CLEARWATER, Fla — Monday is the first official full-squad practice of camp for the Phillies, though many of their key position players already got to work this weekend.
Bryce Harper took drills at first base on the half-field at the spring training complex on Saturday and Sunday. Max Kepler, J.T. Realmuto, Rafael Marchan and Garrett Stubbs faced live pitching on Sunday. Kyle Schwarber began working out at first base.
Some news and notes heading into Week 2 of spring training:
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Batting order
Schwarber has led off in nearly 85% of his plate appearances as a Phillie but could be hitting third or fourth this season.
Manager Rob Thomson said after the season, at the Winter Meetings and again last week that he's considering a change atop the lineup. If he does, Trea Turner would lead off. Harper would likely hit second. From there, the Phillies could go with Alec Bohm then Schwarber or vice versa.
Harper has no interest in leading off.
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"I'm glad I'm not the manager," the two-time MVP said Saturday. "He's gonna do what he needs to do to make our team win and help us win.
"I haven't been talked to yet. Obviously, I'm a 3-hole hitter or I have been but whenever they tell me to hit two or four, I've done that in the past. I want to win so I don't care what that takes.
"I've hit three a lot in my career, I feel comfortable there. I've hit two a lot early in my career so I'm comfortable there. And then obviously in the postseason in '22, I hit four a lot. Like I said, I just want to win."
Sosa in center?
Edmundo Sosa quickly began drills this weekend with first base coach Paco Figueroa, who works with the Phillies' outfielders.
The Phils will try Sosa out in left field and "there's a chance" he could play center field this spring as well. The center field component could be interesting if Sosa takes to the position because it would give the Phillies another right-handed platoon option against lefties other than Johan Rojas.
"He'd become kind of a super-utility guy which would be a nice thing to have," Thomson said Sunday. "Until he gets out shagging and real reads off the bat, you really can't tell."
Sosa played two innings of center field for the Phillies in 2023 and three innings of left field the year before. That's been the extent of his major-league work in the outfield.
The Phillies wanted to experiment more with Sosa in the outfield last June because he was so hot offensively when Trea Turner returned from a six-week IL stint but it never progressed to the point of playing him there in games.
Schwarber working at first
Schwarber will continue to work out three times a week at first base with infield coach Bobby Dickerson. The Phillies want to give themselves another option when Harper needs a day off or if he suffers an injury.
Schwarber has not played first base since starting nine games there for the Red Sox in the 2021 postseason. That was a situation he was thrown into. This time, he'll have more preparation.
"I'm in the playoffs and it's like, 'What's going on?" he recalled. "I felt like I was just standing over there and hoping to catch the ball. But they did a really good job with me, just giving me that crash course to be able to just be over there and do a somewhat decent job over there of being able to just catch the ball.
"But I think the cool thing now is that I feel like we have a really good infield coach in Bobby Dickerson. … It's another thing for me to get to learn and get to experience and try to stay sharp in a different way."
Rotation order
Thomson said over the weekend that he'd ideally like to split up Zack Wheeler and Aaron Nola in the Phillies' rotation and do the same with lefties Cristopher Sanchez and Jesus Luzardo. Ranger Suarez is also a left-hander but Sanchez and Luzardo are more similar in terms of velocity and stuff.
That could result in an opening week rotation of Wheeler, Sanchez, Nola with Luzardo and Suarez rounding it out. The Phils will also build up Joe Ross as a starting pitcher in spring training just in case he's needed to begin the season in the rotation because of injury.
If the Phils' five starters are healthy when the team heads north for the regular season, Ross will be in the bullpen. Thomson says he'd feel comfortable using him as a multi-inning reliever or one-inning leverage guy. Ross had a 1.67 ERA in 27 innings of relief last season.