I'm Getting a Sports Complex

No reunion: Carter Hart did the Flyers a favor

Carter Hart will likely resume his NHL career this season, but it won't be with the Flyers

Published September 17, 2025

When the news came from Carter Hart's camp on Tuesday that the goaltender wasn't interested in a potential NHL comeback with the Flyers team that drafted him, it wasn't much of a shock. And for the Flyers themselves, it should have come as quite a relief.

Hart, out of the game since January of 2024 when the Hockey Canada scandal broke, was non-tendered by the Flyers last offseason, making him a free agent, although he was only recently ruled eligible to sign come October 15. Now, we know for sure that it won't be with the Flyers, per his representative Judd Moldaver, who says that Hart is seeking "a fresh start." That makes sense, for the player and for his former team that was likely weighing the pros and cons of bringing him back.

By taking himself out of the equation, Hart quietly resolved any internal discord that may have been occurring within the Flyers organization about his return. Even though there was probably little chance of it ever happening, some no doubt still held out hope that the Flyers might be able to bring him back. Objectively, it would make sense, as Hart would seemingly represent an upgrade over the team's current stable of goaltenders. But, once allowed to play in NHL games as of this December 1, how long would it take for him to round into form after nearly two years out of the league? That's the first big question, with the second one being "Just how long of a leash would he have with his teammates and the fans who support them?"

Think back to a year and a half ago, when Hart was a pariah thanks to the accusations against him. A large chunk of the current Flyers were on the team then, and you'd probably be hard-pressed to find many that would want him back, if you were to get their honest opinions on the matter. Hart didn't out-and-out quit on the team, but the situation had all the same feelings of betrayal as though he had. The team was heading toward a playoff spot, when all of a sudden they lost their starting goaltender. They did not recover, and players from that team are well within their right to hold onto bitterness about it. It would be a hard sell for Flyers management to convince them to let Hart back into their circles of trust.

And then there are the fans, a group divided on the issue of Hart's right to further his NHL career. It all comes down to the degree in which you believe in second chances, or if you are in favor of them in general but not necessarily with your own team. Flyers fans might feel similarly betrayed as Hart's old teammates and would rather not ever have to deal with the situation again. Luckily for the Flyers, they can now move on and won't even have to comment on the matter. Even if they had an inkling of wanting to bring Hart back, something that would surely rile up a contingent of their fanbase, they are off the hook thanks to Hart's desire for a clean slate elsewhere.

And that's the real takeaway here. The Flyers were able to remain noncommittal on the Hart issue just last week when they were asked about it because the NHL hadn't rule on his eligibility yet. Then, once the league did make a decision, the Flyers came out clean on the other side because Hart's representative let them off the hook. They didn't have to risk either angering Hart's detractors or supporters among Flyers fans. Nor did they have to worry about causing any issues in the locker room if any players still held a grudge. The player has moved on, and that's that. It's sometimes — perhaps most of the time — the best way to treat this kind of situation.

Supposedly, you won't ever be seeing this sight again. (Steph Chambers/Getty Images)

Eagles can embrace villain status as title defense begins

If the league ends up hating the Birds, that will be a good thing.

Published September 3, 2025

The Philadelphia Eagles’ season is about to begin, and there is a lot of optimism that they are well positioned to mount a sturdy title defense. Last year, they played spoiler to prevent the Chiefs from becoming the first ever back-to-back-to-back Super Bowl champions, and they earned a lot of credibility around the league for it. Now, it’s up to the Eagles to keep winning so that the begrudging respect from the rest of the league becomes flat-out hatred.

Speaking for all Eagles fans, we are here for it.

Across the American sports landscape, you’ll hear people talking about hating Philly or their teams, but they always circle back to Philadelphia fans being the main reason for that. The argument goes thusly: Philly fans are loud, obnoxious drunks, and their great uncle threw snowballs at Santa Claus. So they must be awful people, and we should hate their city and their teams as a result. You never hear other fans saying “I hate Philly because their teams just win too much and I’m sick of it.”

It’s time to change that.

The Flyers were the city’s last repeat champions. That was 50 years ago, and they haven’t won a Cup since. The Sixers are at 40+ years without a ring. Heck, they haven’t even made it out of the second round in a quarter-century. And the Phillies are slowly but surely inching up on repeating the same 28-year gap between titles that we saw from 1980 to 2008. Hopefully that changes this year, but the point is that we aren’t exactly awash in winners in this town.

That’s why the Eagles’ Super Bowl LII victory was so epic. And it’s why their Super Bowl LIX victory was unexpected and glorious. And it’s why the potential of further championships in the near future, although feeling exceptionally greedy, is so tantalizing. Nobody ever gets tired of winning or of seeing their teams win. Or so I’m told. I personally haven’t ever been a fan of some juggernaut. But the Eagles have a chance to get as close as they can to that status.

Another Super Bowl win during this Hurts/Saquon era under Nick Sirianni feels entirely possible, if not expected. And while you can never say that multiple wins are expected or even probable, they have as good of a shot as any team in the league to pull it off over the next few seasons. But that’s getting ahead of ourselves, and first thing’s first. Let’s pick up where we left off last season to set the stage for another exciting playoff run. Then again, maybe the team will look extremely average like they did in the early going last year before they found their bearings. Let’s not overreact to the first game or two (even though we will, of course) and jump to any conclusions.

If the Eagles get the kind of expected production out of the roster they’ve assembled and avoid any truly catastrophic injuries, they will once again be in the playoff mix. Other factors are at play as always, such as opponent injuries and playoff upsets, but you can only focus on improving your own team and the contingency planning that you’ll have to employ during the season. All the while, the goal is to get back to February football and build on their burgeoning legacy, a legacy that will hopefully include the rest of the league absolutely hating the Eagles and their fans in a way that fuels and satisfies us.

If you spend long enough supporting a team and a city, you are bound to run into some good times. It sure feels like we are due. As the saying goes, “You either die a hero, or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain.” Here’s hoping that this Eagles era lives on for so long that they become the most hated team in the land, their fans reviled not for some stigmatic behavior but for their unwavering support of a team that can’t be beaten. This is already a championship team, but now it has a chance to be something much more than that.

At the very least, let’s just smoke the Cowboys twice a year for the rest of Jerry Jones’ life. That’s almost as good.

Nick Sirianni and Jalen Hurts of your world champs

Burn this into your brain, NFL. (Fernando Llano – The Associated Press)

Two contracts diverged in a yellow wood

The Phils signed Schwarber and Castellanos two days apart, and the results have been very different.

Published August 16, 2025

Coming off their tenth straight non-playoff season in 2021, the Phillies at least looked like they were building something and had a good nucleus of the team. Then, late in 2022 spring training, they signed two free agents mere days apart: Kyle Schwarber and Nick Castellanos. In a vacuum, each move looked like a good one, but people questioned at the time if they really needed both.

The dollar numbers were about the same, but they gave Castellanos five years as opposed to four for Schwarber. And it kind of made sense, given that Nick is a year younger than Kyle and had also just completed an all-star season in Cincinnati where he hit .309 with 100 RBI. After signing him, the prevailing sentiment was that the Phillies probably could have done without Schwarber, given that they already had Bryce Harper in right field and now tied themselves down with two other corner outfield/DH types.

Four seasons later, the consensus on that couldn’t have been more wrong.

Schwarber has developed into the Phillies slugger of his generation, as he’s pacing to lead the NL in bombs for the second time as a Phil. He’s also reached the 100 RBI mark three times in four years, won the All-Star Game MVP this year and, most importantly, has gone deep 12 times in 34 playoff games with the team.

The Phillies have made the playoffs every year of Castellanos’ tenure as well, but we all know the problems here. Yes, he is forced to play the field unlike Schwarber, and he’s a liability there. Getting around that, though, we were presented with the idea (and so it seemed by his track record to that point) that he put together good at bats and was an extra-base hit machine who would be a solid run producer in this lineup. Castellanos did have an all-star campaign in 2023 (.272, 29 HR, 106 RBI) but the overall results have been less than the Phillies paid for or expected. They essentially have an albatross taking up space in right field and the batting order every night, and they’re unfortunately on the hook for another season.

Meanwhile, Kyle Schwarber is getting more and more expensive to retain beyond this season with every big hit. And it’s not just the home runs, as he’s gotten better overall at hitting left-handed pitching and is sporting career highs in batting average, on-base %, and slugging % thus far in 2025. He’s become a more complete hitter, and he’s extremely dangerous every time he comes up. On the other hand, Castellanos waves at the first pitch and pops up seemingly every time. None of his efforts, or lack thereof, would look as bad if he weren’t making $20 million per season, but here we are.

Nick has had his share of big moments, including an insane stretch of playoff heroics in 2023, so he remains a wild card who could ignite at the right moment and help carry the Phillies deep or even all the way. But don’t hold your breath on that, as he seems like he’s either disinterested or he’s just hanging on as his skills have eroded more rapidly than expected. The Phillies will probably still have to eat his contract and carry him for one more season, and it’s anyone’s guess if he’ll still be playing everyday or forced into some sort of platoon or reserve role by then. But the Phillies are also taking a risk by letting Schwarber go unsigned this far along, as they will desperately need to keep him around past 2025 to maintain a solid offense while they try to mix in some of their prospects and see who sticks.

At any rate, looking back, it’s apparent that we all wish that Castellanos was “the contract not taken” by the Phillies. But Schwarber’s deal has been great, and that has made all the difference.

Kyle Schwarber and Nick Castellanos of the Philadelphia Phillies

Two rarely used items: Schwarber's glove and Castellanos' top button. (Eric Hartline/USA Today)

Phillies: Time to go ‘all in’ and not worry about prospects

The MLB trade deadline nears. Will the Phillies do anything? They have no reason not to.

Published July 13, 2025

Sometimes, a team has to push all their chips into the middle and go for broke. 2025 is shaping up to be just that scenario for the Phillies.

The reasons are numerous, including the fact that their veteran core is aging out and that they must make contract decisions on Kyle Schwarber and J.T. Realmuto for next year. In addition, they likely won't see a starting rotation this dominant in quite some time, as Ranger Suárez is likely pricing himself out of town with his fantastic (yet technically non-All-Star) first half. Meanwhile, the team is also blessed with several very good prospects which they have yet to call up. You can’t hoard them forever, so the best course of action might be to deal some of them soon to get some immediate help that will make you serious threats to win the 2025 World Series.

The future will sort itself out, this is about winning now. And the rumors have been floating for a while. Maybe some sorely needed bullpen help from the Pirates. Perhaps a bona fide closer AND an everyday lineup fixture from the Guardians. Numerous teams are ready to move quality players. But you’ve got to give up something of value and, for the Phillies, that means that at least some combo of Andrew Painter, Aidan Miller, and Justin Crawford has to be on the table. Perhaps an organization can afford to make one player absolutely untouchable. But that’s about all you can do. This isn’t the year to slap the ‘untradeable’ label on anyone.

MLB.com ranked the Phillies’ farm system as the 17th best in the league back in March. That’s not great, but it’s also a few spots better than it’s been in recent years, showing the org’s ability to draft well and to develop players. If you trust your people at all, you should be able to trade a couple of your top prospects and still be able to re-stock in just a few years. Because, ultimately a great pipeline is paper-only; you don’t actually win anything for it. Use those prospects to address immediate needs and set yourself up for a title run in the short-term, however, and now you’re making the best use of your scouts and all of the time you’ve put into improving your young players.

The Phillies are still locked in to Bryce Harper and Trea Turner for years, and you have to wonder what kind of production they’ll get from both. Long term, the Phillies obviously want to offset their expensive guys with numerous low dollar-value contracts on the roster. There is an allure to having good, homegrown players on your club to stay competitive while also keeping your payroll manageable, which is why teams hate dealing good prospects for older, expensive ones, especially rentals.

But the Phillies will be ok in the long run if they can just treat this season like the golden opportunity it is. The field is wide open, and they have as good of a shot as any team to at least make the 2025 World Series. They have flaws, but they can overcome those if they don’t get cheap and/or try to delude themselves into thinking that they don’t need to make adjustments to prepare for October. You only have to go back to last season to see what a predictable playoff failure looks like. Let’s not do that again, please.

It’s no time to play it safe. Not for John Middleton, Dave Dombrowski, or anyone. Do whatever you can now, because flags fly forever. Or at least for a few years, because 2008 seems so long ago. You don’t want to look back and see this be labeled as a good era of Phillies baseball that didn’t pay off with a title. Then it’ll just end up in the same bucket as Iverson’s Sixers, Lindros’ Flyers, and McNabb’s Eagles. We can do better than that.

Will Andrew ever paint for the Phils? Would sell for a 2025 World Series win. (Cheryl Pursell)

The Phillies had better have three All-Star pitchers

It would be downright dumb if any of the Phillies' trio was left out of the Midsummer Classic.

Published July 3, 2025

Being voted as an All-Star or, in the case of pitchers, being named to the All-Star team, is a nice accolade for a player to collect. In some cases, maybe there’s even some financial compensation tied into it. Regardless, it makes for a nice honor to put in the proverbial trophy case and helps define a player’s career when we look back.

For the Phillies, the first half of this season has been largely successful due to their dominant starting pitching. Even with workhorse Aaron Nola facing the worst struggles of his career and then going down with his first injury in a long while, the trio of Zack Wheeler, Ranger Suárez, and Cristopher Sanchez has been absolutely fantastic and each deserve to be part of the NL All-Star squad in Atlanta next week.

Look no further than their June stats for proof:

Wheeler: 0.58 ERA, 0.87 WHIP, 42 K in 31 IP

Suárez: 1.30 ERA, 0.86 WHIP, 36 K in 41.2 IP

Sanchez: 1.85 ERA, 0.91 WHIP, 33 K in 34 IP

In addition, Sanchez pitched seven more strong innings in his first start of July, continuing a trend that has seen him build even further on his 2024 breakout campaign to show that it was no mirage. He’s improved his K per 9 and strikeout-to-walk ratio from last season, and he continues to be extremely stingy at preventing the long ball.

For Ranger, each start sees him add more and more money to his next contract, whether it’s with the Phillies or for someone else. He got a late start to the season and has pitched just 11 times this year, which is the ONLY possible excuse that I could see getting in the way of all three Phils starters making the All-Star team. But what an amazing 11-start run it’s been, as Ranger is sporting an ERA right at 2.00 so far. The analytics show that he’s allowing fewer line drives and more fly balls, many of the “lazy” variety, as he has surrendered just 5 homers in 72 innings and is limiting hitters to the lowest hard hit % of his career.

As for Wheeler, what else can you say? Maybe the best free agent signing in Phillies history and steadiest extended period of dominance since Steve Carlton has continued to roll along this year. His current performance (8-3, 2.55 ERA, 0.91 WHIP, 136 K in 107 IP) is more than enough to garner him not just an All-Star appearance but to start the game, as long as MLB calms down on the Paul Skenes love for more than five minutes.

The dreaded “every team gets an All-Star” rule hopefully won’t end up cheating any of these deserving Phillies hurlers out of an appearance. If all is right and just, Wheeler, Suárez, and Sanchez should be joined by Kyle Schwarber as the four representatives for the Phillies this year. It’s a far cry from some of those lean years where the team had few, if any, players performing at an All-Star level, something I’ve recently been covering in a series of articles over at ThatBallsOuttaHere.

And, don’t forget, the 2026 All-Star Game comes to Philadelphia next year, so hopefully the Phils will receive great performances like these again to ensure that the club is well represented in front of their home crowd.

Cristopher Sanchez of the Philadelphia Phillies throws a pitch and destroys dreams.

Cristopher is the best Sanchez in Philly sports history. Sorry, Pepe. (Bill Streicher-Imagn Images)

The Flyers have competent management, it appears

Trading for Trevor Zegras was the latest move that speaks to Danny Briere’s capacity at his job.

Published June 23, 2025

When Danny Briere took over as GM of the Flyers just over two years ago (in conjunction with Keith Jones coming aboard as president of hockey ops), there was nowhere to go but up. Flyers fans were at the end of their rope after the disaster that was Chuck Fletcher, whose tenure came on the heels of flameouts by his predecessors in the position. And while the Flyers’ streak of seasons without a playoff appearance has reached five years after two more misses under Briere, the results on the ice are actually secondary to the kind of organizational change that he and Jones have been bringing about over that period of time.

We saw it when Ivan Provorov was shipped out of town and when Briere was able to get a first round pick for Sean Walker the following spring. We saw it again when Briere got the Flyers out from under the burden of Joel Farabee and Morgan Frost during last season. And now it’s on full display again as he’s shot his shot in trading for Zegras, paying far less than what the asking price once was for the talented young forward. No, Zegras isn’t a sure thing. He wouldn’t be available in the first place if he were. But these are the kind of moves that the Flyers absolutely have to make. HAVE TO.

For a team bereft of talent for years that was fooling itself into trying to win games through sheer grit or “playing Flyers hockey”, the tide continues to turn. With Matvei Michkov in tow, Zegras joining him, and young players like Jett Luchanko waiting in the wings, talent will rule the day. There will still be a place for the big bodies and physical hockey, but you still have to outscore your opponents to win hockey games and, ultimately, compete for championships.

This really was a no-brainer move for the Flyers, as they surrendered only a fourth line player in Ryan Poehling, a mid-2nd rounder this year, and a 4th-round nothing burger next year. Poehling isn’t going to suddenly explode for 30 goals for Anaheim, and if they find anything above an average player with the 2nd round pick, then tip your cap to them. The assets surrendered were negligible, and the Flyers now get to bring in Zegras to figure out how he fits into their system going forward before offering him any kind of longer contract.

And, the best part — Briere isn’t done. This isn’t going to be the big move of the offseason. Zegras has the potential to be a very good player, but Briere and the Flyers are under no illusions that he’s going to be the centerpiece of the team. Maybe that player won’t come along this offseason either, but the GM will continue to actively seek out opportunities to bring in the best talent he can to return this team to the playoff conversation. Finally.

Briere’s work is far from done (is the job of a GM ever really “done”, anyway?) but this was an extremely solid first step for the Flyers’ offseason. Now, we wait and see if the addition of Zegras impacts the team’s draft strategy directly, pushing them to take a different style of player with their high picks now that they’re amassing an undersized forward corps to this point. Then again, there may be more trades in the offing this offseason that will reshape the current group even more. No matter what, it’s an exciting development for a team that sorely needs it.

The Flyers appear to be setting themselves up for a playoff run this coming season. Other moves still have to be made, but the team is showing that it’s not rolling with the old concepts of “glue guys” and players with a “locker room presence” to get them where they need to be. Winning takes talent, and it takes players who can put the puck in the net. Trevor Zegras could be the shot in the arm that the Flyers need. Now, what follow-on moves will be made to strengthen the team beyond this one?

Hi, Flyers fans. If you like trades that aren't terrible, you're in luck. (Jose F. Moreno, Inquirer)

This week in Philly sports

Because there’s a whole lot going on, so we might as well go around the horn to cover it.

Published May 17, 2025

Only one local team is playing actual games right now, but it was a busy enough week to merit a dive into things to cover all the bases. And we’ll start with the best news of the week…the 76ers got the third overall pick in the draft!

I’m not even joking about the “best news” part, despite my long-standing “I’m out” attitude toward the Sixers. But it does really help their cause that the lottery gods didn’t boot them out of their protected range so that they had to give the pick to Oklahoma City to complete a previous trade. They’ll have to do that eventually, probably next year, but the third overall pick will be a great asset to have. Ace Bailey? VJ Edgecombe? Trading out of it to accumulate some major assets? It’s a good spot to be in as this club tries to return themselves to respectability.

Any kind of health luck next year (sometimes a tall order for the 76ers) will at least have them back in the mix for the NBA’s play-in tournament, and that would drum up some sort of excitement for a franchise who only seems to register when they’re threatening to move out of town or doing something else to enrage fans. At any rate, I personally think they should keep the pick, but if someone really blows you away to move up to No. 3, you have to seriously listen.

The Eagles didn’t have a whole heck of a lot of development this week, but the league-wide big news was the NFL’s schedule release. And I use the term “schedule release” loosely, because it was more of a propaganda campaign that appealed to the lowest common denominator of fan. I get it; the league is always wanting to manufacture excitement. In the Eagles’ case, there were separate announcements about the team opening their title defense on a Thursday night versus the Cowboys, taking on the Chiefs in a Super Bowl rematch the following week, and playing the Bears in the team’s first ever Black Friday game. But did we need this clogging up our collective feeds? No.

It was annoying, and I didn’t feel like continuously tracking it. In fact, I’m just now looking up the team’s full schedule for the very first time, days after it came out. Get ready for a lot of late nights with all the primetime games, which I guess is better than the alternative of the Eagles’ being flexed out of slots late in the season if they are unexpectedly not good this year. Then again, it’s a really tough schedule (which we all already knew, we just didn’t know the order), so a fall from grace would not be shocking. As my friend pointed out, the league didn’t do the Birds any favors, as they don’t have back-to-back home games all year. At least their only trip out west, which is against the Chargers, comes when they have nine days’ rest ahead of time.

As for the way this week went, I’m sure the NFL will keep doing it this way, because that’s what their TV partners want them to do. I’m just irritated at the possibility that other leagues will try to follow suit in some fashion, although the NFL’s limited game structure and its cachet allow it to get away with things that nobody else can. Anyway, let the local radio dopes start going through the schedule with their Ws and Ls now. Always fun.

The Fly Guys got their man in Rick Tocchet, which everybody assumed was an inevitability weeks ago until we were told that it might not happen, only to find out shortly thereafter that everyone was right all along. I can’t say I was hanging on every word of Tocchet’s introductory press conference, because what are you going to hear that really gives you new information from these things? But I think it’s a decent enough hire. There wasn’t some other slam dunk candidate that’s going to turn this team into a Cup contender right away. Tocchet is a seasoned bench boss at this point and has a Jack Adams Award to his credit, so what else do you want?

I know that some people are accusing the organization of being the “same old Flyers” and hiring one of the good old boys to coach the team. But Tocchet is well-regarded in hockey circles, has had the aforementioned success as a head coach, and has won Cups as an assistant with Pittsburgh as well. Other teams were interested, and the Flyers weren’t just bidding against themselves. The team needs a lot more talent still, so don’t judge him on a slow start that’s likely to come. Will he serve out the entirety of his five-year contract? Knowing the Flyers, probably not. But this is a worthwhile move.

And, hey, the one team that’s playing…the Phillies. Mixed results on the field this week, with one big negative sticking out in the form of Aaron Nola, who was battered for a career-worst nine runs on Wednesday. I wrote a piece for That Ball’s Outta Here on the day after his blowup, and it was published shortly before the team announced that Nola is shifting to the IL for an “ankle sprain”. Ok then, I guess that explains it. Even if it’s not a totally legit injury, this will at least give him some time to get his head on straight.

The upshot is that we’ll see Mick Abel finally make his MLB debut on Sunday. Taken in the middle of the first round five years ago, Abel stagnated and has slid down the team’s prospect rankings for a couple seasons. He was looking better so far this year, however, so now is the time to see how the big righty can fare. A matchup with Paul Skenes will offer a tasty first look at him in Major League Baseball.

So, yeah, a busy week around the complex, even if there weren’t a ton of actual games being played. Sports!

Rob Thomson removes Phillies pitcher Aaron Nola from a game.

With a secret handshake this cool, you have to bust it out during a game. (Patrick Smith/Getty)

Remember these April losses at the end of the season

The Phillies remain over .500, but recent stumblings are cause for concern.

Published April 22, 2025

It’s entirely likely that the Phillies’ supposed “star-studded” lineup will find more consistency in the weeks and months to come, eventually finishing near the top of the National League in most hitting categories. And the bullpen certainly can’t get much worse, so look for that to improve either based on positive regression of the current relievers or possibly a change to the mix out of the ‘pen. The short-term pain points will probably, hopefully work themselves out over the course of a long season.

But losses are losses in the regular season, whether they occur in April or July or September, and some of the L’s that the Phillies have already put up may very well bite them big time when the postseason arrives. Just look at the last two losses they’ve incurred.

They dropped an extra inning affair to the Marlins on Sunday, a game they had no business losing. But their bullpen failed them, and the bats did next to nothing after putting up three runs in the first inning. Frustrating. Then came Monday night, when the team failed to show up in their first meeting with the Mets since last year’s playoff embarrassment. The offense again slumbered for nearly the entire game, only arriving when it was too late to help out Aaron Nola in another forgettable start for the maligned hurler.

And just like that, the Phillies are three games back of the Mets for first in the NL East, with the rest of the division sitting 2.5-3.5 games behind them. The Marlins and Nationals can be largely discounted this year, and the Braves’ awful start and continued injuries have them facing an uphill climb once again. It could very well be a two-horse race in the East, and the Phillies are already losing it.

Yes, we have 85 percent of the season to go, but the club has been scuffling for two weeks, dropping themselves out of a playoff position for the moment. It’s not totally alarming since we haven’t even gotten through a month of the season yet, but the Phils will be hard-pressed to make up ground on New York if they fall 6,7,8 games back of them in short order. And they may have their hands full competing with NL West contenders as well, for the simple fact that it looks like that division has four very good clubs and one awful one that everyone else will take turns pummeling.

The Dodgers, Giants, Padres, and Diamondbacks all currently sit in playoff position, while the 4-17 Rockies…do not. And, when you factor in that the Phillies have already swept Colorado and only have a 4-game series in Denver next Month to look forward to, things are a little dicey. LA and San Diego have each swept Colorado so far, but San Fran and Arizona haven’t gotten any cracks at them yet. So we are talking about 12 opportunities that the Giants and D-Backs have against an inferior division foe, with the Dodgers and Padres having 9 such games left. Basically, that’s already a few more guaranteed wins that all of those teams are going to bank that the Phillies can’t count on.

The East, meanwhile, has the aforementioned Marlins and Nationals. And while neither is going to be a factor until next year at the earliest, they provide the rest of their division with much stiffer competition than what the Rockies are doing for their division. So, factor this in when you look at wild card races later in the season. It would be in the Phillies’ best interests, of course, to merely take care of business and contend for their division instead. But if they don’t, they’ll be in a dog fight for the last few playoff spots. Because it looks like at least two of the NL wild card clubs will come from the West.

The Central certainly looks like it’ll come down to Cubs and Brewers, with the winner likely being the division’s only playoff rep. And so it’s up to the Phillies to collect enough wins to get out ahead of the other contending clubs in the league. That means taking advantage of April games you should win/avoiding ‘no show’ nights.

The Phillies will get on a hot streak at some point, and hopefully they’ll pull out some unlikely wins to offset some of what’s happened already to their loss column. Because if disaster strikes and they miss the playoffs somehow, we’ll be able to trace it all the way back to April and the way that some subpar efforts cost them in the long run.

Orion Kerkering of the Philadelphia Phillies

Kerkering looks the way that Phillies fans do when the bullpen gets mentioned. (Yong Kim/Inquirer)

The Phillies Just Don’t Feel Like a Great Team

The team is 8-4, which is cool and all, but there are numerous holes.

Published April 11, 2025

It’s not very novel or innovative of me to point out the obvious with the Phillies, but I’ll start off by doing some of it anyway.

Alec Bohm is hitting .160 with one extra base hit.

Brandon Marsh is hitting .133 and has managed a home run, but he also has zero steals and seems to have very little utility for this club.

Aaron Nola still can’t control the long ball, and he’s 0-2 in his first two starts.

The bullpen features multiple relievers with an ERA over 6.00, while numerous former Phillies are excelling in relief roles elsewhere after the team traded them or let them walk as free agents.

That’s a chunk of the bad news with this team, but the mitigating factor is that we are only about 7.5% of the way through a very long grind of a season. Some of this doom and gloom will rectify itself at some point, and other things that are fine right now will go awry. Unexpected contributors will emerge (as Edmundo Sosa has done already), and all kinds of other crazy stuff that we haven’t even thought about yet will come to fruition. It’s the simultaneously thrilling and infuriating part of baseball that happens every season for all but the very best and very worst clubs. The Phillies are no exceptions.

Make no mistake; they are good. There are plenty of bad teams in Major League Baseball, and the Phillies will clean up against them while doing pretty decently against the so-so and run-of-the-mill clubs out there as well. Heck, they even took two of three from the Dodgers, so clearly they can hang in there with the top competitors.

But maybe it’s the age of the club, or maybe it’s the relative inaction over the offseason which didn’t see them do much to move the needle aside from trading for Jesús Luzardo (who has been very good early). Really, it might be because there’s not really any ‘new blood’ injecting life into this lineup. Just the same thing that we’ve seen for 3 or 4 years now. And it really seems like the Phillies are on borrowed time, essentially this year or bust.

They do have Aidan Miller on the way, and he might even have to arrive sooner than expected if Bohm continues this trend. And there’s Andrew Painter. And Justin Crawford. The Phillies don’t lack a farm system. They just don’t currently have any young and exciting players making an impact on the big club every day at this juncture, and that kind of worries you when it comes to the big picture.

Yet, despite having a veteran-laden team in ‘win-now’ mode, they find ways to seemingly give away games all the time, like they did in their two losses in Atlanta to drop a series to a desperate Braves team. The Phillies have enough talent to overcome these types of situations during the regular season, but it feels like we are being prepped very early for another disastrous playoff appearance where the team forgets how to play baseball for a few days and gets eliminated before it hits its stride.

I know, I know, it sounds like whining to say these things when a team is 8-4 like the Phils currently are, which is no doubt preferable to getting out to the kind of legitimately bad start that we’ve seen too many times in the past. So I guess we can take some comfort in the fact that a very flawed performance has still produced a very good result so far. You just don’t want the Phillies to get complacent, cruise to something like 92 wins, and then be unable to reach the next gear in the postseason.

These are all early complaints, I realize. But I’ll monitor their validity and report back after another 6 or 8 weeks to see if the team is truly playing up to its potential or merely coasting. One suspects that once the players find a groove (and we get some weather consistently over 40 degrees), the team will find its place among the best in MLB. Hopefully it will be enough to hold off the Mets, the Dodgers, and any other obstacles they will face when it gets to crunch time. We will find out at some point.

Remember when Bohm was good? No? Ok. (Dale Zanine-Imagn)

One Day More: Opening Day on tap

Big things are expected — no, required — of the 2025 Philadelphia Phillies. Or else.

Published March 26, 2025

Far be it from to approach this baseball season, or any season of professional sports, with an ‘all or nothing’ mentality. That’s doubly so when you consider that the Philadelphia fanbase just got to witness a parade last month and should theoretically be satiated for a little bit. But when it comes to the 2025 Phillies, it really does seem like ‘last chance saloon’ for this group of players.

The team came out of nowhere to tantalize with a thrilling World Series run in 2022, but they have taken incremental steps backward in the playoffs the past two seasons. Never mind the fact that they’ve improved their regular season win total the past few years. That’s all well and good, but it’s nothing to brag about. Simply put, this team will win their 90+ games, and then the real test will begin. (Unless they don’t even qualify for the playoffs, in which case the whole thing should be blown up.)

But in terms of expectations, every player should be held accountable to perform at the necessary levels. I don’t have many notes for the pitching staff, at least the starters. If they perform the way they did last year, this team will be right in the thick of it. Jesus Luzardo is an interesting addition, and if he can give the club around 25 starts with an ERA below 4.00 or so, he will have been a worthwhile addition for this season.

Among the relievers, the gamble on Jordan Romano also has to pay off. If he delivers Craig Kimbrel-like results, the team will once again be scrambling in the bullpen when crunch time arrives. And of course, the big wild card is Andrew Painter. We don’t know when we’ll see him, what his role will be, or how he will fare. But he has the potential to be a difference-maker immediately. We care about his long-term future of course, but the team can deploy him strategically this year. It’s an opportunity they won’t get again.

Onto the hitters, and the concern is that you can’t teach an old dog new tricks. This is a veteran (read: old) lineup who failed miserably at the end of last season. Can they adjust to prevent it from happening again? There’s always danger in a short playoff series. You can be solid and consistent for a full 162, and then see your season go down the tubes thanks to a mini-slump.

We’ll just need players like Bryson Stott and Alec Bohm (second half version) to be better. We pretty much know what to expect from the other veterans, although it would be nice if J.T. Realmuto could discover the fountain of youth while also maybe playing a little bit less so that Rafael Marchan can get more exposure in anticipation of him taking over as the main man behind the plate as soon as next season. It’s a necessary transition, honestly, because the Phillies will need to think long and hard about how much money they’d want to give a 34-year old catcher after this season.

There is some hope for the future with the likes of Painter, Justin Crawford, Aidan Miller, and others. But they will have to be systematically added to a winning ballclub to properly transition into the next phase of winning and successful Phillies baseball. Otherwise, the fear is that all of the current veterans age out at the same time and the next wave can’t grab the reins. Then you’re faced with either languishing through growing pains as you try to get back to being competitive or you have to overspend on free agents and mortgage the future in ‘win now’ trades that will bring real pain in the near future.

So, to solve all these problems, just win this year. Then we’ll deal with whatever comes of it. It worked for the Eagles, and it can here too.

Play ball. And don’t stop until Halloween.

The Philadelphia Phillies in 2025 spring training

Time to go to battle, boys. (Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn)

Nothing to complain about at this time — but there will be

Philly fans are still all smiles at the moment. But check back real soon.

Published March 13, 2025

Remember last month? The Birds won the Super Bowl, in case you missed it. Then there was a parade, and it was cool. We all bought a bunch of stuff and we’ll be wearing it and gloating for years. And not that the Eagles aren’t the main focus of this town 24/7/365 anyway, but winning it all has helped us to completely dismiss the miserable basketball and hockey teams for the time being, as well as tempering expectations for the ballclub whose upcoming season will in all likelihood end in infuriating fashion.

Being a sports fan in this city is fun.

All negative vibes from the Sixers and Flyers aside, nobody anywhere is complaining. You literally can’t. If you are, just go away. Unless you’re some weirdo that supports some Philly teams and not others. In that case, you can also go away. Dealing with the supposed basketball team first, most fans in town can’t name half the roster, which is really saying something for a team with about a dozen guys. All we know is that we can stick a fork in the Joel Embiid era, and maybe this can finally be regarded as the death of ‘The Process’, with the last dim embers of it being kept alive by Embiid now going cold for all-time. Things can turn on a dime in the NBA, and you can put a competent club on the court in short order even after the kind of miserable season the Sixers are experiencing right now. But from the ownership on down, they are the embodiment of being totally inept and disconnected in every single way.

Other than that, everything is going great.

As for the Flyers, things don’t look nearly as bad. Yes, they stink, and they’ll be missing the playoffs for the fifth straight year, tying the longest drought in franchise history. But nobody realistically expected them to make it this year either. We were given a considerate plan from the management when it took over two years ago, and things are on the timeline. Now, will they actively try to be better and make a run next year? Or do we still have to wait two more seasons? Can the Flyers even afford to be irrelevant for that much longer, or have we already reached the point that they might as well take all the time they need to ice a truly competitive roster? All I know is, I miss playoff hockey. It would be nice to get some in this town this decade. Remember, the Wells Fargo Center has not hosted a Stanley Cup Playoff game since Gritty was introduced in 2018. Let’s get the big guy some postseason action.

Moving forward, the Phillies somehow start in two weeks. They are once again expected to be a good team and make the playoffs. Anything short of that will require completely detonating this team. Assuming they take care of business, however, falling short will simply not be acceptable. This is an old club. Yes, there are some good players in the making who will be here soon, but the farm system is not loaded. We’ve never had two titles in one year in Philadelphia. This is the most realistic chance that we are ever going to get. If the Phillies aren’t all-in for 2025, they’re wasting everyone’s time. What’s the likelihood they end up disappointing us? Probably like 85%. But they’re in the mix and they’re good enough to win, so let’s be more hopeful than anxious about probable failure.

See, I’m being rosy about it.

This brings us back to the Eagles. The last few days have seen the team lose numerous key pieces of their Super Bowl championship club. Repeating is going to be extremely difficult, and you would expect nothing less. But they have maneuvered themselves so smartly that any perceived ‘huge loss’ should still be regarded as part of the master plan as they navigate the salary cap, the draft, and other roster construction issues over the next few months. I can’t get on board with the people who live and die with the entire offseason. Relax, they won, and this is all a necessary part of the life cycle of these things. The team’s management makes a living figuring these things out, so don’t go crazy when they have to make hard choices.

Just continue to be content at the moment and stay that way for as long as possible. Because something is always around the corner in Philadelphia sports that will snap you out of that euphoria in a big way. Let’s keep it at bay while we can.

Joel Embiid of the Philadelphia 76ers after a 2018 injury.

Joel Embiid in happier times. (Mitchell Leff)