The Philadelphia Phillies have placed themselves in the middle of the National League East race alongside the New York Mets and ahead of the Atlanta Braves.
With this level of play, the Phillies are going to need to part ways with some of the players at the bottom of their roster.
Zachary Rotman of FanSided recently predicted the Phillies would cut ties with young catcher Rafael Marchan ahead of the trade deadline.
“Rafael Marchan made the Phillies’ opening day roster over fan favorite Garrett Stubbs to be J.T. Realmuto’s backup catcher because he’s out of options, and Stubbs is not,” Rotman wrote. “It made sense to give Marchan a long look in the majors, especially because Stubbs doesn’t do much offensively, but he has looked overmatched this season.
“Marchan has slashed .163/.281/.265 with one home run and five RBI in 20 games this season. Realmuto plays as much as any catcher, but all catchers need days off once in a while. It’s really hard to justify giving Marchan any playing time with how much he has struggled offensively.”
Of the players on the Phillies roster, Marchan is one of the more obvious cut candidates. He’s struggled tremendously this season, just as most might have expected, and he also has a potential replacement, Garrett Stubbs, waiting in the wings.
Stubbs isn’t a star himself, but he would likely be a better option than Marchan. In fact, there aren’t many worse options at this point. Luckily for the Phillies, J.T. Realmuto can handle most of the catching duties, but they’re going to need to figure out the backup catcher slot at some point.
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