This is the annual Don Miles essay because the late Bethlehem lawyer, whose name adorns the WDIY newsroom, would be talking the Phillies right now. Baseball's opening day is tomorrow—for the Phillies, it's Thursday—and man, it kinda snuck up on us, didn't it? It's tough to think about baseball when you're still wearing long underwear under your arctic parka.
Anyway, the offseason chatter about the Phillies has been, to put it mildly, not been good. Bryce Harper and General Manager Dave Dombrowski have been engaged in a passive aggressive back and forth that sometimes signals that a player is on his way out. Now, I don't think that's the case with Harper, who is in the middle of a 13-year $330 million deal.
When we weren't talking about Harper, we were talking about why Dombrowski didn't bring in any new faces, and how the 2026 Phillies are gonna look disturbingly like the 2025 Phillies, who looked like the 2024 Phillies, all of whom had fine seasons and then flailed mightily at pitches outside of the strike zone in falling in the first round of the playoffs. Playing that same scenario back again seems to be what most are predicting for the Phillies and that just won't be good enough.
Offseasons didn't used to look like this, did they? Going back to the '50s, you knew Robin Roberts and Richie Ashburn were gonna be in Philly red and white. '60s, you knew that Johnny Callison and Tony Gonzalez were going to be back. In the '70s you had Schmitty and Bowa and Luzinski. And even those great Philly team of the '08s stayed together. The philosophy now is remake your team with a major free agent deal with a star, but those moves don't frequently pan out, and I'm guessing that was on Dombrowski's mind when he decided to more or less stand pat with the team he had.
But can we expect things will be different when so much looks the same? Well, maybe. First, I think first-basemen Harper will be better. It's rare to hear a superstar hitter to state that his goal for the season is wanting to walk more, but that's what Harper has said and that's what he needs. He set a goal of walking between 130 and 140 times, which would break a franchise record set by, believe it or not, Lenny Dykstra. First time Dkystra's name has ever been associated with the word "disciplined."
Second base: Bryson Stott has long been my favorite Philly. Just looks like a ball player, and he's been tearing it up all Spring. I never felt great about Alec Bohm at third, but he'll do, and they should be able to get at least one more elite season out of Trey Turner at shortstop. Ditto for JT Realmuto. The Phillies just signed him to a three-year deal and in the case of catchers, I have to trust management. Only they truly know how valuable somebody like Realmuto can be handling pitchers, and the word is he's among the best in the league, which is important because he'll be handling a staff that is certainly among the best in baseball. Consider Aaron Nola, not too long ago the ace of the staff, is probably the fourth option these days.
The outfield has to be better for three reasons: we won't have Nick Castellanos' mood swings and high-swinging miss rate, Brandon Marsh won't be in center field every day, and farm system star Justin Crawford, who we've been hearing about for years, will supply just the right amount of youthful athleticism, even if he will struggle sometimes in center.
Big Daddy Scwarber will still be around for DH'ing and supplying big moments. And one other thing: the Phillies should be motivated. They heard the criticism about the fold-a-ramas of the last two seasons and knew it was deserved. I think they have a real chance of being better.
The respective fan site FanGraphs has the Phillies at 87 wins, short of the 90 they've achieved the past two seasons. But I like them for 90 wins and somehow avoiding the Dodgers in the first round. Don Miles thinks so too, I know he does.
