The Phillies think their new acquisition, Austin Hays, can play every day for them, and he’ll get a chance to prove it.
“I’m going to give him a chance to be an everyday guy and see what we get,” manager Rob Thompson said Saturday afternoon, about 24 hours after the trade with Baltimore.
Hayes started the Phillies Saturday in left field for his debut, batting ninth against right-handed Guardians starter Carlos Carrasco.
Hayes, a right-handed hitter, had a career-best .791 OPS against lefties compared to .727 against same-handed pitching. He’s hitting .328/.394/.500 against lefties this season, and .204/.262/.323 vs.
The Phillies were searching for a right-handed-hitting outfielder after not using Brandon Marsh (7-for-50 with 26 strikeouts) against lefties, and neither Whit Merrifield nor Christian Pache had enough success as a platoon partner in left field. . Merrifield was released two weeks ago and traded with Serantani Dominguez to Baltimore on Friday for Patchy Hayes.
Add Hayes and the player who gets the most playing time is not Marsh, but Johan Rojas. Marsh was already sitting against the Left. As for Rojas, he now sits against righties in favor of Hayes. Hayes in left field and Marsh in center most nights.
“With all the left-handed hitters they got in Baltimore, he didn’t get a chance to play every day,” Thompson said. “We think that might have taken away some of the numbers against right-handed pitching.
“I’ll let him go, he was an All-Star last year. It’s going to shorten Rojas’ time a little bit. I talked to everybody. Let’s see what happens after 10 days. See where we are.”
The usually upbeat Marsh didn’t seem in the best mood Friday or Saturday, perhaps the Hayes trade further cements his role as a platoon player, but the Phillies need to field their top nine and he clearly doesn’t feel like one. Against the southpaws in them. Consider their actions more than their words. Barring starters they knew would be out of the game before he came to first, the Phillies hadn’t sat Marsh in 17 consecutive innings against a left-hander since May 16.
“We’re trying because he’s working on it, he’s hitting the machine in the cage and trying to stay in there and use the whole field,” Thompson said of Marsh. “But we still need to get Rojas some at-bats. He’s a big prospect, so I need to get him some at-bats here and there.”
The Phillies have 54 plate appearances against lefties, more than any team in baseball this season, but are actually in a right-handed-heavy area of their schedule. On Friday night, the Bills were slated to face a perfect starter in eight of nine games. The only lefty they will face between now and Aug. 5 is the Yankees’ Nestor Cortez on Wednesday.
