Let’s get to the main point here.
Tuesday night’s loss to the Giants does not fall squarely on the shoulders of Otto Kemp. A lack of offense to go along with uncharacteristic poor pitching from Cristopher Sanchez and sketchy fielding in the fifth inning sealed the defeat. Without scoring runs, teams are going to have a difficult time putting one in the win column. Novel idea!
However, it’s time to stop thinking the Kemp is a viable option in the outfield. His misplay of a Matt Chapman double led to two
more runs scoring in that inning and pushed the game out of reach.
Now, let’s give at least some slack here. The ball that Chapman hit came off the bat at 111 miles per hour, the hardest hit ball of the night and a little shy of Chapman’s hardest hit ball this season. According to Statcast, it had a catch probability of 50%, making it a toss up. Anyone who has played the outfield at any kind of level knows that a baseball hit that hard directly at you is one of the hardest plays to make as a fielder. Yet Kemp is not in Little League any longer and should be reasonably expected to make that kind of play.
The experiment of trying to make him into an outfielder solely to keep his bat on the roster should end.
Of course, there need to be options if this is going to happen. Rob Thomson decided that carrying only three true outfielders was the option he wanted to maximize his roster, so there has to be someone else to carry the torch. They have someone in Dylan Moore who has the ability to play outfield as he’s done so in the past (as recently as 2024), so a more viable option defensively is available if the platoon advantage is sought. Moore is also a Gold Glove winner based on his infield work, so Thomson likely decided that was a better option on Tuesday night with the groundball tossing Sanchez on the mound, a worthy decision. But there had to be a sacrifice somewhere and left field was where Thomson found it.
Still, with Moore and Kemp on the roster together, there is a bit of a redundancy happening. Both are considered to be utility players, able to play more than three positions on the field even if there is some give back defensively at at least one of them. At the plate, neither has had a great deal of plate appearance to make an impression, but their past suggests that calling them comparable would be a fair assessment.
So why have both? Why not make the roster a bit more balanced and add someone with actual outfield experience? Seems that the best course of action would be bringing up someone like Bryan de la Cruz to be an actual outfielder in the major leagues while letting Kemp learn left field in Lehigh Valley would be a win-win for everyone. While de la Cruz is no great shakes as an outfielder himself, there is at least actual experience there that would suggest he can play the position competently while also providing something equal to what Kemp might provide at the plate.
Whatever they decide to do, the best option would be to end this idea that Otto Kemp is a major league outfielder. He is not. If they wanted him to be, there should be regular reps being had in the minor leagues rather than sitting on the bench as often as he does with the Phillies. Moving on from the experiment as soon as possible might prevent something worse happening, like his play actually costing the team games.
They have options to make it work.
Time to use them.
