Philadelphia Phillies: Is Aaron Altherr changing their outfield plans?
By Jason Evans
The Philadelphia Phillies have plenty of young talent. Could Aaron Altherr be a part of their outfield moving forward?
When looking at the Philadelphia Phillies‘ potential core moving forward, there’s a lot to like. Mickey Moniak was the first pick in the draft last season and looks like he can be a star. In fact, five of the Phillies’ top 10 prospects according to MLBpipeline.com are outfielders. Nick Williams, Roman Quinn and Dylan Cozens are at AAA right now.
The Phillies gave Odubel Hererra a long-term deal, but also traded for Howie Kendrick, who’s on an expiring contract, and signed Michael Saunders as well.
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I’m not sure the Phillies were expecting Aaron Altherr to have as much impact as he has so far this season, but the former two-time organizational All-Star has displayed some of the offensive talent they thought he had.
Altherr had wrist surgery last season and although he came back from it during the year, he never quite displayed some of the potential he showed back in 2015. What really hurt him last year were the strikeouts. He struck out 30 percent of the time and only hit .202 with a .288 BABIP. That’s not going to get it done.
This year has been a whole different story for Altherr. So far this season, he’s hitting .333 with a 1.149 OPS in 28 games. He’s already tied his career high in RBI with 22.
Part of it is better pitch selection. Altherr has cut his K-rate down to 25.3 percent and increased his walk rate to to 13.1 percent. He’s pulling the ball a little bit more, as that’s up to 44 percent and his hard hit rate is up from 29 percent to 40 percent.
Per Statcast, Altherr’s exit velocity is up over 91 MPH, which is higher than the league average of 87 MPH. What’s interesting is that his average launch angle is three degrees below average. If he is able to increase that, he could really do some impressive damage.
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The Philadelphia Phillies’ process should be about collecting assets as they rebuild. Yes, the Phillies have five outfielders in their top 10 prospects, but they can use one or two as trade bait to maybe get a starting pitcher or something else they may need moving forward. With the insane rate at which players have been injured this season (or so it seems), depth is important as well.
The fact that Altherr could be a piece for the Phillies moving forward is great news for the franchise. They need to let him play the rest of the way and let him continue to learn and improve at the major league level. Who knows, in two years maybe they won’t need to spend big money on Bryce Harper, right? (Eh, maybe not.)