Last year was grueling. Sure, it started out like a dream, but even optimistic Phillies fans knew we were dead in the water down the stretch. This year has been just the opposite. Over the last 3 weeks the Phillies transformed from a talented team with no fight to the team that can always find a way to win. Had last night’s game against the Dodgers come a month ago, we probably lose once the score hits 3-1 LA in the 5th. Instead, no worries. 5 innings, a big HR from Mookie Betts, a blown save by Duran, and David Robertson loading the bases later, the Phillies are again NL East Champs. Who would have thought that the 2025 team, without Zack Wheeler or Trea Turner but with all the past playoff baggage, would be the one to dominate in September to win the NL East going away?
There have been two constants this season, Kyle Schwarber and Cristopher Sanchez. Both seem destined to finish runner up for the game’s highest honors, the MVP and Cy Young awards. They deserve it too, not just for their stats, but for their steadying presence as leaders on the Phillies.
Schwarber has simply had one of the better seasons we have ever seen from a Phillies hitter. It’s not 2006 Ryan Howard, but his 53 HRs with 2 weeks to go is a serious threat to Howard’s franchise record. No Phillie has led the league in RBIs since that magical Howard year either, but Schwarber seems like a shoe in at this point with an 11 RBI lead over Pete Alonso. Unlike previous June-Schwarber years, this has been a run throughout the season. The longest he has gone without a HR is 10 games and only 8 games without an RBI. Oddly enough, both happened during the Phillies recent run and immediately after his 4 HR game.1 Oh yeah, THAT. His previous signature moment of the season was the 3 swings/3 HRs to win the All-Star game for the NL. That was cool and all, but 4 HRs is something that has only been done 20 other times in 150 years of baseball.2
When Zack Wheeler went down, the weight of the rotation landed squarely on the gangly shoulders of Sanchez. Wheeler has been the dependable ace for so long, it must have been a particular shocker for him to realize that the mantle of #1 starter naturally fell to him, the previously unheralded lefty. What has he done since the crown was placed on his head? Just averaged 6 2/3 innings per start with a 1.60 FIP3 including 20 innings and 3 runs in his last 3 starts. He even seems to have ratcheted up the intensity too down the stretch. That’s something you don’t need (like Cliff Lee) but something Phillies fans melt over. We all want the ball in his hands to start and finish (if he has to) every playoff series.
There has been no shortage of adversity for the duo to lead the team through either.
- Injuries:
- Ranger Suarez started the year on the IL and missed the first month of the season
- Bryce Harper missed almost all of June
- Trea Turner is going to miss almost all of September
- Then there is the Ace of Aces, Zack Wheeler, missing the final 6 weeks and the playoffs
- Slumps:
- Alec Bohm started the season terribly and is ending it worse
- Bryson Stott and Max Kepler forgot how to hit for 4 months
- Brandon Marsh was a mess for all of April (but has completely turned it around)
- Nick Castellanos has slowly faded away to nothing
- Jordan Romano…
- Suspension
- Jose Alvarado really missed being able to throw 102, so he cheated4 and can’t help the team in the playoffs
How did we deal with all of those problems? Guys really stepped up.
- Edmundo Sosa is having a great season with limited playing time, playing both shortstop and 3rd base at an elite level while absolutely destroying lefties at the plate.
- Otto Kemp is a rookie who has also wrecked lefties this season and might find himself on the postseason roster
- Brandon Marsh 180’d his season going from a horrific .095/.220/.167 slash line at the start of May to .306/.361/.481 since
- David Robertson came off of quasi-retirement to be the Swiss Army knife out of the bullpen
- Tanner Banks…where would we be without Tanner Banks? Is there anyone on the team you trust more to come into and get out of a dirty inning (other than Justin and Trevor, IYKYK)?
- Taijuan Walker is one of the better stories on this roster. We have all been calling for his head for 2 years, but he managed to pitch 116 innings with an ERA in the upper 3s most of the season.
- Trea Turner is not the guy you would expect to see on a list of the underappreciated, but his turn around on defense is something no one expected. By the end of last season, he was a serious liability at the most important defensive position. Not anymore.
- Something clicked for JT Realmuto around June 1. Until then, he was hitting .222 with a .654 OPS. Since then, he’s hitting .288 with a .757 OPS. He was barely playable before and now he is a key piece in the middle of the order.
I would be remiss (which I HATE being) if I didn’t talk about Ranger Suarez and Jesus Luzardo. After missing the first month and getting bombed in his first start, Ranger has a 2.48 ERA. All of the Cy Young focus has been on Paul Skenes as the favorite, Sanchez the runner up, and Wheeler getting injured, but Suarez is going to finish in the Top 10 (5?) himself.5 Jesus Luzardo started the season as a godsend, then everyone lost faith. With good reason too, he gave up 20 runs over 2 consecutive starts in late May and early June which jolted his ERA from 2.15 to 4.46. The real killer though came against the Red Sox on July 23rd. He went from a no-hitter through 4 to a 6-run catastrophe in the 5th. Was he going to the bullpen? Since then, his ERA is under 3. So, we are wary, but his overall body of work this season has been very good. He has 200 Ks and an ERA right at 3 if you take out those 2 midseason clunkers.
The real story of the 2025 Phillies is the offseason wrongs that were righted at the Trade Deadline. Going into the winter, we needed a reliever and an outfielder. In came Max Kepler and Jordan Romano. Even though Max has come around lately, the two have been terrible most of the season. At the deadline, we STILL needed a reliever and an outfielder. In came Harrison Bader and Jhoan Duran this time. Duran blew the save last night, but he has been the foundation of this bullpen since his arrival; the closer that everyone else can plan their roles around. As for Bader, his irrationally confident attitude has infected the whole team in ways no one was expecting. It’s no surprise that our 3 best wins of the season have come directly from his presence in the batting order. Let’s not forget his .338 average and .917 OPS while playing gold glove defense in CF and hitting from the right side since arriving in Philly either. It is not an exaggeration to say that these were the two biggest and best moves of the trade deadline.
In the end, the team seems to be playing its best baseball right when it needs to. At the Trade Deadline, the Phillies were .5 games behind the Mets in the division. Since then, we have the sport’s best record and largest division lead despite that devastating sweep up in Queens. Sure, the Mets have helped, but the Phillies have been solidly putting up and stacking wins for 6 weeks. Right now, we are NL East Champions. Next up, winning 11 more in October.
- His previous HR and RBI-less streaks were 8 and 6. ↩︎
- I stand by that it was more unlikely for him not to hit his 5th one off a position player than to have hit the 4. I mean, that’s what he did at the All-Star Game! ↩︎
- His ERA is 3.13 thanks to some terrible fielding luck against the Mets in Citi Field. ↩︎
- I really like the bike riding, coffee drinking person of Jose Alvarado, but just because I like him doesn’t mean I can ignore the facts. He wasn’t very good last year because he was only hitting 98-99. All of a sudden, this spring he is back to 102. That doesn’t just happen. ↩︎
- I’m going to write about what it will take to sign him later this week ↩︎
Philly Front Office 
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