced left-handed pitching. However, since those comments, Kepler has gone 8-for-37, which is a .216 average, hitting just one home run. He’s been given the chance to improve his numbers, yet nothing has changed. At this point, allowing Kepler to continue to take up at-bats on this team isn’t good for this lineup, and the best thing to do is make a change in left.

Now, the Phillies are in a good spot with Kepler in terms of finances. He’s only on a one-year deal, so DFAing him won’t hurt them in the long run. It’s time for the Phillies to shake things up and start new in the second half of the year, and the best way to do that is to let Kepler go free. Whether or not a guy like Justin Crawford is the immediate answer for the Phillies, we’ll find out, but continuing to roll Kepler out there every day is just not working. Cut him loose and find a new option.

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