9 Philadelphia Eagles that could be above-average Phillies
By Hunter Doyle
He may never work out for the Philadelphia Eagles as an offensive tackle, but Jordan Mailata is our cleanup hitter.
He might not ever see the field as an offensive tackle, especially now that the Eagles have drafted both of Auburn’s starting tackles from the 2019 college football season, but curiosity makes it hard not to give him a shot on the diamond.
He would be a brick wall at first base standing at six-foot-eight and tipping the scales at 346 pounds. He might not be the fastest of first basemen, but he runs a 5.12 forty-yard dash which is impressive for his size. With that being said, he’ll be able to cover a little bit of ground. Any baseball that his bat connects with has a chance to go to the moon. There’s no other choice for the cleanup spot.
We’re getting Pablo Sandoval vibes here. Lane Johnson would be a barricade at third base with his size and athleticism. He also doesn’t have a bad forty-yard dash time, having run a 4.72 at 310 pounds.
Johnson was a former quarterback at Kilgore College at the beginning of his collegiate career, so he’s got the arm to reach first base from the hot corner. A 3-4-5 trio with Johnson following the aforementioned Mailata and Kelce is one that could make quite a few pitchers nervous.
We’ve seen him cover every route possible, so you have to believe that, no matter where the ball is hit to right field, you’d have to believe that Slay has things under control and he’s going to track the ball and get to it fairly quickly.
We’ve seen him make some incredible diving interceptions and pass deflections. It isn’t ridiculous to believe that he’d come up with a few of those top-ten diving catches in the outfield that we see on ESPN’s Sportscenter. Lane Johnson is going to clear quite a few bases with extra-base hits. Slay is fully capable of getting things going for the bottom of the order by getting on base.