Most of the time, a new season means a new beginning.
It is infrequent that iterations of a roster are repeated year after year. When things don’t go right, it is common for significant changes to be made. As all of you reading this know, the Phillies have sought to buck that trend in recent seasons.
Through 12 games, the Phils are 6-6. The starting pitching has been decent, if not great. The bullpen has largely been very good. The offense, however, has been abysmal.
Let’s get all the ugly stats out
of the way. Entering Friday’s three-game weekend series against the Diamondbacks at Citizens Bank Park…
- The bats have not scored a run in 20 consecutive innings.
- In the final two games against San Francisco, they went 8-for-62 and slashed .129/.239/.145 with a .384 OPS.
- Outside of the 10 runs they scored against the Rockies last Friday, they’re averaging 2.9 runs in their other 11 games.
- They scored 7 runs in the first inning against Colorado Friday and have scored 12 runs since then.
- They have a .658 OPS through 12 games this year, their lowest over the first 12 games of a season since 2016.
- They are hitting .200 with a .637 OPS with runners in scoring position. That is the 2nd-worst batting average in MLB.
It’s ugly. When a lineup is struggling like this, it’s easy to say the team looks despondent and/or uninspired. Of course, these same Phillies have authored three stirring late-game comebacks in the first 12 games, winning two of them with late rallies. Those are not the actions of a group that is going through the motions, but these same players, on this same offense, managed just one extra base hit in their final two games in San Francisco. They struggled in Colorado, too. One good game does not lead into the next.
To be clear, no one should be surprised by any of this. No one should have been fooled into thinking the 2026 offense was going to be any different than the ‘25 or ‘24 or ‘23 group. The struggles of 2026 are not unique to this season. Unlike most teams, the Philadelphia Phillies have been, for better or worse, largely the same exact team on offense over the last four years.
For the anti-“run-it-back” crew, that’s obviously a major problem, and they’re not wrong. The inconsistency and streakiness of this group is maddening and, like clockwork, it usually submarines their shot at a World Series title every October.
However, it’s fair to note that these same Phillies experience struggles like this every season, and usually finish with an offense that is in the top-10 of most major offensive categories. As I have written previously in this space, a majority of outside observers would characterize this group as being pretty darn good on the whole, and the numbers would back it up.
One of the major storylines last April and May was the team’s inability to slug. Remember that? The Phillies were getting on base a bunch, but flailing with runners in scoring position, especially with power. While the Phillies’ .721 OPS was 11th through the first month of the season last year, their .385 slugging percentage was 17th.
They were 13th in runs scored, tied for 19th in homers. This year, they are 19th in runs scored, tied for 9th in homers, 15th in OPS and 14th in slugging. Again, none of these numbers are good, but by the end of the 2025 season, the Phillies had the 4th-highest OPS in Major League Baseball. Their .797 OPS after the All-Star Game was 2nd-highest, behind only the Yankees’ .799. They slugged .471, which was the best mark in MLB in the second half. Their 110 homers were 2nd-most, their 340 runs scored were tied for 4th and they were tied for 3rd in wRC+.
I don’t say this to try and convince you that this team is going to win the World Series in 2026, nor that you shouldn’t be frustrated or expect more from this team. I say it to remind you of a simple truth.
There is nothing new under the sun with the Philadelphia Phillies.
And here’s the thing. Changing the lineup around isn’t going to do much. Is Rob Thomson right to move Adolis Garcia up to the No. 4 spot in place of Alec Bohm? Absolutely. Is it a good thing the struggling Bryson Stott be removed from the No. 5 spot and replace by the much-better Brandon Marsh? You bet. But the Phillies are still missing one big, middle-of-the-order bat. That was true before the season began, and it remains true now. It will likely remain true as they enter the postseason as well.
One change they could make is to shake up the coaching staff and relieve hitting coach Kevin Long of his duties. Given the nature of the players, it’s doubtful much would change if the front office makes that move. I wouldn’t begrudge the Phillies from doing so if they wanted to shake things up, but our expectations in that eventuality should be managed.
As I also wrote about recently, the Phils aren’t the only team struggling offensively in the first few weeks of the season. It’s pretty ugly out there, folks. The problem we have in Philadelphia is that these aren’t new problems. This offense is four years old. We know what it can do and what it can’t.
So you can overreact to the sheer ugliness of what the bats are doing right now. It’s brutal to watch. But they will get hot. They will break out. I can say this with extreme confidence because they do this every single year. We get all worked up about the broken bats, and then, once the weather gets warmer, they start putting runs on the board.
It’s all meaningless. This team is going to make it to October, have no fear about that. Whether it’s as a wild card or a division winner, the Phillies have the talent to get back to the tournament. It’s all about what they do then, and with the same roster feeling the same pressure year after year, it’s difficult to believe things will be different.
So, yes, it’s understandable to be annoyed, despondent, disgusted and frustrated at the lack of offense and the quality of at-bats this group of veteran stars is having. But if you’re hitting the panic button right now or surprised at what you’re seeing play out, you shouldn’t be.
The Phillies will hit in the regular season. They really will. It might be unpleasant to watch until they do, but it will happen.
