Stay Or Go- Will Austin Hays Be Back With The Phillies in 2025?

The Phillies season is over. After finishing with the 2nd best record in baseball, they were the first of the teams who earned the bye week to be sent home. The Mets ran right over them, the way the Phillies had run over the Braves the past two years. Guys like Austin Hays, Johan Rojas, Alec Bohm, Brandon Marsh, JT Realmuto, Trea Turner, and Kyle Schwarber, were mostly no-shows. The bullpen imploded. And now it is over.

It leaves the question of what they do next. Do they blow it up? Will this roster be shaken up after yet another playoff choke?

We are going to run through some of the names on this roster whose future here looks murky. Leaving out the names that will obviously stay like Bryce Harper, Trea Turner, and others who are locked up long-term

We have already looked at a few names, but now let's look at the most recent addition to the Phillies roster, and if they will bring him back after a disappointing performance after the trade. Austin Hays.

Related: Stay or Go- Is Alec Bohm Still the Phillies Future at 3rd?

Related: Stay Or Go: Will Johan Rojas Roam CF For Phillies In 2025?

Related: Stay Or Go: Will Brandon Marsh Be Back In 2025?

When the Phillies traded for Hays, the plan was for him to be the everyday Left Fielder, and for Marsh and Rojas to platoon in Centerfield. That plan barely had the chance to come to fruition.

He hurt his hamstring 10 games after the Phillies acquired him. That kept him out for 16 days. He returned on 8/26, but then after playing on 9/1, he was out again, this time with a Kidney Infection. That kept him out until 9/24. When he did come back, he played 3 more regular season games, and he had just 4 at-bats in the playoffs. None of which were effective. He wound up hitting .256/.275/.397/.672 in his time here.

Hays was not good, but he never had the chance to be. It is hard to blame him too much for how poorly he played after returning from the kidney infection because that illness really took its toll on him. They said he lost a ton of weight. He only had 10 healthy games here, and that is way too small of a sample size

What would he have looked like here if he stayed healthy? If he had a full chance to acclimate to the new team maybe he would have been playing every day in left Field. But it is impossible to know, which makes it really hard to judge him.

He had no impact here, and many might just want to move on, but he did have decent numbers from 2021-2023. The reasons they acquired him are still there. But will they ever get that guy?

Austin Hays is going into his last year of arbitration. He is estimated to make a bit over $6 million. You won't get much back at this point by moving him again. So why would they move on?

Should they trust him to be the guy in the outfield? Certainly not. They need to go out and get a real everyday outfielder. It can't be another year of mixing and matching in the outfield. Outside of Castellanos, that was a clear weakness in their lineup. Putting your hopes to bounce back on Hays would be a massive mistake.

But at that cost, why not keep him around to be a bench guy? It is what he was doing in Baltimore anyway. At least before the season, there is no upside to moving on. Don't count on him being a contributor, but bring him back and see what he has to offer.

If someone does offer you something, then sure, trade him. But for now, I don't see a reason to move on just for the sake of it. He has been a quality MLB bat in the past. His problem here was that he was hurt, and then had a serious medical incident.

Verdict: Stay, As Backup For Now

The Phillies just collapsed epically. Their bats went ice cold, and they let the hated Mets kick them out in 4 games. After 3 straight years of the bats blowing up in an important place, people want to shake things up. And the most obvious place to upgrade is in the outfield.

Much of the team is locked up. 1B and SS are not changing anytime soon. You could feasibly move Trea Turner somewhere else, like 2nd Base. But if that happened, it would just mean they are moving Stott to SS.

They have 1 more year of JT Realmuto and 2 more years of Castellanos. CF could change, Dombrowksi certainly did not make any commitments to Johan Rojas, but they might have that spot earmarked for Justin Crawford.

Left Field is the place to look at. Dombrowski might have said that the team likes Brandon Marsh, but that does not mean they will keep him there. He is a platoon player, who has not even been consistent in his half of the platoon.

Looking at the landscape of the Free Agent Market, Left Field is also the easiest place to upgrade. Jayson Stark joined The Best Show Ever this week and talked about some of the places the Phillies could go.

"You've got Anthony Santander, who's a switch hitter with power and is a good outfielder. You're watching Teoscar Hernandez with the Dodgers. He's strikeout-prone, but he's a he's a winning player. Tyler O'Neill is definitely a name to watch. He's hurt a lot, but right-handed hitter with big thump. I know they kick the tires on him at the deadline. Jurickson Profar is to me the profile of the kind of hitter they desperately need." 

Stark also mentioned to not completely rule Juan Soto out. It is not likely, but also not impossible. We talked about that in the below article. But for this list, we are going to keep it to names they have a decent chance at signing.

Related: Juan Soto Unlikely To Come To Phillies, But Dont Rule It Out

So how well do those 4 guys Jayson Stark mentioned fit with this team? Let's take a look at each of them.

Santander has 105 Hrs over the last 3 seasons. He hit 44 last season, with over 100 RBIs. The Phillies need some right-handed pop, they have needed it since they lost Rhys Hoskins. He can certainly provide that. His AVG is a bit low, but he is not a big swing-and-miss guy despite that. His whiff rate of 20% is better than 76% of the league. His K rate of 19.4% is better than 66% of the league. He might be a power guy with a low average, but he does put the ball in play.  

To this point, he has played in Right Field. But you could move him over to Left if needed. He might look too similar to the guys already on this team, but the actual numbers suggest a more careful approach than some of the current Phillies.

Teoscar Hernandez would fit right in with the current lineup. He is a big power guy, 116 Hrs over the past 4 seasons, with a lot of strikeouts, just under 400 over the past 2 seasons. So if you want something different, he is not your guy. Signing him would be doubling down on the current approach of this lineup, which we saw cost them vs the Mets. He is just as much of a swing-and-miss/chase guy as some of the hitters currently on this team.

But as we are seeing this year, he is a big-time playoff performer. He has helped carry the Dodgers while some of their big names put up smaller numbers than you would expect. His OPS was over 1.000 in the Padres series. But he is 0-14 in the NLCS. So you can see the hot and cold he provides. Maybe something the Phillies want to avoid given they already have other guys like that. That said, he will provide you with moments like this.

Tyler O'Neill will remind people of Kyle Schwarber, just from the right side. He hits HRs, he walks, and he strikes out. He hit 31 HRs this year in 113 games. That is some big thump from the right side. He is also a better fielder than Schwarber. O'Neill won two gold gloves in Left field earlier in his career. His overall numbers don't paint the picture of an elite left Fielder though. He has a great arm, but average range. But even if he doesn't win another Gold Glove, he would not be the liability Kyle Schwarber used to be out there. At worst, you are getting average. The Phillies won both their World Series with far worse fielders in Left.

There are some heavy splits there though. His OPS drops from 1.180 against Lefties, to .693 vs Righties. But he did hit 15 HRs vs righties. He is not unplayable vs righties the way Marsh is vs Lefties, but there is a large dropoff that takes him from being a great player on 1 side, to an average player on the other.

Like Jayson Stark said, he is a name they have looked into in the past. They tried to get him at the deadline, but nothing came to be. Now that he is a free agent, he might be the guy Dombrowski looks at. Will it fix the issues they had with not putting the ball in play? No. But he would basically provide what Rhys Hoskins used to provide for this team.

Jurickson Profar might be the guy who excites Phillies fans the most. He has okay pop, but more importantly, he makes contact. His Whiff Rate, K Rate, Chase Rate, and Walk Rate are all in the top 10% of the league. He would bring a different element to this Phillies lineup.

Jayson Stark talked about how the Phillies need a different kind of hitter.

"They need somebody in that lineup who will make contact in a big spot and understand that's enough. Too many big swings in that lineup where only contact was needed. You watch the Mets play and you see how they take what the defense gives them in big moments in the postseason. Who's the Philly who does that? I'm sure that they will be shopping for that kind of guy."

Profar is that different kind of hitter. Stark described exactly what Profar did for the Padres. He might also provide a shakeup to the culture of the team, that desperately needs a change. For me, this is the guy. The other 3 would be good options, but Profar feels like the exact kind of player they need to fix the problems that cost them in each of the past 3 seasons.