The Cycle of Edmundo Sosa

Such is the life of a bench player

Edmundo Sosa has been a valuable piece for the Phillies since arriving in Philadelphia at the 2022 trade deadline. In 242 games as a Phillie, Sosa owns a .262/.309/.433 batting line with 21 home runs. Originally considered a glove-first infielder, Sosa has also been worth 3 defensive runs saved and 5 outs above average while playing all over the diamond including some time in the outfield this season. He’s been one of the better utility players in baseball since coming over from the St. Louis Cardinals.

Stage 1: Set Role

All of this has led to Sosa’s entering each full season in Philadelphia being viewed as the team’s number one option off of the bench and their primary utility option. He’s usually expected to play maybe 2-3 times a week and play multiple positions, giving other players days off or being used as a perceived strategic advantage. We’ll call this the first stage of the Edmundo Sosa cycle.

Stage 2: Hot start that leads to calls for more playing time

But there’s something that’s happened every year since Sosa’s first full season with the team in 2023. He’s had to play more early in the season due to some combination of injuries or poor performance as well as platooning. And he’s started each season on fire. Here’s a look at his numbers at the end of April each of the last three seasons.

Sosa starts the season incredibly hot and exceeds expectations while playing in someone else’s place. That naturally has led to calls for Sosa to receive more playing time or to outright replace whoever he’s substituting for. We’ll call this the second stage of the Edmundo Sosa cycle.

Stage 3: Overexposed

But the longer Sosa plays, the worse he gets. Sosa essentially played every day to begin 2023 as the Phillies were without Bryce Harper until May 2nd and were without then first baseman Rhys Hoskins for the entire year due to an ACL tear. Therefore, usual third baseman Alec Bohm played first while Sosa got more playing time at third.

Harper eventually started to play some first base, but that was after he primarily served as the designated hitter upon his return, as he didn’t start officially using his first base glove until July 21st of 2023. From Opening Day until that day, Sosa played in 63 of a possible 97 games. After his strong April, Sosa hit .219 with a .578 OPS in 43 games from the start of May until Harper’s debut at first. He struck out 26 times in that span and walked just twice.

Sosa once again had a decent span of playing time in 2024 when Trea Turner was placed on the injured list on May 4th. Until Turner returned on June 16th, Sosa played in 21 out of a possible 38 games. Over that span, Sosa hit .214 with a .564 OPS.

It’s a different circumstance this year, but Sosa has yet again cooled off tremendously from his hot start. In 24 games since the end of April, Sosa is hitting .231 with a .640 OPS. The team is again in a situation where they don’t have Harper playing first base every day, but instead of having Sosa start at third with Bohm at first, the team has elected to cede playing time to recent call-up Otto Kemp, with the rookie playing first while Bohm stays at third. This has left Sosa to his original role of utility man and primary platoon option for Bryson Stott at second base.

Thus, we see the third stage of the Edmundo Sosa cycle. It’s the stage when he reminds you exactly why he is considered a bench player that probably shouldn’t start more than 2-3 times a week. His aggressive swinging tendencies get exposed with more playing time and his production begins to plummet as a result.

Swinging hard and often is fine in short doses as a bench player, as Sosa has numerous times provided sparks with extra-base hits or home runs. This was the case on Sunday when he started in place of Stott against a tough lefty in David Peterson and blasted a three-run homer that gave the Phillies a 5-0 lead.

But pitchers will exploit that free swinging tendency over the course of 3-4 regular plate appearances every day. Sunday’s start was only Sosa second since June 9th with two other late game substitute appearances mixed in. He’s only started 6 out of a possible 20 games in June and has only appeared in nine total games.

Stage 4: Return to role

Finally, we have the last stage of the Edmundo Sosa cycle. This is the one where his role and his perceived expectations return to where they were at the beginning of the season.

None of this is meant to be a critique of Sosa. He’s a role player that has mostly fulfilled his role admirably. It’s more of a reminder that bench players are bench players for a reason and that many of them will fall into a similar vicious cycle. Sometimes he can be the hot hand and deserves to play more, but he is not a viable option to start every day for an extended period, let alone on a permanent basis, for a contending team.