It seems odd that we’re in mid-June and the Phillies and Mets haven’t played each other yet in 2026. While I’m a fan of schedule diversity and having every team play each other throughout the season, it also seems wrong that you can go almost three months into the season without seeing one of your division rivals.
Like the Phillies, the Mets spent most of April finding new ways to lose baseball games. While they’ve been better since then, playoff contention feels like a longshot at this point. They’re
still mired in last place, and while one of their ballyhooed offseason pickups has seemingly turned his season around, it hasn’t been enough to get the Mets out of last place.
Opposition research: Bo Bichette
There has been much frustration about the Phillies not adding to their lineup, specifically, an impact righthanded bat. But it should be considered that the player most people wanted to fill that role was Bo Bichette.
Back in January, Bichette and the Phillies seemed like a good match. The two-time All-Star would have likely slotted in the Phillies’ lineup behind Bryce Harper and presumably provided 20+ HR power out of the cleanup spot. But as we know, the Mets swooped in to give Bichette a contract that he couldn’t pass up.
For most of the season, it appeared as if the Mets saved the Phillies from adding another long-term albatross contract to the pile. Bichette struggled badly out of the gate and became somewhat emblematic of the Mets’ struggles as a whole. At the end of May, he had an OPS of .583 and seemed miserable.
Perhaps he wouldn’t have performed as poorly in Philadelphia, but if he had signed here and similarly bombed, it would have felt demoralizing to have replaced Alec Bohm with a somehow worse and more expensive player.
Surprisingly, while he was hitting poorly, he graded out well on defense. He was a bad defensive shortstop, and most expected him to continue to be bad after moving to third base, but he seems to have taken a liking to the hot corner.
It seemed doubtful that Bichette would continue to hit so poorly, and sure enough, he’s been one of the best hitters in baseball in June. (One of the reasons why I wish the Phillies could have played the Mets earlier in the season.)
It looks like Bichette is planning to opt-out of his contract after the season. Considering Bohm is a pending free agent, and Aidan Miller might never swing a bat again, the Phillies will likely have a gaping hole at the hot corner for 2027. It’s very possible that come the offseason, the Phillies may offer Bichette another long-term contract, and this time, he might take them up on it.
Remembering a guy who played for both teams
Todd Zeile was a top ten prospect for the St. Louis Cardinals in the early 1990s, but he never reached stardom in the major leagues. In his 16-year career, he never made an All-Star team or received as much as a down-ballot MVP vote. A career OPS of .769 combined with subpar defense paints the picture of one of the most average players to ever take the field. You could win with him, but you were never afraid to find an upgrade either.
The 1996 Phillies were not expected to be good, but they didn’t think that their touted prospect Scott Rolen was quite ready for the majors. So, they signed Zeile as a free agent and had him keep third base warm for Rolen.
Zeile did so with his trademark level of adequacy. He had a .789 OPS and poor defense, and when Rolen was called up in August, he dutifully moved to first base before being sent to the Orioles in an August trade.
Heading into the 2000 season, the Mets were set at third base with Robin Ventura, but they needed a first baseman, so they chose adequacy to fill the need and signed Zeile as a free agent. He had one of the best seasons of his career, helping the Mets make it all the way to the World Series.
Trivia
Last week’s answer: The Phillies won their first game at Miller Park by a score of 10-4. Three hits were delivered by Pat Burrell. Nobody answered correctly.
This week’s question: When the Phillies swept the Mets in a key three-game series in September 2007, a different reliever earned the win in all three games. Name one of them.
Additional thought about the series
Because Lincoln Financial Field is hosting a World Cup game on Friday, we’re getting a Thursday-Saturday-Sunday series which you don’t usually see apart from Opening Day weekend.
There has been much written about the Phillies’ troubles at Citi Field, but the Mets have had their share of trouble in Philadelphia. If you recall, the Mets came into Citizens Bank Park in September 2025 with hopes of making a late playoff push. But a 1-0 loss in the series opener seemed to demoralize them, and they went on to lose the next three games as well.
The Mets were expected to be contenders this season after they had the offseason that a lot of Phillies fans wanted their team to have. But the acquisitions of Bichette and Luis Robert, Jr. have been duds, while Freddy Peralta looks more like his career norm of a mid-rotation starter rather than the All-Star he was in 2025. Combined with injuries and/or underperformance by veteran holdovers Francisco Lindor, Kodai Senga, and David Peterson, it’s been a rough year in New York.
I for one, absolutely hate to see it.
