Can the Phillies keep Otto Kemp in the lineup when Bryce Harper returns?

It’s always a good thing when a minor-league call-up forces you to make uncomfortable decisions, and that’s what the Phillies may be dealing with in regard to Otto Kemp.

The 25-year-old racked up four hits in the Phillies’ win over the Blue Jays on Sunday. It spiked his average at the majors to .345 after he hit .313 with Triple-A Lehigh Valley.

“I feel good. I think it’s really just an extension of where we were just building on this whole season,” Kemp told reporters after Sunday’s four-hit game. “Trying not to change anything. It’s the same game that we’ve been playing the whole year.”

Kemp has just one extra-base hit so far with the Phillies after hitting 34 in 58 games with the IronPigs, but the Phillies will take the singles where they can get them, and there’s reason to believe more slug will come.

Kemp was called up when Bryce Harper went on the injured list on June 7. As of Monday, Harper is eligible for reinstatement. So how can the Phillies, who have won five of six since Kemp’s first career hit on Monday, keep Kemp in the fold when Harper returns? There are a few options — but perhaps no simple ones.

The biggest thing holding Kemp back as an MLB regular is his lack of a position. He manned third base for his first four games while getting reps in across the diamond, then flip-flopped with Alec Bohm at first base on Wednesday. He has not looked smooth at either position.

Were it much earlier in the season, one possible solution would be to put Kemp back at third in somewhat of a timeshare with Bohm — but the latter has played his way out of that conversation. Bohm is hitting .338 with an OPS a tick below .900 since May 3, well over half the season at this point, and he’s particularly hot right now: a .417 average and 1.128 OPS in the Phillies’ last homestand. There’s zero reason not to keep Bohm’s bat in the lineup on an everyday basis.

A better option is to give Kemp Weston Wilson’s place on the roster and enter a platoon with Max Kepler. But the Phillies’ $10 million signing has started to get going, too, going 6-for-16 in the last five games with two doubles and two homers, including a decisive one against Toronto on Saturday. Five of those hits came against righties, against whom Kepler has fared much better than this, compared to southpaws.

But the Phillies may not be comfortable with Kemp playing left field. He played in only seven games at the position in Lehigh Valley this year. If the Phillies believed Kemp had a realistic chance of sticking in the outfield as a platoon partner for Kepler, he would have gotten more reps at the position in the minor leagues.

Kemp has crushed lefties this year. It’s not yet obvious, though, when the Phillies might next face a lefty, and riding Kepler’s current signs of life might be the better move in the long run. Are twice-weekly starts and occasional pinch-hitting appearances the best way to keep Kemp fresh for when a real need arises, rather than everyday at bats in Triple-A? It’s a tough role to occupy at the big-league level. Ask Wilson or Kody Clemens.

Maybe big-league clubhouse exposure in any form is good for Kemp.

“We got guys in here that are future Hall of Famers and guys that just have been around the game for a long time,” Kemp said. “So it’s really helpful to learn from these guys when stuff comes up, people to be on your back and tell you what you need to do and how to help yourself, really. So it’s been nice to have guys that are supporting me defensively, offensively, all around the game.”

But if the Phillies don’t want to mess with any hot streaks at the dish, there’s a third, and certainly most drastic, measure they could take — and it would come at the expense of Bryson Stott. Stott’s struggles this season have been well-documented, and they’ve continued into June: He’s hitting .136 this month with an identical slugging percentage.

Yes, the Phillies could platoon Kemp with Stott — but perhaps they go a step further. Stott has one extra-base hit since May 18. He’s down to .236/.301/.326 this season. Maybe a short stint in Lehigh Valley wouldn’t be the worst thing for the 27-year-old, who’s moved past a nerve injury that the Phillies blamed for his down 2024 but whose 2025 looks much the same.

Like the left-field platoon scenario, it would come at a cost defensively. But the Phillies still have Edmundo Sosa on the roster, and he could spell Kemp late in games should the situation call for it. It might not always be pretty, but there’s a way to make it work.

There are no easy answers to the Kemp conundrum, but there is a bit of recent precedent here. The Phillies faced an awkward roster battle at the end of spring training, where Clemens had outperformed Buddy Kennedy (and others) but made by far the least sense from a roster construction standpoint. The Phillies opted to choose the best player and figure it out from there. Clemens got seven plate appearances and is now a Minnesota Twin.

So maybe they follow the same thinking, replace Wilson with Kemp and try to make it work better this time. Or maybe they use this as an opportunity for a reset to Stott, whom the Phillies need more out of the rest of the way. There is no perfect answer. They’ll have to find the best one soon.