June 15, 2026
Ron Chenoy/Imagn Images
Where will the Phillies look to add a new outfield bat this summer?
Derek Hill and Gabriel Rincones Jr.
Meet the Phillies current right field platoon.
Hill, a righty, is a career .227 hitter who has never had more than 25 RBI or played in more than 57 games in a season. Rincones is a 25 year old prospect who made his MLB debut this weekend in Milwaukee. When he was called up, he was hitting .215 in Lehigh Valley. His career slash line in the minors is .244/.356/.424.
With Adolis García out for at least two months — and it isn't like he was consistently tearing the cover off the baseball himself — the Phillies have a pretty clear need at the trade deadline next month. USA Today's Bob Nightengale confirmed that fact in an article this weekend:
The Phillies are desperately looking to acquire an outfielder at the trade deadline with Adolis Garcia expected to miss the rest of the season with his torn lat, and have Angels right fielder Jo Adell and Cubs right fielder Seiya Suzuki on their radar. [USA Today]
There will be a lot of players the Phillies will have on their radar over the next 45 days, leading up to the July 31 trade deadline. But let's take a brief look at these two:
Jo Adell is 27 and having his best season so far in L.A. He is hitting .254 (his career average is .225) and he has the kind of pop the Phillies are always looking for — he had a Schwarber-esque 2025 with 37 homers and 98 RBI. Adell has a season of arbitration left in 2027 before free agency in 2028. The question is whether the Phillies value someone with more consistency and who can hit for average, or someone who has elite power and who doesn't have platoon-numbers (his batting average against lefties is 31 points higher).
As for Seiya Suzuki, he's got no split — he hits righty and lefty pitching almost exactly the same. He has power, too, a more impressive .267 career average to pair with his 27 homers per 162 games. His breakout 2024 season boasted 32 homers and 103 RBI. At 31, he has the same contract situation as Adell, with one year of team control remaining. Neither is known as a lights-out defender but Suzuki is certainly more reliable at the plate. It's worth noting that while the Angels are in last place in the AL West and likely to sell, the Cubs are just a game behind the Phillies for an NL Wild Card spot.
One more interesting Phillies-related nugget found its way into the latest from Nightengale — assuming Mets infielder Bo Bichette didn't already burn his bridge to Philly after taking more money to go to the rival Mets this past offseason:
Teams expect New York Mets third baseman Bo Bichette to opt out of the final two years of his Mets contract after the season, giving clubs like the Philadelphia Phillies a second shot at him. It could be a massive gamble for Bichette considering he’s still owed $79 million. He is earning $2 million this year after already being paid a $40 million signing bonus, and if he opts out, he will be paid an additional $5 million. [USA Today]
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