Is It Time to Panic on the Phillies After Being Swept by the Mets?
The Phillies’ 2025 season has been full of highs and lows up to this point in the year. The team jumped out to an early 7-2 record, which included a series win over the then-undefeated Dodgers. However, since that series, the Phillies have looked like a completely different team. The team’s record has dropped down to 13-12 after being swept by the New York Mets this week. The Phillies entered this season with championship aspirations with a talented group of players, however, they have the fourth highest salary in the MLB. Despite the salary, the team hasn’t looked like a team that can compete for a championship. Each area of the team has struggled up to this point, so the question has now arisen of whether people should be worried about the Phillies.
The simple answer is yes, people should be concerned about the Phillies and their postseason aspirations. The talent of the Phillies has taken a step back, and questionable offseason moves have brought the team to where it is currently. Starting with the bullpen, it is among the worst in the MLB with seven blown saves, along with the second highest ERA in the MLB with a 5.56 average across the staff. The Phillies neglected the position this offseason, letting 2024 All-Star Jeff Hoffman go into free agency. Instead, the Phillies decided to sign Jordan Romano, and he has struggled this season. Romano has a 13.50 ERA this season and has blown multiple games, including the game on Wednesday against the Mets. Outside of the bullpen, the starting rotation has been the strongest part of the team, except for Aaron Nola. Nola has taken a massive step back this season with a 0-5 record to start the year, to go along with a 6.43 ERA. The combined effort of Nola along with most of the Phillies’ bullpen, six players for the Phillies have an ERA of over 5.00. The late-game pitching has been a huge struggle for the Phillies this season and has not been addressed up to this point.
As for offensively, much of the core for the Phillies has taken a step back this season compared to last season. Starting with J.T. Realmuto, who has slowly been declining offensively over the past couple of years, but it has become more evident this year. In 2024, Realmuto had a 0.266 batting average. However, this season, his average has dropped to 0.221 while striking out 25 times in 77 at-bats. Outside of Realmuto, the Phillies’ main addition in the offseason, Max Kepler, has struggled at times. Kepler has started to find his rhythm at the plate, but he is only batting 0.244 on the season. Additionally, the Phillies saw two players struggle mightily to begin the year in Alec Bohm and Brandon Marsh. For Bohm, he has picked up his batting average as the season progressed; however, at one point this season, he was batting 0.150. As for Marsh, he has struggled even more this season with a 0.095 batting average, and as things were getting better, he got injured. The bats for the Phillies have been an issue, especially when the bases are loaded, but there is more season to be played.
As just mentioned, there are still a lot of games to be played, so the real answer should be to not panic. The Phillies have only played 25 games this season, which means there are still 157 more games to be played. While yes, there are a lot of negatives happening currently, there are still a lot of positives to look at. Starting with the rotation, the emergence of Jesus Luzardo has been a major piece of success for the Phillies. Luzardo has a 2.08 ERA to go along with a 2-0 record to put himself in the early Cy Young race category. While in the bullpen, both Matt Strahm and Jose Alvarado have been dominant to start the year, each having an under 2.10 ERA. As for offensively, starting with Bryson Stott, who, since being added to the leadoff spot, has completely flipped his season. He is now batting 0.298 on the season and is among the best second basemen defensively. The Phillies have a lot of talent across the field and in the rotation, but the team is just going through a rough point. However, the team will need to start getting things going soon, or else they could miss the postseason as a whole.
