Philadelphia Phillies eyeing a defensive overhaul in 2021?

The Philadelphia Phillies could be prioritizing their defense above all else this winter.

Historically bad bullpen aside for the moment, one of the biggest issues that plagued the Philadelphia Phillies in 2021 was that of their defense. They ranked dead last in defensive efficiency (.642), last in Rtot (-41), and 28th in Rdrs (-33).

Even if you don’t know what each of those metrics specifically mean (you can find out at baseballreference.com), it’s obvious that ranking towards the bottom of the league in multiple defensive grading metrics isn’t a good thing. The Phillies massively struggled to save runs in the field, and that just compounded on their league-worst bullpen. The amount of errors and misplayed balls that we saw in 2020 was excruciating – and it likely only would’ve gotten worse as the season progressed.

With all that in mind, it looks like newly hired President of Baseball Ops Dave Dombrowski has identified this weakness as a major position of need. The Phillies were linked to free agent outfielder Jackie Bradley Jr. earlier this morning, and they could look to fill other positions with defensive minded players as well.

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I spoke on Bradley Jr. and what he could provide to the Phillies earlier last week (Philadelphia Phillies: Could Dombrowski target Jackie Bradley Jr.?), but to recap, he’s an exceptional defender who possesses a solid enough bat. He was an All-Star in 2016, won a Gold Glove in 2018, and won the ALCS MVP during the Red Sox’ World Series run. His career defensive WAR of 7.8 would instantly be the highest in the Philadelphia outfield (by a pretty wide margin), providing a major boost to the Phillies struggling defense.

With the Philadelphia Phillies currently engaging JBJ over a potential contract (the Cubs and Blue Jays are reportedly interested as well), the team could very easily double-down on their defensive investment by targeting someone like Andrelton Simmons as well. The former Angel and Brave, Simmons has established himself as one of the best defenders in all of baseball. He’s won four Gold Glove awards, and his career defensive WAR of 26.6 ranks as the 14th best in MLB history.

Needless to say, Simmons is an absolutely unbelievable defender up the middle of the field. Considering the fact that Didi Gregorius is all but gone at this point in time – and Jean Segura is being mentioned in potential trade talks – the Phillies have a glaring hole at the SS position. Filling it via Simmons would be a huge boost to the team’s overall defensive capabilities, and hypothetically combining that with Bradley Jr. would leave the Phils’ pitchers feeling far more confident in the guys playing behind them.

Now, as fun as a Simmons-Bradley Jr. partnership sounds in theory, a lot of the Phillies’ defensive prowess rests on their currently vacant catcher position. It seems mildly pointless to sign two lockdown defenders in the field – just to abandon the catcher job to the likes of Andrew Knapp. Whether that means signing back JT Realmuto, or bringing in a different free agent, filling that void behind the plate is another cog to the machine that Dombrowski ultimately has to figure out.