Like the great Vin Scully once said, winter has given way to spring, and so begins another season of baseball. And while Scully can look upon his Dodgers from above with pride as they delivered on the sky-high expectations to defeat the Yankees to win the 2024 World Series, the Phillies find themselves in the opposite situation: they entered the 2024 season with similar expectations, but were unable to deliver.
Their loss to the Mets in the second round of the 2024 playoffs indicates a step back for the team after back-to-back NLCS appearances, one of which becoming a NL pennant. After finally getting over the Braves to win their first NL East division title in 13 years, the Phillies flamed out in the playoffs in spectacular fashion. The bats went cold and the red-hot Mets rode the momentum they had built in the Wild Card round to surge past the Phillies and make Phillies faithful question if winning the division and getting the first-round bye is even worth it. After all, both times the Phillies made the NL Championship Series, they had done so without a first-round bye, and rode their momentum all the way to series wins. So as the 2025 season approaches, what is the Phillies’ plan for success?
The actions of the Phillies front office during the offseason communicates one thing and one thing only – they believe that this roster can win a championship. With so many expensive players already on the roster, the Phillies chose to be conservative during the free agency period. But it was hard to remain optimistic as a Phillies fan when the free agency period saw a lot of NL competition improve significantly. The Mets made the biggest move of the offseason, signing superstar Juan Soto to a nine-figure contract and significantly shoring up their outfield. Meanwhile, the defending champion Dodgers continued to load up, forming their answer to the mid-2010s Warriors dynasty in terms of roster talent. The Dodgers not only acquired the most hyped international signee in Roki Sasaki, but also improved their roster in every position with key signings such as Tommy Edman, Teoscar Hernandez, and Blake Snell.
The Phillies, however, took the opposite approach. While rumors floated of an Alec Bohm trade, the roster remains largely the same. They addressed the obvious worst player on the roster last season, Taijuan Walker, and traded for his replacement, Jesus Luzardo. The arrival of Luzardo makes the Phillies starting pitching a five-headed monster, with many MLB experts saying that it is by far the best rotation in baseball. Odds are that Bryce Harper, Trea Turner, and Kyle Schwarber will be their usual productive selves, but the Phillies need to see more production from players like Bohm, Nick Castellanos, and Johan Rojas if they want to compete with division rival Mets or the looming juggernaut Dodgers, who are vying to become the first repeat champions since the 2000 Yankees.
The department where the Phillies saw the most turnaround was in the bullpen. Jeff Hoffman and Carlos Estevez are gone, leaving a couple question marks about how they will be replaced. For the past two seasons the Phillies bullpen has been highly regarded as a group with depth and skill, however this offseason has thinned it out significantly. A lot more responsibility will be placed on the young Orion Kerkering this year, and Jose Alvarado will likely have to pick up a lot more innings. And while it’s not completely out of the question to see Andrew Painter pick up some bullpen innings this year, it can’t be relied on that he will be there to pick up the slack.
This season is make-or-break for the Phillies; their superstars are not getting any younger. The top of the rotation in Zack Wheeler and Aaron Nola are 34 and 31, respectively. Bryce Harper, Kyle Schwarber, Trea Turner, and Nick Castellanos are all in their early-to-mid 30s, and it appears the championship window with this core is closing rather quickly. Without an obvious injection of young talent into the batting order from inside the organization, failure to win this season may leave the Phillies top brass searching for answers in terms of making sure the team can compete with the other top dogs of the National League.
However, not all hope is lost, as the Phillies match up favorably with the Dodgers. The Dodgers’ main weakness is facing outstanding pitching, something the Phillies have a wealth of. Getting that high-flying offense to get going is significantly more difficult when you have to face at least five innings of the best starting pitching in baseball in every game with no breaks. Most teams cut down their playoff rotation from five or six in the regular season to three or four in the playoffs, but if Jesus Luzardo pans out for the Phillies, then two things are possible: either the Phillies walk in to the playoffs with the deepest rotation in the bracket, or a couple of their outstanding starting pitchers (one or two of Ranger Suarez, Christopher Sanchez, and Jesus Luzardo) join the bullpen to shore up the depth of that group significantly.
However, the playoffs aren’t a guarantee, and the Phillies must not lose sight of the regular season in order to make it to the playoffs at all. The baseball season is long, and their game against the Nationals on March 27th is the beginning of a chance to avenge their loss in 2022 and be immortalized in the halls of Cooperstown. Manager Rob Thomson will lead his third full-season campaign in 2025, and hopes that his club can take down the top teams in baseball.
History appears to be in the Phillies’ favor- the Dodgers being by far the championship favorites actually bodes well for competition like the Phillies, as the odds-on favorite has only taken home the Commissioner’s Trophy three times since 2000. And as long as the Phillies can find answers for the league’s superstars such as Shohei Ohtani and Juan Soto, they are in good shape to compete with anyone for the World Series.
