The Brandon Marsh Injury Might Help The Philadelphia Phillies

Brandon Marsh crashing into the center field wall at Citizens Bank Park last week was not a welcome sight for the Philadelphia Phillies. Marsh has shown a huge jump at the plate this year, and has held down his spot defensively in center well, especially considering his coverage for Kyle Schwarber next to him. So, when the Phillies announced that Marsh’s knee contusion from that collision would lead to a multi-week absence from play, it didn’t feel like a positive. Just as the Phillies were starting to settle into a new outfield rotation with Kyle Schwarber spending some time at the DH spot, they were thrust into a situation where Jake Cave and Johan Rojas will now see a substantial increase in playing time. Here’s where that might actually be a good thing for the Phillies going forward.

Now at a base level, Brandon Marsh is an overall better player than Johan Rojas or Jake Cave right now. So, why would this be a help to the Phillies rather than a hinderance? Well, on competitive teams this late in the season, it’s hard for young players to get opportunities to show what type of player they are. Depth can be a super important thing in the postseason, and more data on your players is invaluable.

Well, the Phillies now have a golden opportunity to learn a lot more about Johan Rojas, and what he can bring to this team come October. They’ll also have a chance to see more of Jake Cave and eventually Cristian Pache when he returns from injury, but I believe the real prize here is the playing time for Rojas.

The #6 prospect in the Phillies’ farm system at the time of his call up, Rojas has played in 19 games at the Major League level. He has 50 career at bats, which is a drop in the bucket of the evaluation of a young professional player. I don’t think the Phillies are better right now with Rojas in center than Marsh, but it doesn’t mean we won’t see something from the former over the next couple weeks. We may see that Rojas can’t hit MLB pitching consistently, and that could lead to knowing he isn’t ready to enter a game in a big spot in the playoffs. We also could find out he is an elite-level outfielder consistently at this level, and he’s an awesome defensive replacement. Whether it is a positive or negative revelation, it makes the Phillies a finer tuned machine come October.

Pache is an interesting case too, in that he has shown some flashes at the plate between injuries this season. When he returns from injury, he will surely see a good chunk of playing time, and that could lead to a lot more knowledge of who the former highly-touted prospect is as a player. A normal team could roll into the postseason with a comfortable starting lineup, but a bad slump or an injury can force them into uncharted waters, resigned to play a player they don’t trust quite as much in huge moments.

For the Phillies, at least in center field, they will be more prepared for the unknown as a result of this next stretch of games. Now, they just need to make sure they continue to play effectively now so the season goes long enough that this information ends up helping them down the road.

Trea Turner is thanking Philadelphia in a big way. New billboards have popped up in the Philadelphia area that features a photo of shortstop Trea Turner with the text "Thank you, Philly."

This gesture is not small, nor is it meaningless. The billboard seen above popped up on a digital billboard at the base of the Walt Whitman Bridge, just a short distance from Citizens Bank Park.

Trea Turner, in case you didn't know, plays shortstop for the Philadelphia Phillies. On December 8, 2022, Turner signed an 11-year contract worth $300 million with the Phillies. Prior to that, Turner played for the Washington Nationals and the Los Angeles Dodgers. His notable achievements from his time with those teams include Rookie of the Year Runner-Up, World Series Champion, and NL Stolen Bases Leader.

When Turner was signed to the Phillies, fans had hope that he was the secret sauce that would get us to the World Series again (and possibly win this time). After all, Trea had proven himself invaluable to the MLB and any team he found himself on.

At the beginning of the season, Trea represented the USA in the 2023 World Baseball Classic. He hit a game-winning grand slam during a quarterfinal game against Venezuela.

But, when the regular season began, Trea didn't seem himself. And this wasn't just a few off-games. No. We, as a city, had to make a decision on how we would treat Trea, who was obviously struggling each and every game.

Turner is currently batting.238/.291/.377 with 11 homers and 39 RBI in 109 games. It's the lowest batting average of his career since 2015 when he was first called up by the Washington Nationals for 27 games. Not only that, but he has been struggling defensively as well. As you can see in the video above, that ball should have been in Trea's glove. Instead, he missed it entirely. And that was not the first time something like that happened this season.

When you sign a guy on a multi-million-dollar, multi-year contract, you want him to do well. You want him to win games. Unfortunately, Trea was not doing that. Trea has had an absolute nightmare of a season, and it was getting hard to sympathize.

This is just, straight-up, a hard watch. You don't ever want to see a person at their lowest like this. Phillies fans saw this and immediately felt that they needed to send some good energy to Trea. Him taking accountability in the way he did was admirable, but also so very sad. After this game, Trea even got moved down in the batting lineup. It was not looking good.

Fans really felt for the guy. They stood as Trea stepped up to bat in the bottom of the 2nd inning, cheering riotously for him. The Phillies went on to lose the game, but it was a win for Turner's morale (and ours, too).

It may have been because of fans sending good vibes. It may have been because Trea Turner was mad at himself and determined to do something about it. Whatever it was, it made magic. In game 2 against the Kansas City Royals Trea hit an absolute moonshot to deep left field, answering the call. The three-run home run helped push them over the edge for the win.

Trea Turner has had a really rough start in Philly. Instead of jeering and turning our backs on the struggling shortstop, we attempted to lift him up. In many ways, it worked. Trea went on to approve messaging that would pop up on billboards in the Philadelphia area, thanking fans for their support.

Philadelphia is known as a largely negative sports city. It seems we've turned over a new leaf, though. Maybe it's because our teams are pretty good right now. Maybe it's something in the water. Whatever it is, it's great that we've learned that positivity wins over anything else. Giving Trea a standing ovation was no small gesture. It gave him the drive to perform for us. He saw what we did for him and how it affected his game in a positive way. There's something to learn here about the power of positivity. If we extend grace to our fellow Philadelphians, things work out in our favor. Something to think about.