Arguably the Phillies’ biggest weakness in the start to a season that’s been full of them is left-handed pitching. As a team, they’re dead last in batting average (.180), OPS (.567), and wRC+ (61) against lefties. They have yet to win a game against a non-opener left-handed starting pitcher. Clearly, the Phillies need all the help they can get against lefties.
Could Randal Grichuk be of some assistance? The 34-year-old outfielder was designated for assignment by the New York Yankees yesterday after
hitting .194 with a .534 OPS in 16 games played. Grichuk, who signed a one year, $2.5M minor league deal with New York in the offseason, is a right-handed hitting platoon option who has had success against lefties in the past. For his career, Grichuk owns a .268/.318/.498 batting line against left-handed pitching over the course of his 13-year career in the majors.
Grichuk’s most recent success came in 2024 as a member of the Arizona Diamondbacks. He played in 106 games for Arizona and hit .291 with an .875 OPS and 12 home runs while being deployed in a platoon. Grichuk particularly mashed lefties, hitting .319 with a .913 OPS across 184 plate appearances. He re-signed with the D-Backs for 2025 but didn’t have the same level of success, hitting .240 with a .734 OPS in 70 games. His numbers against lefties drastically declined, with his average falling to .226 and his OPS dropping to .737. Grichuk was traded at the 2025 deadline to the Royals and cratered while in Kansas City, hitting .206 with a .566 OPS in 43 games. If you look at the sample size that dates back to his arrival in Kansas City and includes his time in New York this season, Grichuk is hitting .200 with a .556 OPS over his last 140 plate appearances with a 22.9% strikeout rate.
But the Phillies don’t currently have definitively better options. The team talked up Otto Kemp for the right-handed platoon role at every given opportunity over the offseason, but he has already been demoted to Triple-A after going 2 for 20 with 9 strikeouts in 10 games while playing brutal defense in the outfield. Felix Reyes is currently occupying Kemp’s role as Brandon Marsh’s platoon partner, but his results have not been much better. The surprising call-up hit a home run off of Chris Sale in his first at-bat, but has since collected just two hits, both of which were singles. Reyes’ tendency from his minor league career of chasing outside of the zone has carried over to the majors, as he’s swung at an alarming 58.1% of pitches thrown outside of the strike zone through his first five games in the big leagues.
So, should the Phillies be interested in Randal Grichuk? Is he worth the flier to see if the Phillies can alleviate some of their struggles against left-handed pitching?
