March 27, 2025
Kim Klement Neitzel/Imagn Images
Bryce Harper and the Phillies are still chasing after a World Series.
It's a new season, with the same goal.
The Philadelphia Phillies are still in pursuit of a World Series, but now after a third consecutive October of falling short, and a step shorter to the rival New York Mets in the NLDS.
Their strategy over the winter was to mostly run it back, with some trades and signings at the margins to try and offset a couple of notable departures.
But all the most important pieces are back: Bryce Harper, Trea Turner, Kyle Schwarber, Zack Wheeler, Aaron Nola, and so on.
That said, they're all another year older. The Braves didn't go anywhere and are getting healthy again, and the Mets broke through then went and added Juan Soto in the winter. Plus, Shohei Ohtani and the Dodgers are standing there as the defending World Champions and the new monster of the National League.
So can the Phillies make it back to October and make another chase after a title?
Here are 10 storylines essential to whether they can...
Heading into last October's NLDS, the Phillies were aware that they weren't the underdogs anymore. They had won 95 games, clinched the NL East title, and were making their third consecutive postseason appearance with their World Series ambitions obvious to everyone.
They became the hunted. No one was going to think lightly against them, but the weight of that might not have truly registered until it was too late.
The Mets beat them in an upset, and they looked like the hungrier team throughout the best-of-five series as they sent the Phillies home in shock.
And in the offseason, that same Mets club stocked up, all while the Braves were afforded the time to get healthy again.
The Phillies, they mostly stayed the same, and will again look to see how far this current lineup can push them.
It should be enough to return to the postseason, but it won't be so simple. this time around.
They're not the only team in the division, or the NL on the whole, spending big and gunning after greater anymore.
For as much projected pop there is in the Phillies' lineup, their true strength, like it quietly was last season, is in their starting pitching.
Zack Wheeler is a Cy Young-caliber ace at the top, Aaron Nola is a great No.2 starter, Cristopher Sánchez will be looking to build upon a breakthrough 2024, and Jesús Luzardo is a low-risk, high-reward acquisition who should, at minimum, stabilize the backend of the rotation.
The Phillies are going to be depending on their starters extending deep into games as part of their main plan of attack.
Hoepfully, they can all hold to the level they did last season. However, they have already hit a set back leaving spring training. Left-hander Ranger Suárez, who had a surging start to 2024, will begin 2025 on the Injured List with back pain, which puts the long-struggling Taijaun Walker back in the rotation.
His results leaving the spring aren't exactly promising.
The starting rotation has attention for another reason, too: At some point this season, if all goes according to plan, top prospect Andrew Painter will get a call-up.
Fans and even the organization have been waiting on the 21-year-old flamethrower for a long time, and after rehab from Tommy John surgery prolonged that wait, the right-hander finally seems in line for an MLB debut that could potentially put the Phillies' starting pitching over the top if he finds success right away.
It's just a matter of when he's going to get to Philadelphia, which everyone will be keeping an eye on the later into the summer the schedule presses.
José Alvarado had a scoreless spring throwing with some absolute heat, Orion Kerkering is lining up for another step, Tanner Banks and Matt Strahm should be able to put innings (once the latter gets back from his finger injury), and the Phillies are taking flyers on Jordan Romano returning to form and finding a late spring steal in Carlos Hernández.
They'll miss Jeff Hoffman, and at least going into the season, they'll be going closer by committee, but there are a few sparks of optimism about the bullpen.
Granted, they might need a bit more depth in the relief corps down the line.
MORE: Jimmy Rollins discusses Phils, what it takes to win and more
The Phillies were the leaders in walks through spring training with 153, and Brandon Marsh (15) and Bryson Stott (13) were within the top five among players as exhibitions wrapped.
The notorious complaint toward the Phillies the past few years, and part of the source of their postseason downfalls, has been their constant and at times stubborn willingness to swing the bat in almost every scenario, even when everyone in the park knows the incoming pitch is about to fall way outside the zone.
But maybe this marks a shift toward some, finally, more patient batters, and if Stott and Marsh can lead that charge, then they'd be solid complements to a lineup already flushed with power.
Staying on the topic of Stott, he revealed last month that he played through the majority of 2024 with a nerve injury in his elbow that inhibited his swing.
He tried to make up for it on the basepaths and in the field with his glove, he explained, but it was clear that he just wasn't the same player from 2023 who looked the part of an everyday second baseman in what was only his second year in the majors.
Getting back to that, and beyond it, is the goal now that he's healthy again, along with getting on base as much as possible so the rest of the Phils' heavy hitters can do that much more damage.
"Obviously, just the type of hitter I am, my power's to right," Stott told reporters last month. "I know that, the league knows that, and if they don't want to throw the ball in there, then I got to take my hits to left. I'm OK with that.
"I can steal second and I can steal third and things like that. We have plenty of guys who are going to hit homers. My job is to be on when they do."
Alec Bohm broke out into an All-Star through 2024's first half, then struggled through the second, and plummeted in the postseason, all as the Phillies burnt out to the Mets in the NLDS.
Frustration was high, disappointment was huge, and for a lot of fans, scorn had to be directed somewhere, and since Bohm was perceived as the most movable, he was the target.
He was a potential target for clubs around baseball, too, as manager Rob Thomson confirmed over the winter that the Phillies were receiving trade calls about him.
But they're sticking with him, and hoping he bounces back big from a career low point, just like he has for every previous one since he arrived to the majors.
"He's grown up so much since we first brought him to the big leagues," Thomson said at the start of spring. "Now it looks like he's taking another step, so I'm really excited to see what he can do."
MORE: 5 things we learned about the Phils in spring training
The Phillies' outfield always seems to get talked about like it's in a constant state of flux, yet is remaining pretty consistent with what it's been the past two years.
Nick Castellanos will be back as the everyday rightfielder, and it will likely mean what it always has: When he's on, he's on. When he's not, then there's a whole lot of whiffing.
Brandon Marsh and Johan Rojas are back, too, and with their same question marks. No one's doubting their athleticism in the the field, but at the plate, can Marsh hit lefties and can Rojas hit consistently.
At the outset, Marsh is going to be the regular starting centerfielder, so that first question is going to get an answer quickly at least.
As for left field, Max Kepler was a lower-profile one-year signing over the winter, but he's been on a tear through the spring (slashing .375/.500/.675) with the hope being that it carries over into the regular season and the Phillies are left having found a diamond in the rough.
Bryce Harper (32) and J.T. Realmuto (34) are going into Year 7 as Phillies. Aaron Nola (31) is in Year 11, Zack Wheeler (34) Year 6, Ranger Suárez (29) Year 8, Nick Castellanos (33) and Kyle Schwarber (32) Year 4, and you get the picture.
This group has been around a while, and they're only getting older.
Even the daycare of Alec Bohm, Bryson Stott, and Brandon Marsh, they're 28, 27, and 27 respectively now. They're not the youth movement anymore.
Prospects like Andrew Painter and eventually Aidan Miller and Justin Crawford will pull the age average down a bit again, but this is an old team...
Which begs the question of how much longer their window can stay open.
They've made the playoffs three straight years, are going for four within a division that only got tougher, and are still without that World Series title they've now long been after.
And the crushing reality of baseball is that you only get so many chances, and you're last one could come and go without you even knowing it.
That golden era of Ryan Howard-Chase Utley-Jimmy Rollins ran for five outstanding years, and in the middle of it, it felt like it was going to last forever, like the Phillies were going to be in the hunt every year.
And then that night in October 2011 happened, when Howard fell over running to first base from his Achilles rupturing, to the sound of dejected quiet that echoed through Citizens Bank Park.
No one knew it then, or at least wanted to admit it, but the window on that era of Phillies baseball, the greatest most had ever known, had slammed shut.
This is the next great one, but after three years of getting far but falling short, and the roster only getting older, how much time for this version of the team is really left?
MORE: Is the World Series window still open? Predictions for the 2025 Phils
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