Despite the devastation caused by the Zack Wheeler news, the Phillies are rolling of late. They swept a contending Seattle Mariners team in emphatic fashion, with a lively offense creating fireworks while dominating starting pitching helped keep American League MVP contender Cal Raleigh in check.

On Friday night the Phillies will kick off a three-game set at home against a Washington Nationals team that gave them trouble last weekend. After splitting a four-game series with the Phillies, the last-place Nationals took two of three from the New York Mets, which the Phillies surely appreciate as their lead in the National League East has grown to a season-high seven games over the Mets.

If the Phillies look like the team that dominated against Seattle, they should have no problems handling the Nationals. But the ebbs and flows of their season have been too dramatic to expect anything with certainty.

A batch of notes and observations in 5 Phillies thoughts ahead of a weekend division set:

Outfield mixing and matching continues

There remains plenty of uncertainty in the outfield for these Phillies. On any given night, it is a challenge to guess which of Harrison Bader, Nick Castellanos, Brandon Marsh, Max Kepler and Weston Wilson will be in there. Marsh is a fixture against righties; Bader and Castellanos are always in there against southpaws. Wilson has the most limited role of the bunch as Marsh’s platoon partner against left-handed pitchers. Kepler once seemed like an inevitable departure, but stuck with it and continues making hard contact. He is finally getting results of late, and his ability to play solid defense in either corner helps him out.

The most interesting question — perhaps when the Phillies travel to New York for a three-game series against the Mets early on next week, we will know the answer — what is manager Rob Thomson’s preferred alignment against right-handed pitching? Marsh will either play center field with Kepler in left field, Castellanos in right field and Bader on the bench, or Marsh will slide to left field, with Bader in center field and one of Kepler or Castellanos in right field and the other on the bench.

There are many moving parts, and Thomson seems like he is not in much of a rush to declare permanent roles. Castellanos sitting was once something that never happened, but the veteran has sat against right-handed pitching three times in the last handful of games.

All signs point to the best alignment being Bader taking over in center full-time, with Marsh and Wilson platooning in left field and Kepler and Castellanos platooning in right field. Castellanos is prone to a hot streak every now and then, but when he slumps, he is as brutal at the plate as any major-league hitter. And no matter how he is doing at the plate, Castellanos is as harmful of a defensive outfielder as any in the majors. On the weak side of a platoon, Castellanos’ defensive futility would be limited, while a Marsh-Bader-Kepler unit would be considerably better than the average in terms of outfield defense.

Castellanos, who enters Friday’s play last among 155 qualified major-league hitters in fWAR (-0.8), has just not done enough for Kepler’s resurgence to be ignored. His production against right-handed pitching is not good enough to make such a significant defensive downgrade going from Marsh-Bader-Kepler to Kepler-Marsh-Castellanos. But Castellanos has notably expressed displeasure with a potential role change before. (Speaking of, Thomson should certainly return to lifting Castellanos for defense late in close games when he can.)

Aidan Miller on an unconscious run

Miller, the Phillies’ top hitting prospect according to many evaluators, has had an odd season at Double-A Reading. Despite an incredibly hitter-friendly environment, Miller was slugging around .350 heading into the summer. He became a dynamic base-stealing threat, though, and his continued defensive development at shortstop has been important.

By the time the trade deadline neared in the end of July, the idea of Miller being traded felt realistic. The Phillies were set to be aggressive in talks to fortify their bullpen, but it ended up being catching prospect Eduardo Tait and pitcher Mick Abel — two players with mainstream rankings far inferior to that of Miller — sent to the Minnesota Twins in exchange for Jhoan Duran.

Interestingly, Bobby Nightengale of The Minnesota Star Tribune reported earlier this month that the Twins preferred Tait to Miller in talks about Duran. It sounds like the Phillies were probably willing to part with Miller in some configuration of a Duran trade if they had to, but August began with the former first-round pick still in the organization.

Now, the Phillies should be thrilled that they still have Miller, who has torched pitching in the Eastern League this month, slashing .356/.435/.658 with four homers and 10 doubles in 17 games. Miller also has 10 stolen bases in August and continues to smoke hittable pitches. Miller went deep twice on Thursday night, and the first was a particularly monstrous blast:

Miller will not be in Philadelphia this year, but suddenly a promotion to Triple-A by the end of 2025 could be in play as his positive momentum continues. If he can earn a bump and then produce in the International League, Miller’s disappointing production at the plate in the first half-plus of 2025 will feel like it happened a long time ago.

More on Bryson Stott’s red-hot stretch

Our own Nick Tricome wrote about Stott’s recent surge on Wednesday, focused on Stott lowering his hands and seeing improved results in tow. Stott was moved to the very bottom of the order after the All-Star break, following a prolonged stretch of struggles largely coming from either the leadoff spot or the middle of the order. But in his last 25 games — a stretch that actually coincides with the birth of Stott’s second child — the second baseman is slashing .333/.410/.556 with 10 extra-base hits.

Stott has had impressive stretches before. He has always been able to work deep counts with a knack for providing clutch swings. But it always, to varying degrees, felt like smoke and mirrors. Stott is nearing the end of his fourth major-league season, and his exit velocity numbers have always been poor. Say what you want about analytics in baseball, but players who rarely hit the ball hard in a massive sample rarely turn into productive hitters.

Lately, though, Stott has been hitting the ball with authority. Anecdotally it felt as if Stott’s ability to make hard contact was improving in recent weeks, and across three games against the Mariners he put six balls in play with an exit velocity of at least 95.0 miles per hour. On Monday, Mariners ace Logan Gilbert threw a fastball and Stott laced it, 108.7 miles per hour, for a double. His home run against Bryce Miller on Tuesday was a no-doubter.

Whether Stott’s hand placement changes have generated additional power or if this is just a positive blip on the radar remains to be seen. But the Phillies desperately needed the 27-year-old to show signs of life offensively, and he is doing that right now.

MORE: Bryson Stott surging since swing change

A date to watch on Justin Crawford

For much of the summer, the Phillies seemed to be telegraphing that Crawford, their top outfield prospect, was inevitably going to be called up to help fortify an outfield that had been struggling mightily. It has become unclear if that remains in the cards, even though Crawford has continued to produce at a high level.

Crawford, 21, is hitting .327 for Triple-A Lehigh Valley this year while running a .407 on-base percentage. Crawford has played center field for much of the year, but after Johan Rojas was sent down to Triple-A, the two athletic outfielders have traded off center field and left field.

The Phillies’ public position on Crawford, in a nutshell, has been that he is ready to be a major-league outfielder, but the team will not promote him to the majors until there is a spot for him to play every day. With Kepler surging and Bader now in the picture, it has become harder to find a path to creating an everyday role for Crawford, and so he has remained in Triple-A.

But what if a late-season injury forces Crawford into the picture? In order to be eligible for the postseason, Crawford will need to be placed on the 40-man roster by 11:59 p.m. ET on Aug. 31. Otherwise, the Phillies would have to file a petition with MLB to make Crawford eligible, which would only be granted if he is replacing someone on the injured list, eligible to be activated but not yet physically capable of it. 

Checking in on Kyle Schwarber vs. Shohei Ohtani in NL MVP race

While Schwarber has continued to electrify Citizens Bank Park and draw raucous “MVP” chants with each swing, his actual chances of surpassing Ohtani and winning that award in the National League are probably going down. Ohtani is on a heater himself, and even without focusing on Ohtani being back to pitching, the edge on offense is clearly in favor of the Dodgers superstar. And then you remember that, yes, Ohtani is on the mound every fifth or sixth day:

Shohei OhtaniKyle Schwarber.285 AVG.253 AVG.393 OBP.373 OBP.625 SLG.584 SLG174 wRC+160 wRC+44 HR45 HR83 RBI109 RBI120 R89 R17 SB10 SB6.0 fWAR (batting)4.2 fWAR27.1 IP
4.61 ERA
2.05 FIP
1.1 fWAR (pitching)

Schwarber not winning NL MVP should in no way put a damper on the campaign he is having. This is one of the most impressive seasons ever authored by a Phillies hitter, with feats of power not seen around these parts since the days of Ryan Howard.

MORE: How can Phillies survive losing Zack Wheeler?

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