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.
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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.
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