He’s been with the Phillies almost a week.
Everyone loves to root for the underdog. Baseball seems to be unique at supplying these kinds of stories. You know the ones. Those of the career Minor Leaguer finally getting his shot in the Majors or the kid no one expected to succeed having a breakout season.
Otto Kemp is the biggest underdog story on the Phillies right now. The 25-year-old undrafted free agent has earned his way to the big-league roster thanks to a blistering .313/.416/.594 batting line in Triple-A. Kemp was and still is not very well regarded as a prospect, although Baseball America raised him to 15th in their latest list of Phillies prospects that was compiled on the eve of his debut.
Kemp is most often profiled as having a chance to be a utility player that hits fastballs well but struggles against breaking and off-speed pitches. So far with the Phillies, he’s collected 4 hits in 18 at-bats. Three of those hits have come off of fastballs. Of his four total hits, only two have been hit very hard, with the other two being a swinging bunt and the other being an actual bunt. But that bunt single was a huge factor in the Phillies walk-off win on Monday, as it loaded the bases with no outs and gave Brandon Marsh the opportunity to walk it off.
Defensively, Kemp has played four of his five games at third base, with yesterday being his first manning first base. He was viewed as a player without much of a position in the Minors, and he’s already collected an error while playing third with the Phillies. Kemp has played various positions in his Minor League Career, including second, third, first, and right field. But since being called up, he hasn’t looked very comfortable defensively as he’s missed some balls that others may have gotten to, at least by the eye test.
It is obviously way, WAY too early to make any judgement on Kemp’s potential to be an MLB contributor. He’s still just getting his feet wet in the Majors and won’t cross a week’s worth of service time until Saturday. But his debut had become highly anticipated by many in the fanbase once word of his strong Triple-A numbers made the rounds.
So, what are your first impressions of Otto Kemp? Do you think he will be a solid MLB bench bat? Or do you think he’ll be more? Are you worried about him defensively? Or do you think he’s held his own? Do you like what he’s brought to the Phillies so far?