Looking at Phillies 1st “Full Strength” Lineup After Hoskins Injury

The Philadelphia Phillies play the New York Yankees on Saturday in Clearwater, with Spring Training winding down. The Phillies are playing without injured first baseman Rhys Hoskins and with a relatively full lineup for the first time since the injury on Thursday. Rob Thomson went with a lineup that just plugged in Darick Hall for Hoskins as the Phills look to somehow replace Hoskins’s 30 home runs from a year ago. 

As the Phillies face the Yankees today, they’ll do so with the following batting order:

1. Trea Turner
2. Kyle Schwarber
3. JT Realmuto
4. Darick Hall
5. Nick Castellanos
6. Bryson Stott
7. Alec Bohm
8. Brandom Marsh
9. Dalton Guthrie

The Phillies took on the Blue Jays on Friday, but most regulars got the night off. Realmuto, Turner, Bohm, Stott, and Schwarber all sat that out. However, with all in the lineup, we get a glimpse of how Thomson might put together his lineups after losing Hoskins and with Bryce Harper on the DL to start the season.

When Harper is healthy, he’s the Phills third hitter, with JT Realmuto hitting cleanup. With a healthy Hoskins and Harper out earlier this spring, Hoskins hit cleanup with Realmuto third on Wednesday. So it looks like, at least initially, Thomson will just insert Hall in Hoskins’s place now with JT third and Nick Castellanos, who the Phillies need to have a rebound season even more now, hitting fifth. 

The Yankees have right-hander Randy Vasquez on the mound, so Hall at first in place of Hoskins makes sense. Dave Dombrowski said on Friday that Hall would be handling most of the reps at first with Hoskins out. 

Thomson really prioritized breaking up his righties and lefties, still with an R / L / R / L / R / L / R / L / R order. It’ll be interesting to see if Thomson ultimately tinkers with getting Bohm higher up in the order to help replace some of Hoskins’ pop. Bohm is looking poised to improve on his power numbers this year, and the Phillies might need that higher in the order at some point with Hoskins out. 

How much Castellanos does or does not bounce back this year could determine whether or not we see Bohm move up at some point. The Phillies need a lot more than the 13 home runs Castellanos hit in 2022 out of the fifth spot this year – especially until Harper comes back. 

The Phillies are scheduled to face another right-hander tomorrow against the Orioles – Kyle Bradish. They are expected to face another right-hander on Monday as well against the Blue Jays – Kyle Gausman. There is no probable pitcher listed for the Jays for Tuesday, the final spring training game of the year, meaning the Phillies might not see a lefty starter before the start of the season.