Is Phillies top outfield prospect and trade chip close to major league call-up?

PHILADELPHIA – The Phillies addressed one of their holes on Monday when they formally inked reliever David Robertson to a contract for the rest of the season.

The other big need is to lengthen the lineup.

Bryce Harper, Kyle Schwarber and Trea Turner have been productive at the top of the order. J.T. Realmuto has been solid lately in the middle-to-bottom of the order, but the rest of the offense has lacked consistency – and in some ways has been consistently poor.

Left fielder Max Kepler, who hasn’t lived up the one-year, $10-million contract he signed in the offseason, is hitting .204. He has a -0.3 WAR for the season, is hitless in his last 13 at-bats and is not making solid contact.

Center fielder Brandon Marsh had picked it up after a slow start to the season but after topping out at .265 on July 9 has gone 3-for-his-last-23 and is down to .250. Like Kepler his WAR is -0.3.

Johan Rojas, who plays mostly against left-handers, is slashing .227/.282/.298.

A power-hitting right-handed bat will likely be a priority for the Phillies at the trade deadline, but could there be an internal solution?

Former first-round pick Justin Crawford is tearing up the International League. He is one of the Phillies’ top three prospects along with pitcher Andrew Painter and infielder Aiden Miller.

Crawford could be traded at the upcoming deadline – it would have to be part of a significant deal – but he could also solve the Phillies’ problem himself.

Crawford neither bats right-handed nor is a power hitter – he has just two home runs and a high ground-ball rate – but is batting .325 with 56 runs scored and 29 stolen bases.

It would seem he would be an upgrade at least over Kepler in left, but the Phillies likely won’t call him up until they determine to part ways with their starting left fielder.

“It’s been a consideration but we haven’t had the right time to do it,” said Phillies President of Baseball Operations Dave Dombrowski of bringing Crawford to the majors. “If we bring him up, he needs to play. We have to sort out our own situation. He’s very good, very talented. Will more development time hurt him? No.

“There’s things like defense, playing center field, stealing bases, nuances he’s working on right now. It’s not like if he came up, he couldn’t contribute but there needs to be a spot for him.”

It’s possible the Phillies want to see what they do at the trade deadline before calling Crawford up. The deadline is 10 days away, and if they make a trade they don’t want to send him back down.

If there’s no solution on the market and he doesn’t get traded, Crawford could get called up on August 1.

In the meantime, Kepler, Marsh and Rojas will need to show improvement.

“Some fix has to come internally, it just has to,” said Dombrowski. “We’ll try to supplement. But some of our guys just need to hit better.”

Bill Evans can be reached atbevans@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him at@bybillevans.