Is it time to talk about Trea Turner? Do the Phillies have a Brandon Marsh trade deadline decision? Big questions!
The Phillies’ other lineup problems seem more glaring because of Turner’s struggles. And Marsh could be part of moves that land them a hitter whose profile better fits their needs. Mike Trout, anyone?
Questions we should be asking but aren’t …
Do the Phillies need to make a long-term decision on Brandon Marsh before the trade deadline?
I’m not suggesting the Phillies would ever get to a point where they’d be sellers in the traditional sense. Even if they did, Marsh probably wouldn’t be a traditional trade candidate. As much as he has improved, and as hot as he can get for stretches, he isn’t the kind of stretch-run impact bat that contenders covet in late July. Remember, he is 2-for-26 in his last two postseasons. So why are we even talking about this?
Well, the Phillies could be one of those contenders entering late July coveting an impact bat. And, as noted above, Marsh will be a free agent after next season. If trading him can help facilitate a deal for a hitter whose profile better fits the Phillies’ circumstances, then Dave Dombrowski may have to take his medicine. His formula is clearly flawed as far as lineup composition goes. It won’t be any less of an issue this postseason, assuming the Phillies make it there.
» READ MORE: Rhys Hoskins’ injury was a sliding door moment in Phillies history. And it still ‘kind of eats at’ Bryce Harper.
If somewhere out there was a right-handed Marsh, the Phillies would be thrilled to switch that one for this one. The trade deadline is never that easy. A more likely scenario would be a team like the Rays, who have an acute need in the outfield, a tight budget, and an affinity for non-rental players who are on the upswing. If the Rays were willing to trade prospects that the Phillies could then flip to a seller for an impact bat, that could make some sense. After a decade of Mike Trout speculation from Phillies fans, we’ve finally arrived at a trade deadline where Mr. Millville is a realistic target. He and the Twins’ Byron Buxton are a couple of hot-hitting right-handed bats who will surely be on a lot of teams’ radars. I would expect the Phillies to be one of those teams.
The calculus depends on two things. The first is the Phillies’ five-year plan. As noted above, Marsh, 28, will be a free agent after next season. Dombrowski can claim a win in the trade that saw him ship catching prospect Logan O’Hoppe to the Angels for Marsh in 2022. But are the Phillies really going to be in a position to pay Marsh what the market will bear, especially if Marsh kicks it up another gear?
Which brings us to the second consideration. Marsh’s value — trade-wise, and career earnings-wise — will depend a lot on what happens over the next month-plus.
Marsh has come back to earth a bit over the last couple of weeks. On May 10, he was hitting .353 with an .893 OPS. Going into Tuesday’s game, those numbers were down to .318 and .824, courtesy of a 10-for-46 skid in which he has struck out 14 times with just two walks. That’s not to say his improvement isn’t real. More that he is still a version of who he has always been, albeit improved.
All the talk of Marsh being a new guy for more than a year tended to skirt past the streakiness. That so-called year included a 25-game stretch where he struck out 22 times in 78 at-bats with a .586 OPS between late June and late July, and a 17-game stretch in August where he went 7-for-45 with a .404 OPS. In the 11 games in between, Marsh hit 16-for-31 with 10 extra-base hits and four home runs. Look at Marsh’s numbers since May of last year and the hot stretches do a lot of the heavy lifting.
Is Trea Turner officially a problem yet?
I generally try to avoid being the guy who rallies the troops to pile on an underperforming player. This is particularly true in baseball, which is one of the more difficult individual endeavors in professional sports and also one of the more personal. The boos smack a little different when a guy is standing at home plate by himself and the closest teammate is at least 90 feet away. So don’t look at this as excoriation of Turner. Rather, it’s a defense of guys like Alec Bohm and Bryson Stott and, to a lesser extent, Adolis García and J.T. Realmuto. A backhanded defense, sure. Still, a defense. Of Bohm in particular. I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that No. 1 atop a plurality of fan/pundit wish lists is to trade Bohm for a righty-hitting third baseman who does the things that people have long been waiting for Bohm to do.
David Murphy alerts
No doubt, he was brutal for the first five weeks of the season, with a pitcherlike .433 OPS through 37 games. And even though he has pushed that number up with a sizzling 15-game stretch (1.002 OPS, eight extra-base hits, four homers in 60 plate appearances), he continues to carry an inordinate amount of the weight of the Phillies’ teamwide struggles at the plate. No, he isn’t your ideal cleanup or five-hole hitter. But he wouldn’t need to be if the guy at the top of the order was producing the way most $300 million players are expected to produce. Instead, Turner carries a .608 OPS that is lower than 150 of the 170 qualified hitters in Major League Baseball (and only three points higher than Bohm, who ranks one spot behind him as of Tuesday). From an economics standpoint, Turner is the Phillies’ biggest offensive problem, and it isn’t particularly close.
» READ MORE: Kyle Schwarber is peak Ryan Howard, and that’s a compliment to both
All the usual disclaimers apply. We’re still at a point of the schedule where, a few months from now, you can look back at a game log and be surprised that a player struggled for a bit in the early going. Alex Bregman has a .689 OPS. Bo Bichette’s is worse than Turner’s. Nick Castellanos has been better than Steven Kwan. There are a lot of other mistakes the Phillies could have made with Turner’s money, assuming we’re judging things on the first two months of 2026.
But if we’re going to blame, let’s make sure we distribute it proportionately. I wouldn’t be surprised if therein lies the root of Bryce Harper’s reaction to questions about his eliteness. It’s about proportionality, man. Turner, who makes $2 million more than Harper annually, is 12-for-57 with a whopping two extra-base hits and seven walks in the Phillies’ last three postseason series, dating back to the NLCS loss to the Diamondbacks in 2023. True, Harper is held to higher standard. The question is why?
As the Phillies continue to seek more production out of the cleanup spot, Rhys Hoskins was back in town with the Cleveland Guardians. Hoskins sat down with "Phillies Extra," The Inquirer's baseball podcast, to discuss his role with the first-place Guardians, his legacy with the Phillies, and more. Watch here.
You can also subscribe to the podcast version of Phillies Extra on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.
Previous episodes: Terry Francona | Aaron Rowand | Hunter Pence | Paco Figueroa | Gage Wood | Scott Boras | Brian Barber | Aaron Nola | Justin Crawford | Garrett Stubbs
