PHILADELPHIA -- Interim manager Don Mattingly kicked around a few different ideas for the Phillies' new-look lineup.
He toyed with the idea of having newcomer Luis Arraez hit leadoff. He thought about sliding Kyle Schwarber down to the cleanup spot.
Ultimately, though, Mattingly decided on the following top four for Tuesday night's game against the Nationals at Citizens Bank Park:
1. Kyle Schwarber
2. Trea Turner
3. Bryce Harper
4. Luis Arraez
"I don't think I can really mess it up either way," Mattingly said. "But yeah, for now that's kind of where we're going to start."
The top three is the same order the Phillies used for a few weeks earlier this season when they were trying to get Turner going by moving him out of the leadoff spot. For the most part, though, Turner had hit leadoff this season followed by Schwarber and Harper, respectively.
Of course, the expectations of a stereotypical cleanup hitter have changed drastically over the years.
Once reserved for a team's most feared slugger, the No. 4 spot leaguewide this season has a lower batting average, on-base percentage and slugging percentage than any of the top three spots in the lineup.
"You don't really know how it's going to pop out that [fourth] at-bat, right?" Mattingly said before the game. "It could be second and third, and you want a guy who can get you a base hit. ... You figure he's coming up with men on base, and it doesn't take a homer to drive in a run. A base hit drives in a run from second base."
It turns out Mattingly was on to something.
Arraez stepped to the plate for the first time as a Phillie with two on and one out in the bottom of the first inning. Following a standing ovation from the hometown crowd, Arraez ripped an RBI single to center field to plate Turner for the game's first run. In his next at-bat, Arraez doubled to give the Phillies a 2-0 lead in the third.
Arraez has hit primarily out of the top two spots in his career, but he has no issues hitting fourth on his new club.
"I don't care," Arraez said. "I told Don, I said, 'Hey, if you want to put me nine, eight -- I don't care. I just want to go out there and help the team win."
And the three guys hitting ahead of him?
"It's a lot of damage there. Wow," Arraez said. "A lot of power. A lot of stars. And I can't wait to go out there and give my everything."
One of those stars even switched positions just to accommodate the trade that brought Arraez to Philadelphia.
Harper returned to right field on Tuesday night, making his first appearance in the outfield since April 16, 2022. Bryson Stott also made his first appearance at third base since April 13, 2022 -- and just the third of his big league career. Alec Bohm slid across the diamond to first base, while Arraez settled into second base -- a position he made it clear he wanted to stick at well before trade talks ramped up in recent days.
"Because I worked hard. I worked hard, and I think I showed MLB I can go out there and play defense too. San Francisco, I want to say thanks to them for giving me the opportunity to go there and play second base, and now I'm here with the Phillies, and they're giving me the opportunity to go play second base, too."
The Phillies never considered moving Arraez anywhere else as trade talks gained traction.
"We never approached it with him. We never talked to him about it all," president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski said. " ... We liked how he's played second base, and when we talked about it internally, we kind of liked the shifts that we made from an overall club perspective and a defensive perspective."
That part obviously remains to be seen, but the amount of sacrifice it took from others just to bring him aboard is certainly not lost on Arraez.
"A lot of respect," Arraez said. "Especially to Stott, Bryce Harper -- an MVP, and he moved for me? That's a lot of respect."
That said, none of this is set in stone.
There will almost certainly be a number of moving parts to all of this, including Harper potentially moving to first base in favor of a better defensive outfielder late in games -- or even being lifted from the lineup completely for a defensive replacement.
"When you got Derek Hill sitting there, it's hard not to do that," Mattingly said of using a defensive replacement. "And it also gets [Harper] off his legs in that scenario. So we'll kind of play that by ear. But as he gets built up, I think as much as we can, try to get him an inning here, an inning there."
The more common scenario could be bringing Harper back to the infield late in games, especially if Bohm or Stott were lifted for a pinch-runner or pinch-hitter, respectively.
"I think all our guys are willing to do what we've got to do in the course of a game," Mattingly said. "Even Luis, we talked about it -- he's here to play second base, but in a pinch, he's got to play first base, he's done that. He's willing to do it. So it's not something I'm trying to do ... but I think within the course of a game, a lot of things can happen, and it's nice to have the versatility."