There is one thing I would suggest Phillies fans, myself included, do more of this year.
Zoom out.
Here in Philly, we can be a bit myopic when it comes to our sports teams. We are immersed in the day-to-day, week-to-week, monthly and yearly frustrations that come with following a baseball team with great intensity, and it is easy to lose the forest for the trees.
Like you, I was not happy with the off-season. After a second straight first round playoff exit and three consecutive highly disappointing
postseasons overall, the 2026 Phils are largely the same squad as the ‘25, ‘24 and ‘23 teams, at least in terms of its core.
The starting rotation still features Zack Wheeler, Aaron Nola and Cristopher Sanchez. The best players in the lineup remain Trea Turner, Kyle Schwarber, Bryce Harper, J.T. Realmuto, Bryson Stott, Brandon Marsh and Alec Bohm. The bullpen changes on a yearly basis, but that’s largely true for most teams. Everyone’s a year older, with yet another postseason frustration on which to chew.
We wanted change because it feels like this particular group has hit a brick wall. Teams that stick together this long don’t usually suddenly break through in Year No. 5. But it’s fair to note the Philadelphia Phillies are the two-time defending NL East champions and have been to the playoffs four straight years. This group did advance to a World Series in ‘22 and nearly got back there again in ‘23. And they won the NL East by a whopping 13 games a year ago.
Nationally, baseball analysts and the public are much higher on the Phils than the hardcore fanbase. This week, ESPN released their ranking of the Top 100 players in the league, and the Dodgers led the way with 8 players in the Top 100. But guess which team had the second-most? Yep, your Phils, with 7 (Sanchez, Schwarber, Turner, Harper, Luzardo, Jhoan Duran, Wheeler). That’s a lot!
MLB’s Mike Petriello released his Tier Rankings of all 30 teams, and while the Dodgers were in the top tier all by their lonesome, guess which tier the Phillies fell into? Yep, Tier 2, along with the Cubs (the only other NL team mentioned), Blue Jays, Mariners, Red Sox, Tigers and Yankees. That’s pretty great!
On my Hittin’ Season podcast from WHYY this week, MLB.com’s Mike Petriello joined me to offer his thoughts on why the Phillies largely chose to “run it back” in 2026, and why it’s important for us, as fans, to zoom out a bit and observe the rest of the league, too.
“You know, it’s funny. So I live in New York, but I’m not a Yankees fan, but I hear a lot of Yankees chatter and it’s the exact same conversation. Yankees and Phillies, right? We’re running it back and this is terrible. And it’s like, well, you’re running back a 96 win team in Philly and a 94 win team in New York. And every Phillies fan demanded Kyle Schwarber come back and every Yankees fan demanded Cody Bellinger come back. And at a certain point, if you’re bringing back players you wanted on a very good team, how many more moves are there to be made?
Yankees fans were furious. ‘We need a new shortstop.’ It’s like, shortstops don’t exist! You literally cannot go and find a shortstop right now. For the Phillies, I think it’s a little bit different just because I don’t mind them bringing back Schwarber, I don’t mind them bringing back JT Realmuto, because there just weren’t any other good options.”
And while Petriello did not like the Phillies’ plan for the outfield, specifically the move to acquire Adolis Garcia in free agency and place Justin Crawford in center without a real back-up plan, he called Brandon Marsh and his 2025 second half “underrated” and noted Bryson Stott’s outstanding second half after making a mechanical adjustment.
Things to consider.
While we’re nervous about a seemingly less stable starting rotation, Petriello believes the Phillies’ cadre of starters appear to still be the best in the division.
“The team that I’m out the most on rotation-wise is Atlanta, for sure. Just because of the pitching injuries. And I don’t know what [Spencer] Strider is and Chris Sale has been amazing, but he’s also going to be, what, 38? And [he] doesn’t exactly have a long track record recently of staying healthy. So that scares me the most. I think there’s huge disaster risk right there.
And between the Mets and the Phillies… I guess I’m still going to take the Phillies because it sounds like Wheeler won’t miss that much time. You know, it’s hard to know if he’s going to be “ace” [Zack] Wheeler, or just pretty good. I’m cautiously optimistic about [Aaron] Nola. I think Cris Sanchez is great and always underrated. I really like [Jesus] Luzardo. You know, even if [Andrew] Painter is only a number five, you’re not asking him to be an ace, right? The Pirates are asking Connor Griffin to be Bobby Witt right now and the Phillies are not asking that of Painter.
So I guess I would take the Phillies, then the Mets, then the Braves.“
This is perspective that gets lost when everyone is neck-deep in the echo chamber. Like you, I have a tendency to zero in on the minutia of what’s happening with the Phils, which is why it’s always great to get an outsider’s perspective, something I try to do a lot of on Hittin’ Season.
It’s easy to be down on the Phillies after a disappointing October and off-season. So let’s all make an effort to zoom out a bit more in 2026 and listen to folks who aren’t as emotionally invested in this team as we are.
It might save our sanity and maybe, just maybe, make us smarter baseball fans, too.
