PHILADELPHIA -- After missing out on infielder Bo Bichette -- and the subsequent re-signing of J.T. Realmuto -- the Phillies' 2026 starting lineup seems just about set.
The one exception, perhaps, is in left field.
Newcomer Adolis García will take over in right field and highly touted prospect Justin Crawford will be given every chance to win the everyday job in center. As for left field, Brandon Marsh appears poised to form the left-handed-hitting portion of a platoon -- but who will be his counterpart?
As it stands now, the only other full-time outfielder in the Phillies' 2026 plans is Johan Rojas. (President of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski reiterated on Tuesday that the club expects to move veteran outfielder Nick Castellanos before the season.)
Otto Kemp, though, got his feet wet in the outfield last season -- and it sounds as if getting him some extra reps will be the focus in Spring Training.
"I think some corner outfield," manager Rob Thomson said this week when asked how he plans to deploy Kemp this spring. "A little bit of infield work -- third base, second base, maybe a little bit of first base, too. But, really, focus on the outfield more than anything else."
Could Thomson envision Kemp playing enough outfield to form a full platoon?
"Yes," Thomson said. "Yeah, I could."
Kemp, of course, is happy to play wherever he gets an opportunity.
"Probably just depends how this roster shakes out. We'll see," Kemp said. "Either way, I'm good with whatever."
That attitude was on full display in a whirlwind 2025 season.
Undrafted out of Division II Point Loma Nazarene University in 2022, Kemp began making a name for himself in the Arizona Fall League in '24, then kept on hitting with Triple-A Lehigh Valley to start last season. So, when the Phils needed an infielder to replace an injured Bryce Harper last June, they turned to Kemp.
He played well enough that, once the Phillies had a healthy infield, they hatched a plan to essentially teach Kemp the outfield on the fly. He ultimately made just seven starts in left, totaling 63 innings.
But given the current state of the Phillies' outfield, it makes sense to revisit that experiment. After all, Marsh has struggled when thrust into an everyday role in the past, Crawford is yet to make his MLB debut and García is a roll of the dice coming off a down season.
"I think it's just getting an overall comfort, just knowing that every place you play at, the dimensions are different, the environment's different," Kemp said when asked what he needs to work on the most in left field. "So just kind of learning how to play through the elements and learning what I need to take away from any ballpark that we're at and how the ball bounces off the wall, what the dimensions are like. Just learning the overall feel in the outfield is just going to be the biggest part moving forward."
Kemp will have two major factors working in his favor this time around: Timing and health.
It's obviously much easier to learn a new position in Spring Training -- where players can essentially take unlimited reps on backfields -- than in the midst of a pennant race. It's also easier when you're not battling through injuries as Kemp was for nearly his entire big league stint last season.
Just 10 days after making his MLB debut, Kemp fouled a pitch off his leg that chipped a piece of bone on his left knee. He also played through a nagging left shoulder injury down the stretch.
"I was pretty banged up," Kemp admitted before quickly adding, "but everybody's playing with something."
He underwent a pair of procedures to address those issues following the Phillies' postseason exit.
"I've been doing a lot of PT, getting the body right, getting the mind right and getting a little bit of rest in there," Kemp said. "Just trying to shape up to have a good '26 season."
At the very least, it should be less chaotic than 2025, when Kemp and his wife, Lily, suddenly had their lives uprooted following his life-changing callup -- albeit in the best way imaginable.
Though going straight from the season to under the knife to rehab didn’t make it easy, the couple finally found some time this winter to reflect on the journey.
“God is amazing, and just the work that he did in our lives throughout that year, the relationships we got to create, the places that we got to go and all the stuff that we got to experience,” Kemp said. “It was definitely special to be able to go through that with my wife. … And it was really special to be able to kind of look back and just see what God has done.
“And it just makes us even more excited for what's to come next.”