Phillies reportedly interested in Randal Grichuk, which seems a bit perplexing

The Phillies are "showing interest" in Randal Grichuk as a potential platoon partner for Brandon Marsh in left field, according to Ken Rosenthal and Will Sammon of The Athletic. 

Grichuk, 34, is a 12-year MLB veteran, having spent time with the St. Louis Cardinals, Toronto Blue Jays, Colorado Rockies, Los Angeles Angels, Arizona Diamondbacks and Kansas City Royals. 

He struggled this past year in a campaign split between the Diamondbacks and Royals, hitting .228 with a .674 OPS. Traditionally, Grichuk has been particularly effective against left-handed pitching, but he hit just .227 with a .703 OPS against southpaws in 2025. With that said, he hit .319 with a .913 OPS against lefties for the Snakes in 2024, so it's not surprising he would be someone that the Phillies would consider as a platoon partner for Marsh, who mashes right-handed pitching but has often struggled against left-handers. 

What is about surprising is the Phillies have talked up Otto Kemp as much as any player on their roster this offseason, with president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski referring to him as a "championship-type player" during last month's MLB Winter Meetings. Right now, the most obvious path to Kemp having a role for the 2026 Phillies is as Marsh's platoon partner in left field, something that obviously wouldn't be an option if Grichuk is signed to fill that role. 

That does leave you to wonder how else the Phillies could get Kemp involved. He does have two remaining minor-league options, so he doesn't necessarily have to start the season with the Phillies, but they've sure sang his praises a lot this offseason. 

Kemp's "natural" position is third base, so perhaps the Phillies could still consider trading Alec Bohm — who is projected to make $10.3 million in his final year of arbitration eligibility — and having Kemp get a bulk of the starts at third base at least until top prospect Aidan Miller is ready. But while Bohm is flawed, he's still a candidate to be the team's cleanup hitter on Opening Day given their current roster construction. Kemp also had five errors, minus-seven defensive runs saved and minus-seven outs above average in just 255 innings at the hot corner this past year, shockingly bad numbers for such a small sample size. By comparison, Kemp had one defensive run saved and minus-one out above average in 63 innings in left field, a position that was new to him. 

2026 is officially here, and with Opening Day just 82 days away, our @TimKellySports put together his first Phillies lineup projection of the offseason👇 pic.twitter.com/uLfijus5bW

— OnPattison (@OnPattison) January 3, 2026

Even coming off of a down year, Grichuk makes sense as a target to possibly be a platoon partner for Marsh. Frankly, it was surprising that the Phillies gave the left-handed hitting Max Kepler $10 million last offseason, as opposed to signing Grichuk for $5 million. It's just unclear how exactly Grichuk — who still seems likely to command a major-league deal — would co-exist with Kemp, if the Phillies are really as high on the latter as they say. 

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