Outfielders
See Hoskins above.
Odubel Herrera has now passed his “BEST BY” date and should be jettisoned in favor of Roman Quinn in center field. His slash line features the worst figures of his career in BA and OBP (.256/.313/.424 after Sept. 24), and although he can make marvelous defensive plays now and then, he is just too “high variance,” a wildly streaky player (to borrow an NFL phrase). He’s either very good or very bad, sometimes for weeks at a time. Quinn can steal bases, make all or most plays Herrera could defensively, and has a nice, if limited, slash line (.282/.331/.464 in 44 games this year).
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Proviso: Herrera has a team-friendly contract. If a better than decent return for him isn’t possible, he should be the fourth outfielder and try to win his starting job back. This would also apply if Santana isn’t moved and Hoskins remains in left field, which is quite likely.
Nick Williams keeps the right field job by default, barring the acquisition of someone with Lorenzo Cain’s talent, unless Joey Meneses takes the position in spring training.
Aaron Altherr, who has all the native athletic talent in the world, ran into a wall on Sept. 24 in Denver, and probably ended a dreadful campaign that saw him demoted for a while to Triple-A and fail to crack the Mendoza line in average. It’s probably time for a change of scenery for Altherr, but he’s eligible for arbitration too.
Dylan Cozens probably needs at least another half-season in Triple-A so that he can cross the .100 line for his MLB average.
Jose Bautista, near the end of his career, has pushed his batting average up by jumping from one team to another, to another, in the NL East this year. Joey Bats’ inexpensive contract is up, but he could be invited to spring training as a potential bat off the bench again. He can also still play some outfield.
Conclusion
It has been an odd season for the Philadelphia Phillies. This oddness has been driven by new management ideas needing refinement. Someday they may be refined to a point they help a team with the second best record in the NL Aug. 5 stay near the top of the standings. This year, however, they have produced a .500 team featuring a whole lot of iffiness and exactly four starting players (two pitchers) who should definitely stay with the team.