CLEARWATER, Fla. — When Phillies manager Rob Thomson told Edmundo Sosa he was considering playing him in center field this season, Sosa was in Tampa, Fla., for a weeklong workout with a few players who were represented by his agency, Octagon. His friends, major league outfielders Julio Rodríguez, Adolís Garcia, and Manuel Margot, were there. They decided to give Sosa some tips.
The Phillies’ utility man would stand in the outfield with them and they’d explain how they played the position. Rodríguez gave him advice on his footwork and how to cover certain angles.
“You always have to be behind the ball,” Rodríguez told him. “Try to catch it on your chest.”
Rodríguez and Garcia told Sosa about the eight outfield angles, and the routes to cover those angles, and by the time Sosa showed up to Phillies camp earlier this month , he felt better equipped to navigate a transition that won’t be easy for a player who only has one-third of an inning’s worth of big league experience in center field.
Phillies first base coach Paco Figueroa said that while the transition won’t be “easy,” it will be “easier” because Sosa, 26, is athletic and has good instincts. Figueroa has been working with Sosa in center field about an hour a day. They started by mastering those same eight angles that Rodríguez was referring to, and reading balls as they come off the bat. Sosa and Figueroa have been focusing on balls that are hit “straight back and straight in.”
“If you get really good at those two, the balls hit at an angle are a lot easier to see,” Figueroa said. “A ground ball hit right at you is almost the hardest to field because of the hop; you can’t really read it. Like a fly ball, if I’m running sideways, I can see the angle, where it’s going to land. If it’s right at you, it’s tough to see the angle — you don’t have the depth perception.
“So I always like to work straight back and straight in. There’s an approach I do to make sure you’re in the right position to try to catch the ball while you’re still in form while you’re running. We don’t want to get in choppy steps and work backwards and get ourselves in no-man’s land and make it uncomfortable.”
Playing balls off the wall will be an adjustment for Sosa, too. Figueroa has encouraged him to get to the wall as quickly as he can.
“If you’re slow hopping, drifting, tiptoeing, you’re never going to get to balls that do reach the wall, or you’re going to short-hop the ball,” Figueroa said. “So you’re kind of eliminating the fear of the wall. Trying to get there as fast as you can.”
Once Sosa masters that, he’ll move on to throwing from the outfield. Figueroa said that sometimes players try to be too quick in their release and let the ball sail.
“They’ve got to gather their legs underneath their body and do a crow hop,” he said. “That’s something new, too, for guys that go from the infield to the outfield.”
The last step for Sosa will be learning how to better communicate with the corner outfielders. But right now, Sosa said his main focus is in learning those eight angles and trying to run to the ball, now that he has more ground to cover.
At some point, he’ll get into spring training games in center field. The Phillies hope Sosa will give them another right-handed option off the bench to play the position when left-handed-hitting Brandon Marsh isn’t starting.
“It’s just a little different,” said Sosa, who hit a three-run home run in a 9-7 victory over the Pirates on Monday. “It’s a process, obviously. I’m not going to say it’s easy because it isn’t, but we’re working at it.
“I feel like I’m advancing very quickly. Bit by bit, I’m getting better. I’m working hard so I’m ready when Thomson needs me.”
