What is the best playoff lineup the Philadelphia Phillies can field in the NLDS?

The Philadelphia Phillies enter the 2024 playoffs with one of the deeper lineups of any postseason team.

This has been a key part of their success this season, and they enter Saturday’s game with a combined OPS of .752, ranking fourth in the MLB.

However, the way manager Rob Thomson has deployed the lineup may not be the optimal design.

With every run counting even more in October, how should the Phillies put together their lineup for postseason play?

Kyle Schwarber’s leadership is the best way to maximize his abilities.

He leads the team with a walk rate of 15.2 percent, which also ranks him third in the MLB.

This is the guy you want at the top of your lineup; The guy who can work counts, gets on base more often than most while also hitting for an immense amount of power.

Schwarber set the major league record for leadoff home runs this season and has 38 total with two games left to play.

Schwarber at the top of the lineup creates good conditions for the rest of the strong offense to do more damage.

With an optimal lineup setup, your best all-around hitter will bat second, behind the player who gets on base most often.

Bryce Harper is undoubtedly Philadelphia’s best all-around hitter.

Harper enters Saturday’s game with a .286/.374/.527 line on the year with 72 extra-base hits, 87 RBI and an OPS+ of 150 and will once again be ranked in the top 10 for National MVP voting League, an award to be won he has won twice so far.

Harper brings power and contact to the lineup and would see more plate appearances one spot higher in the lineup than he did in the regular season.

If you’re still with me, perfect.

Alec Bohm was the club’s leading contact and gap-to-gap hitter this season with 44 doubles and two triples.

He has only had 85 strikeouts, for a strikeout rate of 14.2 percent, a career high and well below league average.

Bohm batting behind Schwarber and Harper, assuming Harper doesn’t rush Schwarber, gives the young third baseman the opportunity to drive in multiple runners, something he has surpassed with 95 RBI this year.

Bohm has developed into the perfect hitter needed to play third in a lineup, now he just needs to be put there.

Don’t worry, Trea Turner stans, he’s coming.

Nick Castellanos is the best remaining power hitter, with Schwarber and Harper already firmly entrenched in the first and second spots.

He ranks third on the Phillies in ISO with .174 and third in home runs with 23.

Even in baseball’s new age of analysis and statistical evidence for the perfect lineup construction, the fourth spot still requires power, and Castellanos is the best remaining option in that regard.

After finishing fourth in the lineup, you start over and do it again.

The remaining player with the best walk rate is second baseman Bryson Stott at 9.4 percent.

While he does a good job of getting on base, he is another member of Philadelphia’s roster with fewer than 100 strikeouts this year, coming in at 92.

Stott is one of the better players in the sport at putting the bat on the ball, and it’s very rare for the left-hander to swing and miss.

Stott gets on base with a walk or at least puts the ball in play, setting up the rest of the lineup well.

With a lineup so deep that Trea Turner is ranked sixth should Being the norm is a fantastic luxury.

Batting Turner second in the lineup this season has done more harm than good to the team, and his skill set is much better suited to the sixth spot in the lineup.

Turner is fast, but in his 30s his speed begins to decline.

He still put together a solid season with a .294/.337/.465 line, 45 extra-base hits, 60 RBI and a 123 OPS+.

Batting Turner sixth would go a long way toward giving this team more wins.

One of the few players in the everyday lineup who hit at his optimal position in the lineup, the best catcher in baseball, JT Realmuto.

In an optimal setup, seventh place works just like third, but slightly worse.

Realmuto has less gap-to-gap ability than Bohm, making him the perfect choice for the shot here.

Realmuto, who enters Saturday’s game with 18 doubles and a triple in just 98 games, would be much closer to 30 doubles if he hadn’t done that Mid-season knee surgery.

“Wait, left field?” Yes.

An every-day lineup is a lineup that features right-handed pitchers every day.

As much as Thomson wants to force Austin Hays into an everyday role, he’s not cut out for it.

Brandon Marsh, on the other hand, does.

Marsh enters Saturday’s game with a season line of .252/.333/.425 with 16 home runs, 60 RBI and an OPS+ of 111.

He sacrificed batting average for more power, but in 2024 batting average no longer matters.

He ranks fourth on the team in ISO at .172, just behind Castellanos, making him the perfect second cleanup hitter.

Here’s the thing: Johan Rojas is by far the worst hitter on the team.

But what Rojas brings is elite speed and one of the best center field gloves in all of baseball.

These two things more than make up for what he lacks on the plate and make every production he makes icing on the cake.

His speed allows him to hit weak groundballs for infield hits more than most, putting him in the “second leadoff hitter” class.

The Phillies were one of the best teams in baseball this year, but if they had constructed their roster better, 100 wins would have been an easy feat.

Doing this in the playoffs would significantly increase their chances of making the World Series.