I'm Getting a Sports Complex

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)