Phillies’ Brandon Marsh progressing toward being ready for opening day: ‘He’s starting to ramp it up’

CLEARWATER, Fla. — Two weeks after arthroscopic surgery on his left knee, outfielder Brandon Marsh continues to make progress at a rate that has the Phillies confident he will be ready for opening day.

“Everything’s going great,” Marsh said Thursday after jogging on the warning track and playing catch. “It feels really good.”

Marsh hasn’t been cleared to hit — “I keep poking at them,” he said, pointing to physical therapist Alex Plum — but is tracking pitches on Trajekt Arc, a next-gen pitching machine and video projection system that is programmable to replicate the pitch mix and delivery of every major league pitcher.

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Manager Rob Thomson outlined a schedule that would have Marsh standing in against actual pitchers “in the next day or two,” before moving on to bunting, hitting in the cage, and eventually taking full batting practice.

The Phillies will open the season March 28 at home against the Braves. It’s not clear how many at-bats Marsh might need to be ready. He got 50 at-bats last season and 42 in 2022 with the Angels.

“He’s starting to ramp it up,” Thomson said.

The Phillies targeted relievers Jordan Hicks and Robert Stephenson in free agency. But when the hard-throwing righties took other offers, they chose not to make a move to replace Craig Kimbrel, who signed with the Orioles.

Consider it a vote of confidence for internal options, including Jeff Hoffman.

Hoffman had a breakthrough 2023 season. After signing a minor-league contract with the Phillies at the end of spring training, he leveraged an opt-out — and an impressive round of batting practice against rehabbing Bryce Harper — to get called up from triple A in May.

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And in 54 games, he posted a 2.41 ERA and 0.971 WHIP.

The question now: Can Hoffman do it again?

“I’d never seen him up close until he came and threw to Harper, and it was really good,” Thomson said. “We started building him from like middle innings toward the end on how well he responded to that. There’s this toughness in him that I really like.”

The clubhouse was still abuzz over Larry Bowa’s hole-in-one — “My first and probably my last,” the 78-year-old former shortstop and manager said — Wednesday in the Phillies’ annual four-man scramble tournament at Belleair Country Club.

“Threw 20 minutes of BP, hit some fungoes, got a hole-in-one,” Thomson said. “That’s a pretty great day for Larry Bowa.”

Nonroster reliever Ryan Burr didn’t participate in the workout after taking a ball off the shin Wednesday but isn’t expected to miss more time. … The Carpenter Complex lost power as part of an early-morning outage in the Clearwater area. Power was restored before the Phillies began their workout. … Saturday’s spring-training opener against the Blue Jays in Dunedin, Fla., will be broadcast on WIP-FM (94.1) and MLB Network. Kolby Allard is scheduled to pitch two innings, followed by Nick Nelson, Andrew Bellatti, Dylan Covey, and Michael Mercado. Covey is vying for a spot in the bullpen as a long reliever. Johan Rojas will start in center field.