Five potential Phillies trade and free agent outfield targets

The Phillies once again need an outfielder.

Justin Crawford has a strong chance of making the Opening Day roster. He’ll certainly factor into the plans in 2026. Gabriel Rincones Jr. was added to the 40-man roster. He’s a left-handed hitting corner platoon option. If he’s not dealt, Brandon Marsh will be part of the mix.

The Phillies would like to re-sign Harrison Bader. A right-handed platoon partner for Crawford and or Marsh would help. Either way, the Phillies will be acquiring at least one new outfielder this offseason.

Phillies Nation writers highlighted a few potential free agent and trade targets down below.

Bailey Digh — Staff Writer — Rob Refsnyder

The Phillies need to address their outfield with multiple acquisitions this winter. How they do that, I don’t know. But they might find themselves looking for someone who can play corner outfield and hit left-handed pitching. Refsnyder fits that role.

Entering his age-35 season, Refsnyder can play left and right field and has mashed left-handed pitching recently. With the Red Sox, he hit .302/.396/.554 with 15 home runs and a 12.4% walk rate against lefties over the last two seasons across 283 plate appearances. Signing Refsnyder won’t solve the entire outfield equation. Nor should he be the “big” outfield acquisition. He’s a part-time player with limited defensive abilities. But he’d be a helpful player to have.

Destiny Lugardo — Site Director — Michael Conforto

Does a left-handed-hitting corner outfielder who had by far the worst year of his career in 2025 do anything for you? No? That’s understandable, but this is the kind of uninspiring free agent market the Phillies are probably shopping in. Conforto was one of the better hitting outfielders in baseball with the Mets before undergoing major shoulder surgery in 2022. His first two years in San Francisco were fine. He signed a one-year, $17 million deal with the Dodgers last year and batted .199 with a .637 OPS. He somehow survived the entire regular season on the roster. He was left off the playoff roster in all four Dodgers postseason series. 

He can’t be as awful as he was last year. The Phillies say they are comfortable with Crawford or Marsh in center. If they can’t find an upgrade in center, I would bet on a Conforto “bounce back.” He has the track record to secure a major league deal, but probably won’t cost much. Everyone will be very upset if the Phillies actually do this.

Corey Seidman — Staff Writer — Bryan Reynolds

A perpetual trade candidate, Reynolds is coming off a down year and thus won’t cost as much as he would have in 2022, 2023, 2024 or leading into 2025. There have been indications that the Pirates will actually spend this offseason — let’s see about that — but even if they do, Reynolds still probably doesn’t fit their current window. He turns 31 in January. Reynolds is under contract through the end of the 2030 season with a team option for 2031. That is a long time, but it’s a manageable price tag at $76 million guaranteed, an average of $15 million annually.

I’m not in love with Reynolds the player, but I think he’d be more productive in a deeper lineup where he’s not the one offensive piece a pitcher must worry about. The Pirates, even if they plan to actually try to improve this winter, will likely welcome the chance to shed Reynolds’ salary and allocate it to someone(s) who better fits their realistic timeline to contend. If a team like the Phillies were to absorb most or all of said salary, they wouldn’t have to trade as much to acquire Reynolds. It seems like a deal would be possible without any of Crawford, Andrew Painter or Aidan Miller.

Ty Daubert — Editorial Director — Adolis García

García has not been productive since 2023, and that’s why the Texas Rangers non-tendered their World Series hero. The outfielder has a .675 OPS over his last two seasons. His power numbers have declined. But he’s a right-handed-hitting former All-Star, and he could help the Phillies as a buy-low acquisition.

That 2023 season, which now seems like forever ago, was incredible for García. He hit 39 home runs with an .836 OPS. He went on a postseason tear, winning ALCS MVP and hitting a walk-off homer in the World Series. And that level of success is probably behind him for good. However, García still hits the ball hard. He has a strong arm. If the Phillies could get him on a one-year deal, it would make sense to see if he can regain his form to some extent as the starting right fielder. Maybe he doesn’t improve at the plate, and the Phillies end up releasing him and trying for someone else at the trade deadline. But the former October hero could be worth a roll of the dice as the Phillies look for another title of their own.

Nathan Ackerman — Staff Writer — Randy Arozarena

The Mariners, in Mariners fashion, are not going to carry a huge payroll into 2026. They just signed Josh Naylor for $18.5 million a year. There might be some counter-balancing, and trading Arozarena, projected for $18.2 million in arbitration, could do that work for them. Arozarena hasn’t maintained his 2020 postseason and 2021 levels of production, but he’s been a more than competent hitter every year in the big leagues while hitting between 20 and 27 (last year) homers a year in two pitchers-friendly ballparks. 

Arozarena isn’t going to be Marsh’s platoon partner — his splits are fairly even — but the Phillies should have a right field hole after they part with Nick Castellanos. Arozarena hasn’t been a good left fielder, but he was slightly better in right when he played there a few years back, and at the very least, it’ll be an upgrade that shouldn’t cost them an upper-echelon prospect. It might be tough to pull off, and thus I wouldn’t bet the family farm on it, but it’s fun — and there wasn’t a huge need to write more than this sentence about Phillies 2026 left field platoon partner Austin Hays.