USATSI_16491561 — Eric Hartline-USA TODAY Sports

Moniak Primed to Crack Phillies' Opening Day Roster

All signs point to the former first overall pick appearing with the Philadelphia Phillies come Opening Day.

Author:
Alex Carr
Mar 29, 2022 6:30 PM EDT

After seven long, hard-fought years in the Philadelphia Phillies' minor league system, Mickey Moniak, the former 2016 first overall pick, appears set to break camp with the big club come Opening Day.

It's no secret, Moniak is on a torrid run to start the spring.

With Odúbel Herrera out of commission due to a strained oblique, the center field platoon battle seized the spotlight, featuring two former first round draft picks (Adam Haseley and Moniak) battling it out to see who can claim the left-handed spot alongside the red-hot Matt Vierling.

That was, however, before today's news broke:

A trade like this felt inevitable to those closely monitoring the Phillies' 40-man roster. There was very little sense in the team carrying NINE outfielders into Opening Day, especially with spots in such short supply. That being said, many were surprised to see Adam Haseley as the one who was dealt. But with how well Moniak has been swinging the bat this spring, Haseley presented as the only true option.

Over the course of his last four games, Moniak has muscled three home runs and a double—those homers varying in flight path from 378 to 431 (!) feet. They haven't exactly been cheapies.

In line with those four extra-base hits, the former first overall pick's slugging percentage is sitting at a whopping .842, bumping his OPS to a 1.105 on the spring. He is also averaging a 92 mile-per-hour exit velocity off his bat—far surpassing anything he's produced in both the minors or majors. A small sample size, but an exciting sign.

Moniak's time with the big league club thus far has been tumultuous. Over the course of the 2021 season, the 23-year-old was optioned and recalled between Triple-A and the major leagues SIX times—and when he did receive the call, he didn't always receive playing time.

He featured in 21 games with the Phillies, seeing a sporadic 37 plate appearances—not exactly ideal when attempting to develop consistency.

Now, we're not going to pretend like something magically changed within Moniak during Major League Baseball's lockout—there are certainly still flaws in his game. His pitch selection remains highly questionable, (though he's picked some pretty good ones early in spring) and his high whiff-rate is a problem.

In those 37 MLB chances at the dish, Moniak struck out 16 times, a 43.2% strikeout-rate. In Triple-A, he did better, but still ran up a poor 24.7 K%. In 19 spring appearances, he's gone down on strikes 5 times. This is a problem that has persisted throughout the entirety of his professional baseball career.

That being said, Moniak has also improved with every year that's passed. He has shown significant power growth, and still boasts a quick bat, with some speed to boot. He is also perfectly capable of handling the center field position, though, for whatever reason, the organization doesn't seem to view it that way—Joe Girardi went as far as to exclude him from the center field competition a week ago.

What is perhaps most intriguing about this whole saga—Moniak recently made some specific swing and approach changes with hitting coach Kevin Long, which he credits with his recent success.

So, with all of this said, is he fully guaranteed to appear on the 2022 Opening Day roster?

Well, Haseley was his primary competition, and the other two outfielders not already on the 28-man roster, Símon Muzziotti and Jhailyn Ortiz, are a bit far away to be considered competition.

His chances are pretty high—and this move by the front office shows that they have a great deal of confidence that Moniak should present as a serviceable fourth outfielder, if not more.

A lot can change in a couple of weeks, and a lot of questions will be answered: Will Moniak go ice cold? Will he bump back down to Triple-A when Herrera heals up? There's really no telling what may ensue.

But as of right now, this is probably the best anyone has felt about Moniak's future with the club in a long, long time. In fact, coming into camp, it's fair to say that he was fighting for a roster spot.

He was in a make-or-break situation, and he certainly made the most of it.