{"id":120661,"date":"2026-04-27T17:08:54","date_gmt":"2026-04-27T21:08:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=120661"},"modified":"2026-04-27T17:08:54","modified_gmt":"2026-04-27T21:08:54","slug":"phillies-could-use-a-bench-shakeup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2026\/04\/27\/phillies-could-use-a-bench-shakeup\/","title":{"rendered":"Phillies Could Use A Bench Shakeup"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Philadelphia Phillies could use a bench shakeup to give them better pinch hitting and platoon options. While not their main issue, utility player Dylan Moore has been extremely unproductive at the plate. Moore signed a minor league deal<\/a> during the offseason and made the team out of spring training. This season Moore has a .000\/.214\/.000 line with no home runs and no RBI in 13 games. Moore has recorded a -15 wRC+ as well as a .000 BABIP and a .152 wOBA this year. In addition to that Moore has a 0.60 BB\/K rate. While Moore has a career best 21.4% walk rate he has a career worst 35.7% strikeout rate. Moore has made two starts this season but that does not excuse the lack of offensive production. No hits in 14 plate appearances is not good.<\/p>\n

In recent weeks the Phillies have not been afraid to sit Justin Crawford against left-handed starting pitchers. Notably on April 26 Moore got a start in center field in place of Crawford against Chris Sale. Brandon Marsh also routinely sits against left-handed starting pitchers. Otto Kemp got optioned to Triple-A Lehigh Valley amidst a flurry of roster moves<\/a> because of his inability to fill the platoon role with Marsh in left field. Felix Reyes has a .167\/.167\/.333 line with one home run and one RBI in five games since replacing Kemp. Additionally Reyes has a 29 wRC+ and a .143 BABIP as well as a .215 wOBA in the majors. If the platoons are going to continue the Phillies need a more reliable right-handed bat on the 26-man roster.<\/p>\n

<\/smartframe-embed><\/p>\n

Phillies Bench Shakeup<\/h2>\n

The Need For Change<\/h3>\n

The Phillies are off to a tough start<\/a> at 9-19 it is time to make changes. While Moore is the 13th position player the team needs to do better against left-handed pitching. Designating Moore for assignment and calling someone else up could help with that. The Phillies have a .179\/.270\/.293 line with a 60 wRC+ against left-handed pitchers this season. They are the worst team in MLB against left-handed pitching in all four of those stat categories entering play on April 27. The Phillies have a 0.40 BB\/K rate and a .214 BABIP against left-handed pitchers this season. The roster spot Moore currently occupies is going to see more playing time against left-handed pitchers than right-handed pitchers with the Phillies platoons at second base and in left field.<\/p>\n

Possible Roster Replacement Options Already On The 40-Man Roster<\/h3>\n

Christian Cairo, who was added to the 40-man roster<\/a> before Opening Day, is a potential replacement. Cairo has similar defensive versatility to Moore. In Triple-A, Cairo has a .293\/.436\/.402 line with two home runs and 11 RBI this season across 27 games. Cairo has a 136 wRC+ and a .352 BABIP as well as a .398 wOBA in the minor leagues. Furthermore Cairo has a 1.10 K\/BB rate. Another option is recently acquired outfielder Steward Berroa. Across 14 games since joining the Phillies organization Berroa has a .340\/.393\/.620 line with three home runs and 12 RBI in Triple-A. Berroa also has a 162 wRC+ along with a .400 BABIP and a .439 wOBA since being acquired by the Phillies. Unlike Cairo, Berroa has previous major league experience as well.<\/p>\n

Mandatory Credit: Erik Williams-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Philadelphia Phillies could use a bench shakeup to give them better pinch hitting and platoon options. While not their main issue, utility player Dylan Moore has been extremely unproductive at the plate. Moore signed a minor league deal during the offseason and made the team out of spring training. This season Moore has a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4566,"featured_media":88893,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[23,1071],"tags":[28342,5150,5049,5799,28963],"class_list":["post-120661","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-phillies","category-mlb","tag-brandon-marsh","tag-bryan-de-la-cruz","tag-dylan-moore","tag-justin-crawford","tag-steward-berroa"],"modified_by":"Ben Rosen, Staff Writer","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120661","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4566"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=120661"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120661\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":120675,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120661\/revisions\/120675"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/88893"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=120661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=120661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=120661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}