All I ask is: why not?
Listen, I get the idea that spring training is a time for experimentation. Those lineups that managers have thought about over and over throughout the offseason? Why not try it in spring training! Always wanted to try and see how the knuckleball one throws in the outfield would play during a game? Spring training is the place for it!
Trying entirely new positions as a 34 year old catcher entering your contract season? Um, ok, sure.
Yesterday’s news cycle on the Phillies revolves around the idea that Rob Thomson has talked to J.T. Realmuto about taking some flyballs in the outfield. It’s not as if it’s a secret; both manager and player are talking openly about it.
This is why Rob Thomson, ever the thinker, posed a question to Realmuto earlier this month.
“You ever play the outfield?” the manager asked his catcher.
“Well, I think I move around pretty good,” Realmuto said.
This, Thomson stressed, was nothing more than a suggestion. The chances Realmuto takes fly balls in left field this spring are slim. He is in a contract year and he wants to catch 120 games again.
It’s certainly an idea. The team is pretty left handed as a lineup and keeping even a semi-productive right handed bat like Realmuto possesses is something of a priority. So trying him out in other positions other than catcher is not the worst idea in the world. Putting Realmuto in left field would probably look visually similar to when Vince Velasquez did. Both are great athletes, so J.T. could probably make it work.
It probably isn’t a great idea though.
Say nothing of weakening a defense as a collective unit, the possibility of an injury probably makes the idea untenable.
Maybe this was the creativity the team was talking about all offseason.