97.5 The Fanatic Phillies Notebook: Shaky Series Split

The crowd at Citizens Bank Park collectively sighed in relief on Thursday. The Philadelphia Phillies salvaged a split in the series finale against the San Francisco Giants with the fans breathing down their necks after every mistake.

Concerning starts from a few lineup regulars and question marks all over the bullpen have turned up the pressure during a season with World Series expectations.

However, the Phillies are hovering above .500 thanks to strong starts from Nick Castellanos and Kyle Schwarber while Bryce Harper has begun to heat up with them.

While it’s not time to sound the alarms just yet, the Phillies have more than enough weaknesses to clean up in all areas of the game.

Johan Rojas wasted key opportunities with men on base in a pair of brutal at-bats contributing to a loss on Monday.

Bryce Harper overaggressively tug up from first base on a fly ball to center field that gave Jung Hoo Lee an easy out on Tuesday.

Aaron Nola dropped to 0-4 in a rough start on Wednesday while the pitching staff racked up nine walks.

Trea Turner leaned too soon on a pickoff play on Thursday for his second caught stealing of the week. He also made two errors to taint the momentum of his defensive improvement early in the season. 

The Phillies lost 10-4 and 11-4 games in cringeworthy fashion. The Giants outscored them by nine in the series, but every game counts for one in the standings.

Alec Bohm showed signs of life with a hit in each of the four games. He sent an RBI triple 396 feet to dead center field in the series finale with the type of solid contact that’s driven the best stretches of his MLB career.

Harper talked about Bohm's ability to handle the pressures of the game with perspective that applies to Philadelphia possibly more than any other MLB market.

April weather in the Northeast has created fluky conditions this season. The winds at Citizens Bank Park during the Giants series played as strong of a factor as any game in Philadelphia in recent memory.

The conditions contribute to certain mistakes for both teams on the field, and the Phillies have plenty of time to let a veteran group work back towards their best baseball.

Untimately, the same team that already defeated the World Series favorite Los Angeles Dodgers in their biggest series of the season is also in striking distance of the National League East lead.

They’ll also host a division opponent with one of the weaker rosters in the majors this weekend.

Phillies center fielders are 7/53 this season, and Brandon Marsh slipped to a .095 batting average with a hitless night on Wednesday.

Johan Rojas has built a reputation as an excellent outfielder despite his offensive deficiencies. However, he carelessly let a ball fall to the grass against the Atlanta Braves for a costly mistake one week ago.

He allowed a runner to score from third base on Wednesday when he missed the cutoff man with another head scratching decision.

Thomson’s best option in center field is to let Marsh play through the slump. What if that’s not an option though?

Marsh injured his knee on Wednesday when he tumbled to the grass reacting to a wild hop on a single to center in the seventh inning. Although the Phillies don't expect an IL stint, Marsh is day-to-day.

Max Kepler has slipped to a .228 average and a .644 OPS in left field. The Phillies will search for outfield offense wherever they can think to.

Edmundo Sosa made his third trip this season to the outfield grass in the late innings of the series finale against the Giants. Nick Castellanos left the game with hip flexor tightness, but he doesn't expect to miss any time.

Thomson has looked for ways to get Sosa into the lineup after a hot start, but the bench's sparkplug is also a raw, inexperienced outfielder whose first start in left field came with a few adventures.

Kyle Schwarber played left field for the first time this season on Wednesday to allow J.T. Realmuto an easier night as the DH. Although Schwarber has plenty of outfielding experience, the move isn’t the best indicator of Thomson’s trust in his overall outfield depth.

Related Content: Measuring Concerns About Brandon Marsh, Phillies Future

Weston Wilson has been rehabbing in the minors after suffering a left oblique strain in February that wiped out his spring training.

He’s hit .288 with an .865 OPS in 48 games the past two seasons after reaching the majors at age 28 in 2023.

Gabriel Rincones Jr. began the season in Triple A after an impressive performance in spring training. Justin Crawford surprisingly began 2025 in Triple A, and he’s raised some eyebrows by playing left field to improve his future versatility despite his background as a center fielder. Righty Otto Kemp has also shown some power in Lehigh Valley early in 2025.

Dave Dombrowski doesn’t appear likely to pull the trigger on either prospect so early in the season. Could injuries or continued poor performance force a quicker hand?

Despite an underwhelming stretch from the offense, Nick Castellanos has busted out of the gates with an impressive .304 average and .867 OPS through 19 games.

He brought the heroics in one of the most dramatic moments of the young season with a grand slam in a series rubber match victory against the Dodgers on April 6. He leads the Phillies with five doubles, and he's tied with Schwarber for the most extra-base hits with eight.

After leading the Phillies to their only win in St. Louis with a 3-4 performance, Castellanos spoke on the NBC Sports Philadelphia broadcast about the team’s collective approach at the plate.

Castellanos has become a poster boy for the lineup’s collective tendency to chase breaking pitches out of the zone that’s shown up at inopportune moments in three consecutive disappointing playoff exits.

However, he’s altered his approach early in the 2025 season. Rob Thomson talked about impressive characteristics his veteran right fielder has shown.

Castellanos struggled out of the gates in 2024. He finished April with a .183 average, but he benefited from a commitment to early arrivals at Citizens Bank Park to take extra swings before his teammates took the field. He rebounded to become on the best hitters in the lineup throughout the second half.

A struggling trio of teammates took a page from Castellanos’ book on Monday afternoon before the first game of the homestand.

Marsh, Bohm, and Kepler have been at the center of the team’s issue at the plate in the early weeks of 2025, and they joined the veteran for some extra batting practice.

Marsh mentioned Castellanos, Schwarber, and hitting coach Kevin Long as respected voices in the Phillies clubhouse who can help hitters work through slumps.

The Giants took a 1-0 lead on Cristopher Sanchez and in the top of the first inning on Thursday afternoon.

The Phillies responded with five in the bottom half for a commanding lead they never handed back. Schwarber got them on the board with a two-run single, and Castallanos extended the lead with an RBI two batters later.

When the Phillies aren't at their best, they sometimes make it easy to forget these respected hitters have such long MLB track records.

The Phillies will host the Miami Marlins for a three-game weekend set spanning through the Easter holiday. The Fish entered 2025 with an underwhelming roster and low expectations, but they've played solid baseball to hang in the National League East race early.

All numbers as of the beginning of play on April 18. All advanced stats courtesy of StatCast, Baseball Reference, and FanGraphs.