Why Phillies supported its current nucleus instead of adding in the low season
The Dodgers and the Mets won the winter, but one of their closest competitors, Phillies, looks a lot like a season ago.
Philadelphia Phillies are not oblivious to the great movements of the MLB free agency, but the franchise was remarkably absent from the headlines of the low season -and there was a reason for the quiet winter.
The Phillies believe that they have a nucleus that can compete with anyone this season, even without a striking incorporation of free agent, because they had already done most of their stars hunting over the course of several low seasons by signing Bryce Harper, Zack Wheeler, Trea Turner, Kyle Schwarber and Nick Castellanos with long -term contracts.
The results since the arrival of that group have been impressive: three consecutive appearances in the postseason, including a participation in the World Series in 2022. But the Phillies have not celebrated a parade at the end of any of those campaigns-the most recent was that of last year’s NLDS against the New York Mets-and the competition will only be harder this season in the east division of the National League and beyond.
“I have looked at the power classification … From 2 to 4 they are in the East Division of the National League,” said the president of the Baseball Operations of the Phillies, Dave Dombrowski, on the PRE -season list of AM850. “I spoke with a general manager of the American League and said: ‘You have a good club’, but acknowledged that there were four to five teams in the National League better than his.”
However, instead of renewing a team that falls short for the final prize, the Phillies directive chose to reorganize with smaller movements. While the Mets, division rivals, signed-or signed again-Juan Soto, Pete Alonso, Sean Manaea, Clay Holmes, Frankie Moves, Aj Minder, Jesse Winker, Ryne Stanek and Griffin Canning, and the reigning champions Los Ángeles Dodgers added to Blake Snel, Roki Sasaki and Tanner Scott, Los Phillies They were content to add depth in the shape of the gardener Max Kepler, the pitcher Jesus Luzardo and the reliever Jordan Roman.
Although they did not win the winter, the Phillies are just where they have been during the last seasons: at the top of a hard division of the East National League. His good start included a victory in a weekend series over Dodgers in what could be an advance of the playoffs. Helping the team to reach 7-2 at the beginning of the season.
The best Phillies players have led the way from the beginning with Schwarber, Wheeler, Harper and Castellanos, all of them promoting the first victories, but the rest of the team is also demonstrating that Philadelphia is more than stars. Luzardo has shown that it can be much more than a background player by allowing only two clean races and struggling 19 batters in his first twelve entries, and Orion Kerkering seems to be prepared to assume a more important role in the Bullpen.
“When you look at our team on paper, you’re still going up there with some of the best baseball teams,” said Schwarber’s designated batter to AM850. “We have talent. We are in the position every year, we have simply arrived. It is not for lack of talent. It is simply the way the game works sometimes.”
Dombrowski: You can’t give anything for granted
When MLB general managers meetings began in early November, it seemed quite possible that the Phillies had a new aspect when they arrived at spring training a few months later. Just out of the defeat in the division series against the METS, Dombrowski made it clear that the directive was going to analyze all aspects of the defeat, refusing to let the idea that anything can happen in baseball to prevent the team from finding possible areas of improvement.
“You can’t give anything for granted,” said Dombrowski. “If you do, you won’t get it. It is difficult, but if you overcome everything, and then October, you will deserve it.”
But as the board examined its options as the low season progressed, it came to a conclusion: it was difficult to find many positions in which the squad could be improved. The same feeling was evident in the club when the team appeared to spring training ready to make another career with a group that believes that a step beyond what it has done in any of the last three seasons can reach.
“When you look around a wardrobe, you try to improve in each position,” said Garrett Stubbs receiver near the end of spring training. “But when you look at this costumes and you see the boys we have, you wonder: ‘How can we even improve?’ There are very few chances of improving in this costume. “
Although Phillies trust their talent, they are also aware that many of their main players are already in the thirties and that competition windows do not remain open forever.
“I think the dodgers have the oldest team (of batters), so it is not that you cannot win with veterans, but we have all seen how fast things change for 30 -year -old players,” said Dombrowski. “Philadelphia should have some urgency because the future is never guaranteed.”
To increase the pressure to win now, the fact that some of the star signings of the last preseason are reaching the end of their contracts. Club leaders and star players Schwarber and JT Realmuto are scheduled to get to free agency when Phillies play their last 2025 match, which gives this season an air of the last chance for a group that has made Philadelphia a October pillar for the first time in more than a decade.
“We don’t know who will be here next year, so who knows … this could be the last chance we have to win with this group,” Harper said. “We have another great opportunity to do it.
“We just try to win that last game.”
