Just over half way through the season, the Phillies are sitting comfortably in second place in the NL East with a shot at still catching the Braves before the All Star break. It’s maybe not the position anyone expected them to be in before the season started, but considering they began the season 9-19, it’s a wonder they’re still in it at all.
There have already been significant changes to the makeup of the team – most notably Rob Thomson’s firing in April. They’ve gained an unexpected boon in the early
return of Zack Wheeler and have recently benefitted a lot from acquiring Derick Hill from the White Sox. But they’ve also lost Adolis Garcia to a season-ending injury, released Taijuan Walker, optioned both Tanner Banks and Andrew Painter, significantly reduced Justin Crawford’s playing time, and had Jhoan Duran, JT Realmuto, and Brad Keller all miss time due to injury.
In the winter, there were three distinct priorities for off-season moves that the Phillies needed to address: Retaining Kyle Schwarber, stabilizing the outfield, and bolstering the pitching staff. In theory, they did all three by re-signing Schwarber, committing to Crawford, and signing Garcia and Keller. But we’re now half way through the season and only one of those actions has so far been fruitful. The outfield is a rotation based on the opposing pitcher, there’s no clear fifth starter, and as mentioned many times in Friday’s discussion the bullpen after Duran is questionable.
And yet… they’re not only in a playoff position, but still reasonably within striking distance of claiming their third consecutive division title.
So, did the Phillies do enough this off season to be contenders? If not, what more should they have done? What more could they reasonably have done?
