Handing out 10 awards at the end of the Phillies' regular season

The regular season has ended and the Phillies will now be waiting until next weekend to host either the Brewers, Mets, Braves or Diamondbacks (a lot is still to be decided) in the NLDS.

With 95 wins, it was one of the most memorable summers of baseball in recent memory as the Phils celebrated their first NL East title in 13 years. 

The real prize is still up for grabs, but the Phillies have the second best Vegas odds to win the World Series and expectations around the city are championship or bust. Before the wild ride of Red October begins, let's pause for a second to hand out some hardware to the best individual performers on the squad.

Sort of like we do after every Eagles game, here are 10 awards for the 2024 Phillies:

The "almost the Cy Young" Award: Zack Wheeler

For the second time in his career, Wheeler is likely to finish second for the NL Cy Young award after posting a career best totals in wins, in WHIP, in hits allowed per nine and second his most strikeouts ever. 

Wheeler is better than the likely recipient of the award, Braves' Chris Sale, in a bevy of areas. He has more quality starts (26-to-18), innings pitched (200 to 177.2), opponent batting average (.192 to .216) and leads his counterpart in a bunch of other areas. But Sale has the better ERA and WAR, and it's probable Sale did enough to bring home the award.

The "okay, fine, he's a leadoff hitter" Award: Kyle Schwarber

I am going to have to apologize to everyone — years after writing at least three or four scathing articles about how stupid it was to have Schwarber hitting leadoff every day. In just 150 games, Schwarber led all Phillies players in at bats this season and he made the most of them, smashing 38 homers and setting an MLB record for leadoff homers. 

Not only that, but he improved his batting average by 51 points over last year and was on base .023% more this season. He led the NL in walks and led the Phillies in runs scored (and also in RBI). Somehow, this experiment worked and he's done everything you could possible expect a leadoff man to do — save for stealing a few bases. 

The "Iron Man" Award: Nick Castellanos

In a day and age where athletes are resting more and taking less and less of a workload, kudos is due to Castellanos, who started in all 162 games this season and is the only player (through Monday morning with the Mets and Braves double-header still to be played) to have done that this year. 

Casty was solid and clutch during the regular season, helping to steady an outfield that was in flux in left field and center. 

The "wait, that was a down year?" Award: Bryce Harper

The standards Harper has set through his 13-year career — he has won two NL MVP awards — are impossibly high, which is why his 2024 season, which was incredibly good, looks like a down year in comparison to what he usually accomplishes. Besides tying a career high in doubles, Harper was below his pace in batting average (6th best), on base percentage (7th best), home runs (5th best) as well as runs and walks (7th best). 

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Harper had about the fourth or fifth best season of his career, hitting .285 with 30 homers and 87 RBI. It's a campaign that would be impressive for nearly any other offensive player. But Harper impressed in his own way this season, fighting through obvious minor injuries all year to remain the best offensive player on the roster.

The "you get what you pay for" Award: Trea Turner

Last year, after the Phillies signed the 3-time All-Star to a rich 11-year, $300 million deal — despite him getting back on track late in the summer — it felt like it was a huge overpay. A year later, even after the shortstop missed more than 40 games with a hamstring injury, he earned every penny of his inflated paycheck.

Turner hit .295 to lead all Phillies hitters and was in the mix for a batting crown in the middle of the season. He hit 21 homers, 25 doubles and stole 19 bases. He was as steady at the top of the lineup as any two-hole hitter in baseball.

The "bench lifters" Award: Kody Clemens, Weston Wilson, Edmundo Sosa, Austin Hays and others

Anecdotally, the Phillies backup bats have made some special memories this season — and some big headlines too. Weston Wilson hit for the cycle, Kody Clemens and Cal Stevenson had walk-off hits, and local kid Buddy Kennedy had his moment too. The bench has been on point this season, and when you add party captain Garrett Stubbs to the mix, there's never really a dull moment in the Phillies clubhouse.

The front office will need to decide just how to distribute their final few postseason roster spots and it will be interesting to see if they do indeed elect to keep Clemens or Stevenson to give manager Rob Thomson a little more flexibility offensively. 

The "fearsome foursome" Award: The Phillies' 1-through-4 starters

The Phillies rotation was among the best units in baseball this season, despite the team literally not having a serviceable fifth starter (we'll award Taijuan Walker the Phillies' "Cy Yuck" award). Philly's rotation posted the seventh best ERA in baseball and has pitched the third most innings. Three starters made the All-Star game (Wheeler, Ranger Suárez, Cris Sánchez) along with Aaron Nola, who might have deserved to be a fourth. 

Even though there was a drop off toward the mean after incredible starts to the season for Suárez and Sánchez, it would be hard to find a situation better than the Phillies 1-through-4. They'll be able to send innings eaters Wheeler and Nola to the mound two times each in every postseason series if they want to, with two reliable arms able to pick up a Game 3 or Game 4 start.

The "we trust you with our life" Award: The back of the bullpen

Sort of under the radar, the Phillies have a lethal group of late innings relievers who proved their mettle during the regular season and will be called upon in key spots this October.

All four of the following bullpen arms have fans' (and the manager's) confidence whenever they enter a game with a lead:

The "we're not scared" Award: The Phillies vs. good teams

In the early part of the season, when the Phillies jumped to a franchise-best start, there was lots of criticism that tried to undercut the team's unexpected dominance. One of those critiques was that the Phillies had one of the easier schedules in baseball and weren't really tested by good teams. 

After all 162 games have been played, the Phillies have the fifth best record against teams above .500. Entering the postseason, they held tie-breakers over top contenders like the Braves, Brewers and Mets — as they won season series against several teams that will be in the mix in October. They wound up playing the ninth toughest schedule overall, and won 95 games — the second most this season. 

The Phillies can beat anyone. If nothing else this was proven to be true by season's end.

The "WAR, what is it good for?" Award: The entire Phillies roster

No team finished the 2024 season with a higher WAR (wins above replacement) than the Phillies, 48.2 as a team. Positionally, they finished in the top 11 in every position group except for the three outfield spots (via Baseball Reference). 

*Edmundo Sosa finished the year with 2.8 WAR, and combining his and Turner's 2024 seasons
would place the SS position at 5th.

With dozens of players appearing at every position across Major League Baseball every year, these are extremely impressive rankings in WAR. According to ESPN.com, 577 pitchers in 2024 had a positive WAR. The Phillies had three starters in the top 25. 

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