Phillies

What Can We Make of the Phillies Right Now?

By Nick Piccone

Published: Apr 23rd, 2026 · 9:59 AM EDT

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The Phillies lost again Wednesday night, but since we were all glued to the Flyers game, you might have missed it. Unfortunately, I did not. I caught more lackadaisical and unserious play by a “good ball club” that is starting to turn more from a “that’s baseball” schtick to a “this is who they are” inconvenient truth. This team has had runs of poor offense, poor pitching, and poor fielding before. But this feels different. Maybe it’s the aging core. Maybe it’s the unseriousness of being unwilling to do whatever you can to stop the bleeding.

Maybe it’s Bryce Harper assuming a foul ball is going to land in the stands so he doesn’t even so much as take a step towards it before it ultimately lands in the field of play, making Rafael Marchán look like a dork trying to go catch it.

Maybe it’s Kyle Schwarber back to being all-homer-or-strikeout-or-nothing, which doesn’t make this team better.

Maybe it’s Alec Bohm catching a grounder and staring at the ball in his glove before making a weak throw to first where the runner inexplicably beats it out. (I understand he’s going through a tough time off the field, so in a way, I think it’s unfair to him to keep putting him out there to “fight his way out of it.” Maybe the guy just needs a break.)

Maybe it’s Bryson Stott just unable to figure out how to hit consistently.

Maybe it’s J.T. Realmuto, who was brought back mostly because of his defense and rapport with the pitching staff, being so banged up not even a month into the season that he’s now on the IL, leaving us with Marchán and Garrett Stubbs.

Maybe it’s the usually reliable Edmundo Sosa not being usually reliable on the field or in the box. (I think this is probably the least of my worries, but he is not the spark that he usually is right now.)

Maybe it’s Justin Crawford not being the centerfielder of the future. Still early, sure, but I think we’re figuring out in real time he’s a corner outfielder.

Maybe it’s Adolis García digging a lineup hole even deeper.

Maybe it’s the pitching that held this team afloat during those barren offensive streaks that isn’t keeping them afloat anymore. It’s especially hard for great pitching to continue to be great pitching when they’re expected to be perfect every game. And the thing is, nobody seems to care about how much stress that puts on Caleb Cotham and his pitching staff.

The thing is – there’s not one thing to point to so far this season as to why the Phillies are playing so badly. There’s usually not one specific thing to blame when it comes to the game of baseball, anyway. I hear far too often arguments of, “It’s not Aaron Nola’s fault,” when he gives up a three-run bomb just because the offense hasn’t scored by that point. Every pitch in baseball dictates what happens next. So, yeah, I can blame Nola for giving up a back-breaking homer while acknowledging he isn’t the only reason they might lose a game because of it. I just don’t know why some people still like to point the finger at one aspect of a game to place the blame on. Just doesn’t make sense.

But the thing is, the offense should be good enough to counteract pitching mistakes. But they’re not. They haven’t been in a while. They’ll get their stats because they’ll score 10 runs every 10 games. Or Harper will hit a two-run homer when they’re down 6-1. And, yeah, I find that to be a funny bit.

The thing is, it’s still a bit early to really put a label on this season. I know a bunch of people have, and during the course of a game, I sure as hell want to label it a lost season, as well. Maybe the Phillies do need another voice. They needed one in 2022. And, yeah, there are absolutely people who don’t want to blame Rob Thomson for the team’s woes who thought getting rid of Joe Girardi was the right thing to do.

Is it at the point where Dave Dombrowski needs to make a trade to shake things up? I’d probably want the team to explore something like that before changing the “leader.”

If you look at the Braves, they weathered their own storm of two seasons where the injuries just accumulated, but they didn’t make some crazy trades to start over. So, it’s possible we won’t see any of that, either.

The biggest positive in baseball’s regular season is that there are 162 games. If you hit rock bottom in April, the rest of the season will probably look pretty good. But each Phillies game that goes by, we think we already hit rock bottom with this group. So, have we really hit rock bottom? Injuries piling up. It’s early. There’s no real urgency to win. Maybe they’ll replicate the 2022 run. Maybe they’ll get some positive momentum during crunch time like the Flyers did. Maybe they’re just locked in on the Flyers in the dugout and won’t take baseball seriously until the Flyers’ season is over!

The main thing for me is that as bad as the baseball the Phillies are playing is, I still don’t think it’s a lost season yet. They may not win their third NL East title in a row, but I don’t think any of us really care about that. Just get me to the Wild Card.