The Good Phight will be previewing the 2026 season by going over each position on the field. We’ll talk about the players that will occupy them, the played behind them, their strengths and weaknesses and give a few takes about how we think the season will shake out.
Defense wins championships.
I’ve been told this numerous times throughout a football broadcast, in analytical arguments and cited as general sports wisdom. Teams with the best defense will rise to the top in whatever sport it is. For me,
I still have scars of watching the Flyers get neutral-zone trapped to death by the Devils in the late 90’s, but I digress.
A cursory glance at different data would suggest a different argument for baseball, where the Dodgers haven’t exactly flashed the leather in either of their championship seasons, displaying middling FRV (Fielding Run Value) in both 2024 and 2025. These teams were not known for how well they catch the ball, but instead for how many times they touched home plate and/or prevented the other team from doing so via their pitching staff.
Yet each season, we see teams wish that their defense was better. The Mets of this past offseason jettisoned several members of the old guard in pursuit of this better glovework, some of their championship hopes pinned on the idea that they’ll be able to catch the ball just a little better. Of course, teams cannot try and win on defense alone; the players have to hit a little as well even if that defense is ELITE elite (who can forget Franklin Gutierrez being worth 6 WAR with a wRC+ of 104).
I’m on a tangent.
The outfield
The 2026 Phillies have made some moves to improve their defense while also hoping on other moves that the defense will at least be…defensible? One of the more consequential moves made was switching out outfielders. Moving from Nick Castellanos to Adolis Garcia is an offensive push, but in the field, it’s like going from a statue to a ballet dancer. If Justin Crawford can at least be average while playing center field, the outfield defense can be pretty good. Brandon Marsh has proven in his years here that he can be a bit better than average while playing left field, passable if called upon to play in center.
For the backups, there is a loss with Johan Rojas being suspended for 80 games as his defense is still an asset. The other options they have – Bryan de la Cruz, Otto Kemp – don’t exactly inspire a lot of confidence that they’ll add much by way of the glove.
The infield
Don’t look now, but the Phillies actually have a good defensive infield overall. Bryce Harper has somehow turned himself into an above average first baseman defensively, something that I surely didn’t expect so soon, if at all. His up the middle teammates form one of the better defensive middle infields, Trea Turner and Bryson Stott both grading out well across most publicly available defensive models we can find. Alec Bohm is still no great shakes at third, but he has become less of a liability with each passing season. Backing them up is Edmundo Sosa, who this team is going to miss once he finally is able to land a starting job somewhere else, and Otto Kemp, who possesses a glove.
Catching
We’ve written about J.T. Realmuto enough that belaboring the point seems tiresome. He declined last year behind the plate, but remains an elite thrower trying to catch runners stealing and his pitchers love him. Rafael Marchan is a more than capable defensive backup that can at least equate what Realmuto does should the latter miss significant time for any reason this season.
