ATLANTA — Paco Figueroa, the first-base coach who oversees Phillies outfielders, looked toward left field at Truist Park a few hours before Tuesday’s game. This was Edmundo Sosa’s home for a night. He had never started a professional game — majors or minors — in the outfield. The Phillies picked this one, Zack Wheeler vs. Chris Sale, because Sosa’s bat forced their hand. He had to play somewhere.
“It’s still going to be a work in progress, you know what I mean?” Figueroa said. “It’s not natural to him, but he’s an athlete, and he likes to work at it. So, we’ll see how it goes.”
It’s the Phillies, so there is never a middle ground. A 7-5 series-opening loss to the Atlanta Braves epitomized this. Three batters into the bottom of the first, Sosa drifted toward the left-field corner. He timed his jump over the 6-foot wall, snared a would-be Marcell Ozuna home run, and pulled it back. He gyrated toward the fence. It was a stunning moment.
Then, in the second inning, a routine fly ball floated toward left-center field with one out and the bases empty. It was Johan Rojas’ ball. But Sosa tracked it, and he yelled as he came closer to Rojas. “Tua! Tua! Tua!” Sosa shouted. Yours. Rojas thought Sosa was calling for the ball. Rojas stopped. The ball bounced at his feet and into his glove. Three batters later, Atlanta’s Sean Murphy smashed a three-run homer.
The entire game changed.
“That ball is mine,” Rojas said. “I have to catch it. There’s no excuse.”
A lot happened Tuesday night. Kyle Schwarber hit a ball 462 feet and fell a double shy of the cycle. The Phillies bullied Sale. Wheeler wasn’t his sharpest. The bullpen looked shaky again. But the outfield remains a complete unknown almost two weeks into this season.
The Phillies cast their die in the offseason when they signed another lefty-hitting outfielder, Max Kepler, to pair with Brandon Marsh. Both were treated as platoon players in 2024. The Phillies have designs on them playing more as regulars in 2025. But they’ve already looked for spots to hide them against tough lefty pitchers. They have only one traditional reserve outfielder, Rojas, and Sosa’s hot start prompted outside-the-box thinking.
Kyle Schwarber hits a home run in the fifth inning. He came up a double shy of hitting for the cycle. (Brett Davis / Imagn Images)
After Sosa authored an incredible first outfield putout, he took adventurous routes to other balls. He was not in the proper throwing position on a sacrifice fly that tied the game in the sixth inning. The Phillies had anticipated needing Sosa in the outfield during spring training; he worked with Figueroa every morning. But he had limited experience playing in a ballpark with a third deck and during the night.
This was the risk the Phillies took with their ace on the mound.
“As the night got darker, (Sosa) had a little bit more problems,” Phillies manager Rob Thomson said. “And I think the ball in center field, that was Rojas’ ball. I think it kind of put him on his heels a little bit. So, you know, he needs reps, and that’s what it is. It’s experience.”
Every afternoon since the season started, Sosa has spent one round of batting practice standing in left field. Shagging is his best shot at game-like experience. But even that has its limitations.
“I felt comfortable out there,” Sosa said through a team interpreter. “It’s just simply I’ve never caught a left-handed hitter’s fly ball before. Until that inning Matt Olson hit a very high fly ball, that’s when I realized what my teammates are talking about with the spin coming off the ball of a left-handed hitter.”
Nick Castellanos found Sosa in the dugout and told him to control his pace on the field. Sosa is fast enough to catch balls. He overran some. He plays with a certain energy; it’s why his teammates love him, but it might have been a detriment in a new position.
Nevertheless, the critical misplay was on Rojas. He is the club’s best outfield defender.
“Rojas is a captain out there, and he’s got to take charge,” Thomson said. “He’s got priority. So we talked to him about it, especially, you know, the guy’s playing left field for the first time in his life.”
“I have to catch that ball,” Rojas said. “That’s my responsibility over there. So I have to catch that ball.”
The Phillies are scheduled to face only two lefties in their next nine games. Thomson said he knows his outfield against righties — Kepler, Marsh and Castellanos. If Sosa can make himself viable in the outfield and continues to hit, he could carve out more at-bats. The Phillies envisioned Weston Wilson as their fourth outfielder; he began a minor-league rehab assignment Tuesday night and will spend the maximum 20 days there.
Wilson can be optioned to the minors after that. But if the Phillies haven’t seen enough outfield progress from Sosa, or his bat has cooled, Wilson probably has a spot on this roster.
Still, the Phillies know teams will try to put as many lefty starters on them as possible. How they counter is an important question they must answer in the coming months.
Wheeler said he was upset he could not pitch around the miscue. It was a mental error by Rojas, not a fielding error, so those were earned runs for Wheeler. “I was mad at myself for not bearing down because you take pride in that type of stuff,” Wheeler said. But, as some teammates showered in an otherwise quiet clubhouse, Rojas saw it differently.
“Wheeler threw really good,” Rojas said. “I missed that ball. I feel bad for him. But I have to catch that ball.”
(Top photo of Edmundo Sosa robbing Marcell Ozuna of a home run in the first inning: Kevin C. Cox / Getty Images)