The Phillies are heading into another important offseason, and one of the areas they’ll almost certainly need to address is the outfield. After a run that included a trip to the World Series in 2022, this group has aged a bit, and this year ended the same frustrating way as before: an early exit.
Philadelphia was knocked out by the Braves in the Wild Card Round, even after pushing the series to all three games. That result made the flaws on the roster harder to ignore, and it left the front office with real work to do if the goal is to get back to contending deep into October.
One possible answer comes from outside the usual splashy free-agent conversation. Kerry Miller of Bleacher Report recently named Dodgers outfielder Alex Call as a prime trade target for the Phillies, and the fit does have some logic behind it.
Call’s 2026 season with Los Angeles may not have stood out, but the bigger picture is what makes him interesting for Philadelphia. He is not a free agent until 2030 and is still working through his arbitration years, which matters for a team with a payroll already sitting high. That kind of cost control gives him value right away.
There’s also a clear baseball case for him. Call has shown he can handle left-handed pitching, and that could matter for a Phillies outfield that already includes two left-handed bats in Brandon Marsh and Justin Crawford. Over his career, he has hit .264/.350/.412 against southpaws with 12 home runs and 47 RBI.
If Philadelphia wants to go bigger, Randy Arozarena would be the more aggressive swing in free agency. But with the payroll situation the way it is, that may not be a realistic path. In that scenario, Call becomes the kind of practical move that could work well as a platoon option.
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