The Phillies still haven’t solved their cleanup hitter problem

Drew Smith
August 8, 2025
Phillies
0 Comments

The Philadelphia Phillies are sitting in first place in the NL East. They are en route to their fourth straight postseason berth and have solidified their bullpen with the addition of Jhoan Duran at the trade deadline.

The outfield is… sorting itself out, kind of, but the biggest concern right now for me is in the cleanup spot because the Phillies don’t have one.

Seriously though, there is no real cleanup hitter protecting Kyle Schwarber and Bryce Harper in this Phillies lineup and eventually, it’s going to cause some issues down the stretch.

Harper and Schwarber are both playing like MVPs. Trea Turner, even with a recent slump, is still hitting .280 and has the talent to win a batting title. After that, as I’m sure you know, is simply a collection of streaky, platoon, or just average bats.

At the deadline, the Phillies had chances to land a legit middle-of-the-order threat with guys like Eugenio Suárez, Carlos Correa, or Ryan McMahon and passed.

Hell, even Stephen Kwan stayed put despite being available.

That leaves the 4-spot as a revolving door, with JT Realmuto, Nick Castellanos, and Alec Bohm all getting opportunities. The issue there is that none of those guys can make a pitcher sweat or be considered “reliable” when people are on base ahead of them.

Phillies Cleanup Spot Compared to the Rest of the Order:

Spot	OPS	MLB Rank
1	.707	20th
2	.872	3rd
3	.837	9th
4	.715*	21st
5	.720	15th
6	.768	2nd
7	.704	13th
8	.697	5th
9	.643	13th

So, do you move Kyle Schwarber back to cleanup?

Kyle Schwarber hasn’t hit in the cleanup spot since June 5. Remove his early-season at-bats, and the 4-hole has been a disaster. The .715 OPS drops down to a .628 OPS, which is literally the dead last in baseball.

I would say yes, Schwarber should obviously be the cleanup hitter but I guess that seems almost too logical for Rob Thomson.

Topper doesn’t believe that should happen given Schwarber’s elite OBP (5th best in the NL) in front of Harper and wants him getting as many at-bats as possible.

That’s a fair assessment but I don’t think it can be used when again, there’s literally no one else contributing in the cleanup spot. Plus, Schwarber did hit cleanup earlier this year and was excellent, hitting .277 with 10 homers, 26 RBI over 37 games.

Here’s everyone else:

Nick Castellanos: .242/.285/.392, 5 HR, 27 RBI in 200 PA
Alec Bohm: .179/.243/.269, 2 HR, 6 RBI in 74 PA
J.T. Realmuto: .206/.250/.265, 0 HR, 2 RBI in 36 PA
Max Kepler: .143/.333/.143 in 9 PA

Not great.

Bohm is nearing a return from a rib injury, and maybe he can get back to his career .271 average from the cleanup spot, where he’s knocked in 96 runs in 151 career starts.

Harrison Bader has only got the nod at cleanup six times in nine years. Obviously, Max Kepler isn’t going to do it and neither is the rook, Otto Kemp.

I don’t have the answers.

Kyle Schwarber hitting cleanup is probably the best bet down the stretch but I’m still not convinced that Topper wants to do that. From there, you would have to hope that Nick Castellanos can be the guy or have Alec Bohm hit from there, assuming he comes back from injury and performs to expectations.

The Phillies have the arms to win in October, and a bullpen that can hang with anyone. If they get bounced early again, it’s probably because the middle of this lineup couldn’t keep the pressure on when it mattered most.