Important Philadelphia Phillies Slugger Looking Much Improved in Spring Camp

The Philadelphia Phillies needed help in the outfield this winter.

That was clear.

After two seasons where they got underwhelming production from the two other outfielders outside of Nick Castellanos, pretty much everyone around baseball listed the Phillies as a prime team to go big-game hunting for someone like Juan Soto or Luis Robert Jr. to truly address the offensive problems they have had in this unit.

But, Philadelphia had other ideas.

Financially handicapped, Dave Dombrowski decided to take a chance on Max Kepler, a once promising slugger who has provided seasons of excellence at his peak, but also has had multiple campaigns of below average play.

It's a risk.

Kepler is going to be the starting left fielder, playing a position he's never gotten a single rep at in a Major League game.

His defense isn't the worry considering he's been worth a staggering 66 Outs Above Average per Baseball Savant and is a plus-2.7 defensive bWAR player in his 10 years of Major League Baseball.

Kepler's offense is ultimately going to decide if the Phillies have truly transformed their outfield unit or not.

Knowing that, the slugger got to work early with hitting coach Kevin Long this offseason, and the dividends are looking promising already in spring camp.

"In the [live at-bats] we've had in the last couple days, I've been hitting the ball hard ... I already noticed that with the adjustments, I have way more time, and a lot of room to play with the bat head. So it's making sense," Kepler said per Lochlahn March of The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Long has made adjustments to the stance of Kepler, telling the slugger to alter the angle of his bat from being straight up in the air to being positioned more towards the dugout to better help the path into the strike zone.

Squaring up the ball has been an issue during his career.

While his 7.3% barrel rate is above the league average of 7%, that is helped by his peak years where he barreled the ball at a 8.9%, 10.8% and 12.2% clip during the 2019, 2021 and 2023 seasons, all three years where he had some of his best raw numbers at the plate.

If Kepler can become more consistent when it comes to making hard contact with the ball, he could be in line for a massive bounce back performance in 2025, something Philadelphia desperately needs.

"You can be a little nit picky about angles and launch angles and where the ball is going in the field, but just from squaring balls up to the pull side, I have noticed that it's a huge difference to when I first come into camps, and I'm fouling balls off into the third base dugout and late," he added.

Staying healthy is the other challenge he needs to overcome.

Kepler is coming off a season where he dealt with hip and knee injuries before having to undergo surgery to repair his abdominal muscle that was partially detached.

The Phillies are banking on him to be the slugger who once hit 36 home runs during a single campaign and blasted 20-plus in two others.

These adjustments should help, and it's already paying off early in spring.

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