Philadelphia Phillies: So about that Odubel Herrera guy

One of the most talked about position battles when it came to the 2021 Philadelphia Phillies, nobody really had a clue how the team would be handling their CF job. There was talks of splashing big money on someone like Jackie Bradley Jr., or trading for Dombrowski-favorite Andrew Benintendi (and plopping him out in center for the year), but ultimately speaking the Phillies new-look front office decided to roll with their internal options.

Internal options which included the likes of Odubel Herrera, who was very clearly being viewed as a “last resort” within the organization.

Herrera, a former All-Star for the Phillies back in 2016, served an 85 game suspension back in 2019 due to a domestic violence incident that he was involved in. He wasn’t charged with anything on a criminal level, but it was still a rather public incident which forced Major League Baseball to take action.

Due to this, along with an overall lack of inconsistency that Herrera had displayed post-2016, the team went into the regular season committed to trying out every other internal option first, before approaching the Odubel conversation. However, things quickly went south when it came to said other options.

Scott Kingery couldn’t even crack the initial major league roster, Adam Haseley requested a leave of absence just a few games into the season. Roman Quinn was the same ol’ Roman Quinn, and Mickey Moniak wasn’t even close to being ready for such a lofty role. Therefore, the Philadelphia Phillies turned things over to their former All-Star, and he quite simply ran away with the opportunity.

Coming off a multi-hit, multi-HR game against the Reds on Tuesday night, Odubel hasn’t just come in and patched the Phillies CF position with average play, he’s come in and given the team above average play. He’s currently batting .276 with a .794 OPS, and his defense in center has consistently been adequate.

Following his second home run last night, Joe Giglio from 94WIP pointed out that Odubel’s numbers compared to the rest of the league’s center fielders paint the picture of someone who has been genuinely solid this season:

Odubel Herrera has been one of the better center fielders in baseball this season, but his future with the Philadelphia Phillies is still a murky one.

It’s unknown if Odubel will continue to swing the bat at such an impressive level this season, but as things actively stand, the Phillies have found themselves in a bit of a predicament when it comes to the future of their center field position.

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Currently on the hook for $11.5 million in 2022, the general consensus heading into the season is that the Phillies would trigger their $2.5 million buyout clause on Odubel during the upcoming offseason to free up $9 million. Nobody expected Odubel to even make it to the starting lineup, nevertheless perform at an above average level – the decision to part ways after ’21 should have been an easy one

The Phillies could wait things out and make a decision on Odubel’s future during the winter – $11.5 million is a lot of money, but CF is also a pretty darn important position. Basing things off his current production, you could easily make the argument that he’d be worth said money.

Or, as I pointed out earlier last week, the Phils could look to shop their over-performing CF around the trade deadline if they’re still out of the playoff picture. One can only assume that a 29 year old outfielder with a .790+ OPS would fetch something decent in return on the trade block.

There’s also a fairly decent chance that the MLB – as a whole – is just collectively disinterested in Odubel due to his previous domestic violence suspension. There’s no guarantee that another team would come calling for Odubel if the Philadelphia Phillies were to shop him at some point this season, or if he were to end up a free agent in the winter.

Whatever the case may be, Odubel’s continued journey with the Phillies, and baseball as a whole, is definitely one worth following. I don’t think anyone thought we’d be sitting here in June talking about Odubel as one of the better center fielders in baseball – and yet here we are. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯