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Harrison Bader Has a Swagger the Phillies Needed
By Sean Barnard
Published:
When the MLB trade deadline came and went this year, plenty of attention was paid to the addition of Jhoan Duran, which provided the Phillies a legitimate closer and improved their postseason outlook. But maybe not enough attention was paid to the upgrade in the outfield, with Harrison Bader being one of the more under-the-radar additions across the league.
Bader has been around Major League Baseball for quite some time. He has 901 games to his name, 31 games of playoff experience, and has suited up for the Cardinals, Yankees, Reds, Mets, Twins, and now the Phillies.
Before Bader’s arrival, the Phillies outfield was largely the island of misfit toys. Nick Castellanos was the lone consistent starter (which has since changed). Max Kepler was failing to live up to offseason expectations. Johan Rojas still had not figured out how to hit major league pitching. And Brandon Marsh was everything you wanted in the clubhouse in a teammate while struggling to hit left-handed pitching, being strikeout prone and a streaky hitter in general. Each player has their moments, when you can squint and see the vision, but none of these options were able to consistently fill the team’s needs.
Enter Harrison Bader.
No he’s not the perfect baseball player. But Bader is the closest to a balanced outfielder in this mix. Before he came to the Phillies, the team ranked 27th in MLB in defensive runs saved, -28 on the season. Bader individually tallied +13 runs saved during the first half of the season with the Twins. Unlike Rojas, who is fully dependent on his athleticism for making his defensive plays, Bader has a baseball feel for how to play the outfield. He can read a fly ball off the crack of the bat and has his patented crab walk for getting under to make the catch. It may not be how they teach it, with any sort of backpedal being a cardinal sin of my youth baseball experience, but it works:
Offensively, Bader is in the midst of his best season as a professional. He’s slashing .270/.348/.448 with a .796 OPS. The former Gold Glover has 14 home runs, 47 RBIs, and 34 extra base hits. Since joining the Phillies, he’s posting a line of .310/.379/.476 with a .855 OPS. Across 27 games, he has two home runs, nine RBIs, and 26 total hits.
Beyond the numbers and X’s and O’s, there’s a swagger that Bader carries and this Phillies team straight up needs. While on his Mic’d up interview on Sunday Night Baseball against the Braves, he was asked about fitting into the Phillies clubhouse. Bader put it like this:
“I think the number one thing when you get traded is just to let your game speak for itself. You know? It’s very easy to get caught up in a lot of the noise, playoff race, fitting into a clubhouse, but honestly the game in between the lines is all that has to matter in there. Just playing my game, working, being a good teammate, it all circulates around playing the game the right way. So I’m just trying to do that and make the manager and my teammates happy with my play and that’s all there is to it.”
Maybe it is the little crab hop as he tracks a fly ball. Maybe it is because he looks like the bad guy from the Incredibles movie. Maybe it is because he will not be spotted on the field or off it without a container of Zyn’s in his pocket:
But the bottom line is he has a personality that this Phillies team was missing. Harrison Bader was just about a perfect fit on this Phillies roster and in this clubhouse.
How the full outfield picture is painted is still to be determined. Nick Castellanos has not been shy about his displeasure with seeing his level of opportunity reduced following Bader’s addition. Kepler, to his credit, has shown a pulse and showcased some additional power of late. Marsh has continued to mash against right-handed hitting and plays the outfield well. Even Weston Wilson has provided some nice moments, such as the 444-foot home run in Milwaukee.
But Bader has done everything possible to cement his spot.
He holds a $10 million mutual option at the end of the season. How the rest of the year goes will surely play a role on what this outlook is. The Phillies also have to look internally at what their vision and timeline is for players like Justin Crawford and Rojas.
Meantime, Bader has very quickly grown into a key part of this Phillies team and made a consistent case why he should be the everyday centerfielder. It will be a balancing act for Rob Thomson down the stretch of the season, but struggling to fit players into the lineup and outfield is a far better problem than what the team faced before. When push comes to shove, expect Bader to be a playoff difference maker and what this Phillies roster was missing all along.
Sean Barnard has covered the Philadelphia 76ers and general Philly Sports for over six years in a variety of roles and for multiple outlets. Currently works as a Content Writer for DraftKings Network, Sixers/NBA Insider for Philadelphia's Fox Sports the Gambler, and co-host of Sixers & Phillies Digest on Youtube. Forever Trusting the Process.