Manager of the Philadelphia Phillies shares the role their star slugger will play in 2024.
With a much healthier Philadelphia Phillies team to begin next season, Dombrowski revealed what role one of the team’s top sluggers will play in 2024.
After reaching the World Series for the second time in three years in 2022, the Philadelphia Phils were expected to be a contender to return to the World Series with a good chance of winning it again in 2023. With Bryce Harper out for the season due to an elbow injury, the team added Trea Turner to shore up their rotation before the return of their star.
But the Phils’ plans came to a screeching halt in Spring Training when Rhys “Philly” Hoskins tore his ACL.
As a result, players had to be moved around to fill positions they weren’t expected to play. One of those moves was signing Kyle Schwarber to be the team’s everyday leftfielder after he was brought in to be their designated hitter.
This led to one of the league’s worst left field defenses.
Things started to turn around in mid-June after the team welcomed on-rodeo phenom Johan Roto, but by then most of the damage had been done to the division race after the Phillies’ slow start.
The Phils hope to prevent that from happening in 2024, and GM Doug Pederson has been very clear about what role he wants Schwarber to play. “We didn’t plan on him being our left fielder on a consistent basis, so that’s changed,” Pederson said to MLB.com. “I expect him to be the designated hitter almost every single day.”
Schwarber also struggled with a knee injury last year, but he should be more flexible after an off-season of rehabilitation.
Schwarber also improved significantly in the second half of the season after transitioning to DH. In August, he slashed.212/.380/.545, and in September, he was.242/. 395/.576. He hit 20 home runs and drove in 39 runs in those two months.
Now that the Phillies don’t have their slugger on the field, he’ll be expected to be even better at the plate.
