Bryan De La Cruz has been the latest member of the Phillies outfield carousel, having now been with the major league club for a little over three weeks since being called up from Lehigh Valley. De La Cruz has only appeared in 12 games, but he has performed admirably, hitting .346 with a 1.021 OPS. Again, we’re talking about an extremely small sample size of 32 plate appearances, but De La Cruz’ production has been a welcome sight for a Phillies lineup that will take production from anywhere it can get it.
The problem now however is that the recent new defensive alignment has cut down on De La Cruz’ playing time. With Bryce Harper now occupying first base, De La Cruz is left to only platoon with Brandon Marsh in left rather than finding starting time in the other corner outfield spot. Obviously, Harper shouldn’t be the one to suffer to get De La Cruz in the lineup, but the Phillies could opt to put the former back at first base and cut into the playing time of the struggling Alec Bohm.
Bohm has been better in the second half, hitting .276 with a .713 OPS, but his season numbers are still among the worst in the majors for a regular starter. His -1.2 WAR is the worst among all 142 players in baseball who have qualified for the batting title. The Phillies would certainly be justified in cutting down on Bohm’s playing time. Either sending him to the bench full time or putting him in a platoon would allow them to find some more playing time for De La Cruz in order to ride the hot hand.
De La Cruz will almost certainly not continue this trend of hot hitting, but it’s hard to argue he isn’t a better option than Bohm at this point. So, should the Phillies find more playing time for Bryan De La Cruz?