What's behind Phillies' scuffling defense?

This story was excerpted from Todd Zolecki’s Phillies Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

Something is wrong with the Phillies’ defense.

The unit entered Monday ranked last in baseball with -15 defensive runs saved, according to FanGraphs, and tied for 22nd with -5 outs above average, according to Baseball Savant.

The eye test supports the metrics. Lots of hits allowed. Lots of near misses on balls that could have been caught. Now, it’s true the Phillies haven’t been a consistently strong defensive team for years, but this season’s struggles have been especially glaring because of the team’s 9-19 start.

The poor defense partially explains the pitching staff’s 5.13 ERA, which ranks 28th in baseball. If you look at other metrics, the pitching hasn’t been nearly that bad. The Phillies’ xERA (amount of contact, plus quality of contact) entering Monday is 3.89, which is 11th.

Their batting average on balls in play is .353, which is not only the highest in baseball, but the highest through a team's first 28 games since at least 1950. The highest mark for a non-shortened season is .331 by the 2007 Rays.

It suggests some combination of poor defense and bad luck.

Is it the positioning of the infielders and outfielders?

“We are adjusting,” Phillies manager Rob Thomson said. “The pull-side middle infielder, we’ve adjusted back and forth at times. The depths of our outfield, we’ve adjusted. We’re always looking at it and always sort of playing with it.”

No team in baseball has had more difficult defensive chances than the Phillies, according to Statcast’s estimated success rate. It measures distance, time and direction in the ability to catch baseballs.

Phillies infielders have an estimated success rate of 67 percent, the lowest in MLB. Again, it suggests that they aren’t in the right spot to catch the baseball, for one reason or another.

“You go in stretches where guys are standing right there,” Thomson said. “We’re running into it right now offensively. And then there are times when a ball gets through, a ball drops, a ball gets into a gap. But you’re always adjusting. You’re always looking at adjusting.”