The Phillies spent the first part of this season learning the hard way that not every outfield call-up is built to last.
Otto Kemp came up hot enough after a strong finish to 2025, then crashed almost immediately, collecting only two hits in 25 plate appearances. Felix Reyes gave the club a dream first impression by homering off Atlanta Braves ace Chris Sale in his first MLB at-bat, but never went deep again. Gabriel Rincones Jr. flashed the same kind of early promise, homering in his first trip to the plate at Citizens Bank Park before going 2-for-his-last-27 and getting sent down.
So when Bryan De La Cruz arrived and ripped off a 7-for-11 start, skepticism came naturally. Phillies fans had already seen this movie.
A Quadruple-A outfielder looks the part for a week, then the act falls apart. But Dave Dombrowski wasn’t buying that script.
That showed up at the trade deadline, when the 59-53 Phillies passed on adding another outfielder and stuck with De La Cruz instead. Dombrowski explained the thinking on the Starkville podcast with Jason Stark on August 8: “There were guys that we liked that we thought would make us better, but they were all, almost all, platoon guys that we felt would fit that bill for us. And in the meantime, over the last couple weeks we had brought up Bryan De La Cruz, who was actually done very well for us and he's been a good big-league player in the past, a solid guy,”
Since De La Cruz was promoted from Triple-A Lehigh Valley, the Phillies are 23-15.
That doesn’t mean he gets all the credit, and nobody in the clubhouse would frame it that way. But he has helped change the shape of the roster in a real way. The Phillies suddenly have more ways to move pieces around, more late-game options, and a bench that looks as dangerous as anything Dombrowski has had since taking over as president of baseball operations in 2021.
Derek Hill has been part of that shift too. His rise as a defensive weapon and late-inning sparkplug has been a major development, and he has already blown past his previous single-season high in plate appearances, sitting at 193. He looks headed for his first playoff roster.
Edmundo Sosa has also steadied things after a rough beginning to 2026. Since June 13, he is hitting .272/.315/.466, and he went 11-for-26 in August.
De La Cruz has given the offense a jolt as well. In Wednesday afternoon’s loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks, he was one of only two Phillies who showed any life at the plate.
Since joining the team, he is slashing .354/.389/.542. He and Hill are two of only four Phillies with an OPS above .750.
What really separates this bench, though, is the flexibility it gives Don Mattingly. He can pinch-hit aggressively and still keep options in reserve for later innings.
Hill and Garret Stubbs have both been used often as late-inning pinch runners for Bryce Harper and Kyle Schwarber. And if Sosa gets used up early, Harper can slide back to first base if Hill or De La Cruz is needed to pinch-hit against a tough left-hander.
The numbers back up how much these reserve players have mattered in limited time. De La Cruz has only 54 plate appearances with the big-league club, yet he is sixth on the Phillies in WPA. Hill is fifth, and Sosa is third.
Sosa’s grand slam late in the year was a reminder of how loud a bench player can get in the biggest moments.
Using FanGraphs’ clutch stat, Sosa ranks first among Phillies hitters, with Hill fourth and De La Cruz seventh.
That kind of production won’t last forever. Clutch numbers tend to come and go, and baseball history is littered with players who couldn’t repeat that skill from year to year.
But the Phillies don’t need this group to keep it up for years. They need it for the next two months.
That’s the key here. The bench doesn’t have to be a long-term miracle.
It just has to keep showing up when the game is on the line. And right now, with the deadline in the rearview mirror and the roster picture clear, De La Cruz and the Phillies’ bench look like something much sturdier than a fluke.
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