USATSI_18772290 — © Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports

The Philadelphia Phillies Need to Start Walking Again

Since the start of July, the Philadelphia Phillies have the lowest walk rate in the National League.

Author:
Leo Morgenstern
Aug 4, 2022 6:00 PM EDT

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Philadelphia Phillies

The Philadelphia Phillies offense was on fire in June. They scored 146 runs, fifth most in baseball, as the team went 19-8 and stormed their way back into the National League Wild Card race.

July was a different story. While it was a still a good month overall—the Phillies went 15-10—the offense cooled way down. They scored only 119 runs, which ranked 19th in the league.

In order to score, runners have to reach base, and Philadelphia struggled to get baserunners over the past month. Their .296 team OBP ranked 22nd in the sport. The root of the issue was that the lineup was no longer walking.

The Phillies led the National League with a 9.6% walk rate in June. The following month, they ranked dead last in baseball, walking just 5.6% of the time.

Part of the problem was losing Bryce Harper, who has a career 14.9% walk rate, and who was walking 14.3% of the time in June. But the two biggest walkers on the team that month were actually Kyle Schwarber and Rhys Hoskins, who combined to collect 35 bases on balls.

In July, Schwarber and Hoskins walked just 15 times between the two of them.

Hoskins went from walking at an elite rate to merely an average rate. Schwarber finished second in the NL in free passes in June. In July, he was tied for 96th.

However, those two were not the only culprits. Nick Castellanos, who walked seven times in June, walked only twice in July. Didi Gregorius saw his walk rate cut in half from one month to the other.

Overall, the team recorded 100 bases on balls in June. That number dropped to 51 the following month.

Simply put, fifty walks in a month isn’t going to cut it. Philadelphia succeeded in July thanks to a strong performance from the pitching staff, but the offense needs to do more going forward.

Jean Segura and Brandon Marsh will join the lineup in August, and neither of them is going to increase the team's walk rate. Segura is a contact machine who hardly ever takes a free pass, and Marsh has yet to figure out how to walk in the majors like he did in the minors.

Harper will certainly add some free passes when he finally returns, but even he was walking less this season than he usually does.

It is going to be a group effort to increase the team’s walk rate. Schwarber can have the biggest impact if he rediscovers his plate discipline, but others like Hoskins, Castellanos, Gregorius, Bryson Stott, and Alec Bohm will have to help pick up the slack too.

The Phillies have no shortage of good hitters. They should have no trouble scoring runs. But in order to do that, they have to start by getting on base.