Part of the magic of baseball is that it seems to produce multiple feel-good stories every year. Perhaps the best kind of such story is the career minor leaguer who finally gets a taste of the Majors at long
last. That’s not quite how it was with Otto Kemp and the Phillies this year, but it was close.
Kemp was a 25-year-old undrafted free agent who had signed with the Phillies in 2022 and played in their minor league system ever since. He performed well with his bat at every level, including at Triple-A where he got off to a hot start in 2025, hitting .313/.416/.594 with 14 home runs in 58 games with the Iron Pigs. A sore wrist that wouldn’t go away for Bryce Harper was finally Kemp’s ticket to the Majors, as he earned a call-up on June 7th.
2025 stats with the Phillies
62 G, .234/.298/.411, 8 HR, -0.2 WAR, 95 wRC+
What went right
For the season, Kemp was just about right at replacement level with his bat when he got the chance to hit. In his first stint in the Majors from June 7th until being sent back to Lehigh Valley on August 17th, Kemp hit .228 with a .657 OPS and four home runs in 46 games. However, when he was recalled again on September 8th, Kemp was much more productive, albeit in a smaller sample size. In 16 games to close the regular season, Kemp hit .250 with an .856 OPS and four home runs in 57 plate appearances.
Kemp, a right-handed hitter, was most effective when facing left-handed pitching. His OPS against lefties was .786 in 74 PAs, a full 100 points better than his .671 OPS against righties in 144 PAs. In addition to hitting lefties at a decent clip, Kemp was very productive with runners on base. In 87 such opportunities, Kemp hit .289 with an .883 OPS and 24 RBIs. Ten of his nineteen extra-base hits and four of his eight home runs on the year came with runners on base.
What went wrong
Kemp simply isn’t a good enough fielder as is to receive regular playing time in the Majors. He made just 31 appearances at third base with the Phillies but had five errors. He wasn’t much better at first base either, as he had one error in 17 games played on the opposite corner. Kemp didn’t have enough playing time to qualify, but his -7 defensive run value would have been among the worst in baseball.
He really didn’t produce enough with the bat to outweigh his defensive shortcomings either. Kemp again didn’t qualify, but his 34.3% whiff rate would have been the third highest among all qualified hitters. His 30.7% strikeout rate would have been tied with Detroit’s Riley Greene for the fifth highest in the Majors. Conversely, Kemp’s 5.5% walk rate would’ve ranked him near the bottom of MLB. For reference, Nick Castellanos had a 5.4% walk rate in 2025.
None of this is a surprise if Kemp’s minor league career is to be considered. He’s struck out in 25.7% of his plate appearances at Triple-A in 87 games while walking at a 10.3% rate. Those wouldn’t be terrible marks in the Majors, but they are concerning at Triple-A. Those numbers proved to be a harbinger of Kemp’s struggles to consistently hit MLB pitching. He especially struggled against offspeed pitches, hitting just .182 with an eye popping 51.4% whiff rate.
It was also reported after the season that Kemp suffered a fractured kneecap after fouling a ball off of his knee on June 17th but continued to play through it. He will undergo surgery for that injury this offseason as well as a minor surgery on his shoulder.
The future with the Phillies
Kemp’s ultimate role in 2026 is still up in the air. There even appears to be a debate within the Phillies organization about his future role with the club. Here’s what the Athletic’s Matt Gelb had to say in a Q&A piece when asked about just that topic:
“It’s difficult to imagine the Phillies operating this offseason as though Kemp can be a productive, everyday player for them. His future role might be more of what he did in 2025 — start against lefties, fill in when needed on the corners. He was a replacement-level player as a rookie.
But some within the organization believe Kemp is an outlier, someone without pedigree (he was undrafted) who has untapped upside. Maybe that’s true; Kemp played a significant portion of 2025 with a fractured kneecap and an ailing shoulder. He hits the ball hard. He excelled at every level in the minors. Even if the Phillies were higher on Kemp than the rest of the industry, his lengthy injury history has to be a consideration. That alone might prevent him from being a regular.
He’s an interesting player. The Phillies have indicated they want to see more of Kemp because of that. Squint and maybe he’s … Davis Schneider?“
That was in the wake of Dave Dombrowski’s end of season press conference where the Phillies president repeatedly mentioned that he believes Kemp has a chance to be an everyday player.
There’s not much from Kemp’s 2025 that suggests he has the ability to be an everyday player, but maybe there is more there that could show when he is healthy. His best role seems to be as a bench bat that gets an occasional start against left-handed pitching. But that could change depending on what happens with Alec Bohm this winter. If Bohm is traded, the Phillies will need someone to play third base until Aidan Miller is deemed ready for a promotion. Maybe that could be Kemp every day, or maybe it could be Kemp in some sort of rotation/platoon with Edmundo Sosa and/or a left-handed 3B to be acquired later.
Kemp’s role on the team is an under-the-radar storyline for this offseason. Do the Philles really feel comfortable giving him a starting job in the event of Bohm being traded, even if it’s just holding the spot until Miller arrives? Is there still some untapped potential in Kemp, or is he what he showed as a rookie?
