The talent is here, and the moment is now for this group of ever-aging vets to finally finish the job
Hope springs eternal, and excitement is brewing here on opening day as the 2025 Phillies will play real baseball for the first time since their crushing NLDS loss last fall. This squad is stacked with high-level talent from 1 to 26 on the roster and is capable of beating anyone put in front of them. They have the best rotation in baseball, a competent bullpen, and an offense that should be more than capable of getting the job done. As the eternal optimist of Get’em Next Year, I expect another fun summer of baseball. However, this year there is a certain sense of desperation that wasn’t there over the last few years. This Phillies squad, while still at its peak, is one of the oldest in the league. The sand in the hourglass is running low and this season may be the last real chance this group has after missing out the last three seasons. It is time for the Philadelphia Phillies to win it all.
We will start with the biggest, and maybe to a certain degree, most over-discussed concern: the age of the roster. Over half the roster is 30+, with guys like JT Realmuto and Zack Wheeler at over 34. Based on typical trends the majority of the starting lineup is either on the decline already or entering maybe their last “prime” season. With how the Phillies’ last run ended in 2011, fans and maybe the organization as well might be having some PTSD. Athletes today age better than in decades past, but father time comes for all of us. The players also feel the pressure of being older. Hopefully, said pressure presents itself in a positive light, and the Phillies, tired and angry at repeatedly being called old and incapable of winning the big one, have one of the most satisfying “FU” seasons of all time.
To do so, they will be riding the biggest strength of the squad: their starting pitching. This team is just as stacked as the 2011 Phillies were. In a league with a lack of starting pitching, Wheeler, Nola, Sánchez, Luzardo, Suárez, and Painter are an insane menagerie of starting pitching wealth. Zack Wheeler is currently the best pitcher in all of baseball while Aaron Nola and Cristopher Sánchez both crack the top ten in the NL. Your four and five, Jesús Luzardo and Ranger Suárez (when healthy), might be aces on 70% of MLB teams. This alone would be more than enough, but the Phillies are about to unveil their best pitching prospect in franchise history, Andrew Painter, come July. This team, similar to the San Francisco Giants of the early 2010s, will ride to success on the back of their starters. Now, unfortunately, Ranger is out for the first 3-4 weeks which does force us to once again have to watch Taijuan Walker pitch real baseball games. Hopefully, Walker does as little damage as possible in April as he will be called upon only 3ish starts before being cast to mop up obscurity in the pen. Ultimately, this rotation was top ten last year in every statistical category and only got better. A parade down Broad Street will need to be highlighted by maybe the best rotation in Phillies history.
On the other side of the pitching spectrum, the Phillies will look to succeed with a bullpen that is carried by a mixed bag of quality and question marks. On the top end, José Alavarado looks ready to have the best season of his career, looking near unhittable in spring training. Another guy coming off a down 2024, newly acquired Jordan Romano, looks to get back to his former top-five closer in the game standard. Romano, like Alvarado, did look great in camp and would be a much-appreciated end-of-game arm. Orion Kerkering and Matt Strahm (despite the injury) look to keep providing quality situational innings as needed. Kerkering specifically has done nothing but throw electric stuff since coming up in September of 2023. The rest of the pen does show a drop-off. Tanner Banks, Carlos Hernández, José Ruiz, and Joe Ross will look to find productive roles in the pen with the expectation that José Ruiz can be the guy that steps up with the loss of Hoffman. Ruiz did not look great in camp, but the Phillies are high on him, and he came into a zone in the second half of last year. The back end of the Phillies bullpen is as good as anyone else’s in the sport, especially if 2020-2023 Jordan Romano shows up. Combine this with the idea that they may have Suárez and Painter coming out of the pen in the playoffs too and you have one heck of a pen. They may be an arm short, but every team is, and getting a pen piece might be the most easily addressable issue come the deadline.
That brings us to the most discussed and, by most fans’ standards, the most concerning part of the 2025 Phillies: the offense. Now, despite public opinion, this Phillies team has been a top 10 offense in baseball each of the past three seasons including last year being 5th in total runs scored. They also are a middle of the pack team when it comes to strikeouts and are nowhere close to the league lead. This group had the 5th best batting average in the entire sport last season. However, we all know the problem. When the games intensify, the discipline of this free swinging group vanishes. It has been their Achilles heel in each of the past three playoff runs. So why would it be any different this year? Really, for two main reasons. One is that I promise you that they are WELL aware of the problem. They are aware of how undisciplined they have been in key moments and are surely working on it. The coaching staff is competent, and while it is fair to not expect change, it is also dually fair to believe this group of all-stars can make those simple improvements. Please, for the love of god, just don’t swing at sliders that are already two feet out of the zone when they leave the pitcher’s hand. The other reason is that there does appear to be a team approach already taking place. The Phillies led all MLB teams in walks during spring training and had the second-best OBP of any team. While spring stats don’t mean a ton, there at least is an early attempt to see more pitches at the plate in 2025.
When it comes to the actual talent in the lineup, we know what a lot of these guys are capable of. This lineup is filled with studs. Inconsistent studs, but studs nonetheless. JT Realmuto, Kyle Schwarber, Trea Turner, Nick Castellanos, Alec Bohm, and Bryson Stott. All guys are top ten at their positions. The lineup is littered with big league sluggers that are capped off with one of the better hitters on the planet, Bryce Harper. This group will respond well to people casting them aside or calling them old as they play best getting to be the underdog. When it comes to the rest of the lineup, in a perfect world, Brandon Marsh finally takes the next step, and we shall see what happens with Max Kepler. Funny enough, even if Kepler is just a league average hitter in LF for this team, it will be a dramatic improvement from last year. The outfield might not be very deep, but if you look around the league, there aren’t a ton of teams swimming in production there. This lineup is talented enough to win the World Series. Especially with how competent they are in the field and dominant they are on the mound.
Now we are here. It is opening day for the 2025 Phillies season. The 143rd season in the franchise’s history. They have one of the best pitching staffs they have ever assembled and a lineup that should have more than enough to get the job done. So what are we waiting for? Look at the betting odds, look at the projections, this team can and should win the World Series. They have been a favorite each of the last two seasons but didn’t get it done. Now, even more sand in the hourglass has trickled out, and many think this veteran group is running out of time. If that’s the case, this year will be the Phillies’ opportunity to smash that hourglass, pick up those glass shards, and stab every team until they are the last one standing on what would be one of the most satisfying conclusions to a run of baseball imaginable. The city of Philadelphia is desperate to fall in love with this group of baseball players, and the Phillies will give them the reason to do so. The 2025 Phillies will win the World Series.
