Phillies' Dave Dombrowski Exposes Harsh Truth on Brandon Marsh

Philadelphia Phillies outfielder Brandon Marsh had one of the strangest seasons you will see this past year.

Through the first three months, Marsh was brilliant. He ended June with an .868 OPS, and he smashed nine home runs to go along with 21 RBI that month.

Then, the wheels came off.

After the All-Star break, Marsh slashed .184/.243/.259 with three homers and 16 RBI over 205 plate appearances. He posted a .422 OPS in July and a .432 OPS in September. He became virtually unplayable.

The 28-year-old ended 2026 with a .713 OPS, his lowest mark since arriving in Philadelphia midway through 2022. His defense also fell off a cliff.

And now, Phillies president Dave Dombrowski clearly believes a change needs to be made.

While speaking to reporters last week, Dombrowski cited Marsh's struggles and made it obvious he does not believe Marsh is an everyday player.

“Marsh looks like he’s made himself, so far, a platoon-type guy, hits right-handed pitching and he hasn’t done very well versus left-handed pitching," Dombrowski said. "At this point, we have to say — OK, for us, we need to complement him."

Marsh owns a lifetime .588 OPS against lefties, but based on the way he was mashing the ball during the first half of 2026, handedness did not appear to matter.

The former second-round pick was a fringe MVP candidate over the first few months, so no one was viewing him as a platoon player.

Then, the second half came around, and it became abundantly clear that Marsh was not someone you could put in your lineup daily.

To be quite frank, it's not even like Marsh hit right-handed pitching incredibly well in 2026, posting a .742 OPS in those situations.

But going with a platoon would be understandable for the Phillies if they feel that Marsh will rebound next spring.

One potential option is Randal Grichuk, who clobbered southpaws to the tune of a 1.025 OPS this season. He should be able to be had on an affordable one-year deal, and he boasts a lifetime .515 SLG against lefties.

Philadelphia could try and sign a cheap platoon player like Grichuk and then also try and land someone such as Seiya Suzuki or Randy Arozarena to fill the other outfield corner.

We'll see what Dombrowski decides to do in the coming months, but significant changes certainly need to be made for a team that won 87 games and was bounced from the Wild Card Series.

That could even entail trading Marsh, but that might not be feasible at this point given how much his value has dipped.