Phillies' defense suddenly a surprising postseason strength

The Phillies don’t have a strong defense, you continue to hear, because for most of the past two years, that’s absolutely been true. In 2022, Philadelphia finished 29th in the Majors in Statcast’s Outs Above Average, and the team's run to the World Series was full of tales about how it was succeeding despite that fielding weakness. This year, the Phils were 16th in OAA, which is both “better!” and “still not that great!”

Put it together, and over those two seasons, the Phillies were the fourth-weakest fielding team, not including catchers. Then, immediately throw all of it out because it does not matter right now. All that matters is the collection of players they have at this exact moment in time and how they’re deployed -- and Philadelphia's current group of fielders isn’t bad. They might actually be good.

“We’ve played phenomenal defense,” catcher J.T. Realmuto said after a 10-0 win over Arizona in Game 2 of the National League Championship Series. “There’s been a ton of plays made in the infield and outfield that weren’t easy plays, and we’ve turned them all into outs.”

He’s exactly right. For all the obvious and appropriate credit given to the offense pounding homer after homer into the stands, or the pair of aces atop the rotation, or the bullpen throwing harder than any NL postseason 'pen on record, or just the generally shocking off-the-charts likability of this team and city right now, there’s something else happening here, as well. The Phillies have erased a weakness. They’ve turned it into something of a strength -- mostly.

How, though?

It’s because postseason baseball isn’t the same thing as regular-season baseball. It’s because October rosters aren’t the same as April rosters. It’s because a returning superstar learned a new position in-season. It’s because players who were out of position are back in their stronger spots -- or because they’re not in any position at all.

It’s because it’s a long season, and all that matters in October is what’s happening right now.

How much better is it?

If last year’s Phillies weren’t great on defense, this year’s didn’t start out much better. The April Phillies were mediocre at fielding (-3 OAA, 20th in the Majors), and the May Phillies were even worse (-5 OAA, 26th) -- which coincided with Bryce Harper’s return into a DH-only role, pushing Kyle Schwarber into more regular outfield duty. Not that this was a new situation; from 2016-22, the Phils were the third-weakest fielding team in baseball.

But it got better later in the season (the September Phillies posted 4 OAA, 10th in the Majors), and while advanced metrics don’t work quite the same way in October, there are other numbers that do. Consider this (numbers through NLCS Game 3):

• No team has turned a higher rate of batted balls into outs this postseason than the Phillies, at 72.9%, which is actually one of the best rates of any playoff team that has allowed at least 100 batted balls in the pitch tracking era (since 2008). In the regular season, they converted 68% (16th in MLB).

• No team has allowed a lower batting average on grounders than the Phillies, at .191. In the regular season, they allowed a .248 mark on those plays (14th in MLB).

Even shortstop Trea Turner, who has not had a great fielding postseason (four errors), has contributed, making a pair of strong plays in Game 3 of the NLCS.

The postseason defensive show started immediately, and we mean that, because we're talking about the first batter of the first inning of the first game of the playoffs, when Miami’s Luis Arraez sliced a liner to left field. Given the situation that Philadelphia’s left fielder found himself in -- he had just 2.8 seconds to go 32 feet -- it was given a catch probability of 35% per Statcast, meaning that nearly seven times out of 10, that opportunity isn’t converted into an out.

But Philadelphia’s primary left fielder, Schwarber, wasn’t there. Instead, it was Cristian Pache, a former top Atlanta prospect who had been acquired from Oakland in a seemingly minor deal on the eve of Opening Day. Due to injuries to his right knee and right elbow, Pache missed much of the season and started only eight games in left.

He was there, though, on that day, and he made a hard play look easy, combining an excellent jump with a nearly perfect route to make a running catch that didn't even require a dive. It's hard to imagine Schwarber having done the same, and by catch probability standards, it stands as the best catch of the postseason to date. Talk about setting the tone.

The Phillies have allowed just 22 runs through their first 11 postseason games, the third fewest in MLB history. That’s primarily due to the pitching, of course. But it’s about the gloves behind the pitchers, too.

How did it happen?

Take a look at the representative lineup of May compared to what the Phils have been rolling out in October. Four spots -- half of the non-catcher defense -- have turned over entirely.

"You look at the transformation of this club that our upper management has done," said manager Rob Thomson. "[President of baseball operations] Dave [Dombrowksi], [general manager] Sam [Fuld] and all the assistants, to make this team such an athletic team -- more so than they were two years ago. It's really remarkable."

How do you do that in the middle of a season? It took a series of dominoes, none more important than the willingness of their biggest star to learn a new position.

1. Harper’s return, part one: Kyle Schwarber moves to DH.

“Trea [Turner] called him Superman the other day,” Phillies infield coach Bobby Dickerson said of Harper. “What he does for us is incredible.”

Harper’s May 2 return from Tommy John surgery to a hitting-only role was exciting for how quickly it happened, but it also coincided with the team’s weakest fielding month and only below-.500 month. Partially to blame was Harper's inability to play the field, which forced Schwarber, who had been mostly a DH in April, to play left field every day. As Harper healed and took over first base in the second half, Schwarber was able to DH more often; he started in left just eight times in September, and not at all in October.

We mean no disrespect to Schwarber, who has hit five homers this postseason, and who played the field far more than expected simply because the circumstances of what a recovering Harper was able to do demanded that he must. But in a case where the eye test and metrics strongly agree, he was the weakest regular fielder in 2023 (-17 OAA), and fifth weakest in 2022 (-13 OAA), and really, just one of the weakest of the entire Statcast tracking era -- and yes, the Phillies did employ all three of the weakest on their club in 2022.

Consider that you haven’t seen Schwarber touch his glove even once this postseason, and then realize that he was part of four defensive misplays in the regular season just against the D-backs alone, or that a pair of misplays in one game against the Braves on June 22 directly led to a loss against their division rival -- risks the Phillies have not had to take this month. Again: Defense has never been Schwarber's strength, and he played much more left than expected because that’s what the team needed. Still, simply getting his glove off the field is a massive, massive win, and it couldn't have happened without Harper handling first base.

“It was kind of a revolving door over there at the time,” Harper said this week, referring to first basemen Rhys Hoskins and Darick Hall being injured within two weeks of one another early in the season. “We were trying to figure out what was going to happen and how I was going to come back -- and if I was going to come back at any capacity in the outfield or just DH. Knowing that we have so many options for DH and outfield, I just thought, ‘Hey, why not?’”

2. Harper’s return, part two: Alec Bohm returns to third base.

Bohm -- most famous (or infamous) for the April 2022 game in which he made three errors and then was caught muttering about his apparent dislike for the city -- was forced into regular duty at first base after Hoskins and Hall were hurt.

It didn’t go great. Bohm’s -4 OAA makes him look like a below-average fielder, but what’s hidden in there is that it’s really 2 OAA at third base and -6 OAA at first base. Harper’s return allowed Bohm to return to the hot corner -- he started at first just four times in September -- and, as he showed against Arizona, maybe the bigger story here is just how much Bohm seems to have improved his once well-below-average third-base defense.

“[Bohm] has really played well defensively lately, and for a while now,” Thomson said after Game 2 of the NLCS.

“He’s made some plays that I don’t know if a lot of people make, because he’s so tall and his reach is long,” infielder Bryson Stott added.

Harper is among the greatest postseason hitters in history, and he’s the face of the team. But his ability and willingness to competently learn first base, a situation he himself suggested early in the season, set up a whole set of dominoes that massively improved the defense.

“I think that’s why he did it,” said Bohm. “Because he kind of sees what can make this team the best. I think him being able to play first base, and let the DH kind of be Schwarbs, and at the end of the season there … being able to put our best lineup out there, too, that’s kind of what that’s done.”

Just by the ratings, Harper’s 2 OAA at first base is better than Bohm’s -6 OAA, and Bohm has starred this month back at third.

It’s not a small thing to say that placing Harper at first base upgraded three spots -- first base, third base and left field.

“More than anything, I think,” said Dickerson, “in his heart of hearts, he knew it helped the club if he can go to first base.”

It sure has.

3. Johan Rojas is really, really good

Unlike the other moving pieces here, Rojas didn’t arrive to solve a problem, because Brandon Marsh had been the primary center fielder in the first half, and Marsh rates as an above-average defender himself. But there’s “above average” and there’s “absolutely tremendous,” and by both the eye test and the metrics, Rojas is the latter.

Despite not joining the team until the second half, and sharing time with Marsh to some extent, Rojas managed to collect 7 OAA -- and on a per-play basis, he was tied for fourth best among center fielders. It’s not hard to see why, either, because he’s very fast (his sprint speed is in the 95th percentile) and he gets elite reactions (his outfield jumps are second best, only to defensive legend Kevin Kiermaier, important here because Schwarber and right fielder Nick Castellanos are at or near the bottom of the list).

Surely you remember the diving catch to start a double play against the Giants on Aug. 23. Maybe you recall the dive to rob the Blue Jays on Aug. 16, or the time he took a hit away from Andrew McCutchen on July 29. You definitely remember the play he made to take away extra bases from Ronald Acu?a Jr. in the NLDS, even if the route he took was more than a little awkward.

There’s a secondary benefit here, too. Rojas upgrades center over Marsh, but his presence has also given Marsh more time in left, where he (7 OAA in the outfield this year) and Pache (3 OAA in limited time) make for an absolutely massive improvement over Schwarber’s -17 OAA.

You might say the Phillies have three elite fielders tracking down batted balls, in Rojas, whichever of Pache or Marsh is in left and Gold Glove finalist Stott at second. (Plus two-time Gold Glove winner Realmuto behind the plate, although his fielding metrics were down this year, and the team might have the best fielding starting pitchers, as well.)

"If you compare this team to two years ago," said Thomson, "J.T., Stott, two pitchers -- should be three with Ranger [Suárez], but he doesn't have enough innings -- and if he played long enough, you have Rojas in center field and Marsh in left field -- those guys would be in [Gold Glove] conversations, I would think."

Harper and Bohm are hardly elite defenders, but they’re playing well right now, and while Turner has not played well on defense this fall, no one doubts his athleticism. What it means is that at any given time, Castellanos (-7 OAA) is the only below-average fielder the Phillies are using -- and his issues are more about poor range than egregious mistakes.

Thomson, for what it's worth, disagrees on Castellanos, saying, "He's a guy that we talked early in the year last year about defending for him late in the game. I wouldn't do that now. I just wouldn't. He's that good, and I have that much trust in him."

What it means is that the Phillies are a complete team. You know about the power in the lineup. You know about the flamethrowers on the mound. What you need to know, too, is that the defense isn’t a problem. It’s a strength -- even if that’s only been true recently.

MLB.com's Todd Zolecki contributed to the reporting of this story.