Phillies' Boss Shares Role Their Star Slugger Will Have in 2024

With the Philadelphia Phillies expected to be much healthier to start out next season, Dave Dombrowski has shared what role one of their star sluggers will have during 2024.

After making it to the 2022 World Series, the Philadelphia Phillies figured to be a major contender to get back to the championship with a chance to win it heading into 2023.

Even though Bryce Harper would miss some time following elbow surgery, the addition of Trea Turner was expected to be enough to keep them afloat before the return on their superstar.

However, Rhys Hoskins tearing his ACL in Spring Training put a wrench into all of their plans prior to the start of the season.

Players had to shift positions to fill roles they weren't expected to fill.

One of these moves was having Kyle Schwarber be the everyday left fielder after he was signed to be their full-time designated hitter.

This resulted in the Phillies having one of the worst outfield defenses in the MLB.

Things changed towards the middle of the year following the call-up of rookie Johan Rojas, but much of the damage in the division race had already been done after their poor start.

Philadelphia is hoping to avoid that in 2024 and president of baseball operations, Dave Dombrowski, has come out strongly about what role Schwarber will have.

"We really hadn’t planned on Schwarber being our left fielder on a regular basis. So that’s changed," he told Todd Zolecki of MLB.com while saying he expects their slugger to be the DH almost every day.

The lefty bomber also dealt with a knee issue last year and should be more mobile after an offseason of rehab.

Schwarber also played much better down the stretch after moving to DH full-time.

In August, he had a slash line of .213/.380/.564. During September it was .242/.395/.576. He also launched 20 home runs and had 39 RBI in these two months combined.

With the Phillies not using their slugger in the field, he is expected to have a much better season at the plate.