I get it. You’re down on the Phillies.
I understand. Truly, I do. After coming within two victories of a surprise World Series title in 2022, all of us thought the Phils would have finished the job and brought John Middleton’s trophy back to Philadelphia by now.
In 2023, the Phils had the NLCS in their pockets, but lost Games 6 and 7 of the series at home to an underdog Diamondbacks team that had no business being in the Fall Classic. Last year, after winning 95 games and having the best regular season we’ve seen around here since 2011, they stumbled down the stretch and fell in four quick games to the Mets in the NLDS.
In each season, the streakiness of the offense was the main culprit, although an unexpected bullpen meltdown against New York last October played a significant role, too.
You wanted the Phillies to get aggressive, to shore up these problems and create a team invulnerable to defeat.
This offseason, Dave Dombrowski’s only move to alter the nature of the lineup was to sign free agent Max Kepler to a one-year contract to play left field every day, even though Kepler was hurt for most of last year and had the worst season of his career. The Phils have already lost one relief pitcher, Jeff Hoffman, in free agency and will likely lose Carlos Estevez as well. They added Jordan Romano, who was a great closer for Toronto in 2022 and ‘23, but was hurt for most of last season as well.
In short, the offense appears to be no better than the previous three seasons and the bullpen doesn’t appear to be as strong as it was at the end of last year. It feels like the Phils are worse off now than they were when last October began.
So it’s interesting that two national outlets, MLB.com and ESPN, are so high on the Phillies in their first official MLB power rankings of 2025. Both believe the Phillies are the second-best team in baseball.
MLB.com: The additions of Max Kepler, Jesús Luzardo, Jordan Romano and Joe Ross are mostly garnish around the main course of all those veterans at the Phillies’ core, the ones dialed up to win that World Series that has proven so elusive. The question here: Is there one more move left? Or more? The Phillies might as well go all-in to win at this point.
ESPN: Philadelphia has been looking for outfield help, which led to the signing of Max Kepler, and added Jordan Romano to the bullpen after it faltered in the second half. Meanwhile, Jesus Luzardo deepens a stellar rotation. The Phillies might not be done tinkering quite yet.
Both write-ups point out that the strength of the Phillies, their starting rotation, makes them a very dangerous team, coupled with an offense that, warts and all, was still an elite run-scoring group in 2024. The addition of Marlins starter Luzardo to the rotation was a master stroke by Dombrowski.
Living in Philadelphia and following the team closely, it can be easy to have blinders on to the realities of your local sports franchise. We see a Phils team that has gone backwards each of the last two postseasons and, at least on paper, didn’t do enough to improve themselves.
But compared to the rest of the league, the Phillies have fewer holes than all but one team, the behemoth Dodgers who, by the way, have been the most talented team in baseball over the last decade and only last year won their first real championship since 1988 (they won the pandemic-shortened season of 2020 as well).
It’s understandable to be a bit disgruntled right now. Heading into the winter, we thought the Phils would be in the market to sign Juan Soto. They weren’t. We thought they would pivot to a high-profile free agent to help solve the outfield problem. They likely aren’t. We thought they would re-sign at least one of their two departing relievers or, at the very least, add a high-impact closer-type. Unless you believe in a Romano renaissance, they haven’t. We thought there was a possibility they could trade someone like Alec Bohm, Nick Castellanos or another core member of the team to alter the lineup in a bid to shake things up. They aren’t.
We focus on the things they haven’t done, aren’t doing, and probably won’t do, and lose sight of the fact this team is still one of the very best in baseball. In fact, perhaps the second-best.
So let’s not bury the Phillies before they get to Clearwater. This is still a really good baseball team that should win a lot of games in 2025. Baseball seasons usually aren’t linear. Sometimes a team that is perceived to be weaker is the one that actually catches fire at the right time and wins it all. Remember, the 2008 championship team was weaker than the 2009, ‘10 and ‘11 squads that fell one step further each season.
Whether that will translate into postseason victories in 2025 is an unanswerable question.The stars already on hand have to get the job done, and maybe this time they will. In the meantime, enjoy having the second-best baseball team in the world play in Philadelphia, warts and all.
On the latest Hittin’ Season podcast, we laid out our own top-10 power rankings, discussed the Hoffman move to Toronto, and some other fun Phils nuggets, so please check it out, download, and subscribe!
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2025-01-15 10:10:04
