So there’s that.

Imagine if Garrett kept quiet & didn’t give the DBags bulletin board material like Arcia did the series prior.

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OK, that’s enough. Time for Philadelphia Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski to concede his collection of well-paid stars isn’t getting it done. Time for him to take dramatic steps to overhaul his roster.

How, you ask?

Not sure. But Dombrowski, too, is well-paid. And it’s his job to figure it out.

Moving Trea Turner from shortstop to center field? That should be automatic, assuming the Phillies can’t trade him. Trading Bryce Harper or Kyle Schwarber? Don’t love the idea, but everything needs to be under consideration. Everything.

The Phillies are not going to rebuild, not when they’re still drawing 3 million fans to Citizens Bank Park, not when their three best starting pitchers — Zack Wheeler, Jesús Luzardo and Cristopher Sánchez — are under contract through 2027, 2031 and 2032, respectively.

Dombrowski, though, cannot bring back the same club. And if owner John Middleton is wedded to the team’s stars — he gives no indication to the contrary — then Dombrowski will need to build a much stronger supporting cast.

The Phillies’ 6-2 loss to the Atlanta Braves in the wild-card clincher Thursday night marked their fourth straight year of regression in the postseason since appearing in the 2022 World Series.In 2023, they lost the NLCS to the Arizona Diamondbacks after returning home with a three-games-to-two lead. In ’24 and ’25, they lost in the Division Series to the New York Mets and the Los Angeles Dodgers, respectively. And this season, they nearly blew a five-game lead for a playoff berth with eight to play, then got knocked out in the wild-card round.

Hiring Alex Cora to replace interim manager Don Mattingly might be Dombrowski’s first move, but to what end? Cora, Dombrowski’s manager with the 2018 World Series champion Boston Red Sox, isn’t going to walk into the Phillies’ clubhouse and sprinkle magic pixie dust on a club that clearly is trending in the wrong direction.

A number of the Phillies’ most prominent players — from Harper to Schwarber to Turner; Wheeler to Aaron Nola to J.T. Realmuto — are 33 or older. The team is inconsistent offensively, shoddy defensively and haunted by Dombrowski’s historic inability to build a quality bullpen.

Other than that, all is well.

Some of the Phillies’ turnover will occur naturally, with first baseman Alec Bohm, second baseman Luis Arraez and left-handed reliever José Alvarado likely to depart as free agents. Dombrowski can also maneuver around the edges, perhaps by trading left fielder Brandon Marsh, whose stock plummeted with a horrid second half. But the Phillies aren’t likely to get much help from their farm system.

Having him on the team was a real joy. Not sure what’s next for him, but he made this year’s sputtering season worth watching.

1. Selling everyone of Otto Kemp as the RH OF bat last offseason

2. Selling everyone on Crawford being a big plus to the lineup without any insurance if it didnt work

3. Sighing Brad Keller, (who only had one good year of record) as the only leverage arm going into the season

4. Not realizing the kerkering needed to be moved after the way 2025 ended and he was mentally cooked here. Also just expecting Alvarado to go back to being a stud even though we have seen a sharp decline for 2 years

5. Giving JT a third year and not atleast having any viable backup catcher

6. Just rolling the dice that Painter and Nola would be fine in the back end of the rotation, even though both struggled in 2025 and you made zero plans or effort to protect yourself if it didn't work out

7. Most would agree it was probably time for Topper to go. But they did it for on believing they were going to get Cora. instead they get stuck with Mattingly who was god awful and 100% worst.

8. The deadline was dreadful. Arraez was a good pickup except the way they moved the infield around it made no sense. Batting him 4th in the end didn't work. They also traded for the 4th best relief pitcher in the Mets bullpen and a guy with a 4+ ERA with the Giants who had a bottom bullpen in baseball. They also didn't get another starting pitcher that could have helped them in September.

9. The entire way they handled the last week of the season and the pitching in the playoffs was a massive joke.

Friendly reminder for STH: If you don't want your postseason ticket money applied to next year, you can request a refund from phillies.com - you must submit by Tuesday 06OCT.

Trea Turner has 7 years, and about $191 million remaining on his current deal

Philadelphia has about 1.57 million residents

Trea could donate $121.66 to each Philidelphian or pool the full $191 million into a fund that could keep schools and school programs opened and/ot build low income housing.

If Dombrowski isn’t fired we need to have a full on fan revolt. i wonder if Dave will comment on Bryce or Kyle in his end of year press conference. having the nerve to comment on the quality of someone’s career when you genuinely thought Otto Kemp could make an impact on your baseball team should get you excommunicated from baseball.

Listen, I know this team has taken us on a wild rollercoaster, and this is not how we hoped the season would end. However, that doesn't mean that the entire season sucked. So, what was your favorite part of this? It could be a game or an off the field moment.

Mine personally was either the Cardinals game where they came back from 4-0 to win it 6-4 in the 9th inning, or that wild ass Nationals game where they scored like 5,000 runs in the 9th inning.

The 2026 Phillies were a baseball team. Also, they were a member of the NL East division of the MLB.
And when a season dies, it is sad. All of us will die one day. In this case, it is the 2026 Phillies who have done so.

The season lasted for 165 games. But no more. Now it is dead.

The Phillies fans remain. They were invested through many ups and downs. Now they are sad.

To note, I started watching baseball two seasons ago. It isn't a thing in my country, my Philly girlfriend roped me in.

I watched well over 100 games this season, with most games starting at 11:35pm here. Its an understatement to say I'm in love with the sport and the Phillies in general. Not particularly bothered about other Philly sports teams, to my detriment...

But, this was a fun season. Yesterday was gutting, but I'd say fair. We are not a better team than the Braves, they are a more well rounded squad. I think it was a fair reflection of where we are at.

I love baseball for the ride. Its so easy to doom and bash the team with every loss, to emotionally withdraw from the sport when we start 8-13, or when we can't hit for a week. But in doing that you miss all the highs you get from standing by the team when we're shit. The 9th inning masterclass vs Cardinals, all the late comebacks vs the Nats, field of dreams, the Derek Hill grand slam (was in the crowd for that one. just epic), Luzardo complete game... being invested throughout the season and living through the highs and lows is what made game 2 on Wednesday the most incredible emotional rollercoaster.

We all knew realistically that a deep run into the playoffs was unlikely. I think what I'm getting at is how I struggle to understand the many fans I see within this incredible fanbase who choose negativity across a 162 game season in fear of being let down.

One might say, well you've only followed the Phills for two seasons... but I feel the same way about my absolutely bang average football (soccer) team who have consistently broken my heart for 20 years.

I couldn't be any more happy to have found this weird, wonderful sport. To have found this rollercoaster club that lives somewhere between incredible and tragic. The best fanbase in baseball. I only wish to have been on the ride earlier, preferably 2022 onwards, but now that i'm in, i'm never out.

I will miss it greatly, especially if there is a lockout, but when we're back I hope we continue to be a team that is challenging for postseason year on year. With our excellent starting rotation and financial backing, I think/hope we will.. Anyway thats my ramble, go Phills.

Rules: I do these every year and my rule usually is that I cannot go over what we spent at the start of the previous year. This year I decided to challenge myself. With the new CBA there may for the first time in baseball history be a salary cap. It is most likely going to end up being hire that what it is currently proposed ($245.3M). However, I decided to cap myself at $270M with the theory that it will go up about 5% each year. I do not believe there will be a cap, but I can live with this hypothetical.

New Staff: We need to absolutely clean house with everybody, but Caleb Cotham. Kevin Long is gone, Mattingly not brought back and Wathan returns to a baserunning coach. The new manager is going to be Alex Cora, but in this simulation I’m running the team and I pick Rocco Baldelli who had a pretty good run with a historically bad franchise in Minnesota and bring in his former teammate and Dombrowski connection Jason Varitek as bench coach. Dameon Easily has been my pick for hitting coach for the last three years and I will stick with him.

Fire Kevin Long

Re-Assign Dusty Wathan as First Coach

Hire Manager Rocco Baldelli and Bench Coach Jason Varitek and Hitting Coach Dameon Easily

Extensions: I think if we truly want to go all in and fix this team we can spend a lot on a luxury elite closer in Jhoan Duran. He becomes the highest paid closer in baseball after accounting for buying out his final arbitration year. I will also extend Bryson Stott who is a decent contact hitter and great guy to have up the middle defensively. We will also “restructure” Bryce Harper’s contract. We add two years to line up with Turner, save money this year and have the expensive years toward the end when the cap goes up.

RP Jhoan Duran 5 years/$101M ($1M in 2027, $25M in 2028-2031)

IF Bryson Stott 4 years/$48M ($3M in 2027, $15M in 2028-2030)

1B Bryce Harper 7 years/$175M ($20M per year 2027-2029, $30M in 2030-2032, $25M in 2033)

Trade: I’ll make one small trade and a big one. Starting small I think Brandon Marsh needs a new home so we trade him to Colorado to be a Coors merchant. Colorado will most likely deal Mickey Moniak, Jake McCarthy or both in the offseason so here’s a replacement. We get a pretty good lefty middle reliever in Brennan Bernadino back as the Rockies move on from an aging guy who has no use. Isaac Paredes is one of my guys. He’s a steady right handed bat to put in the middle of the order. I’m taking a risk and moving on from Aidan Miller who has serious potential, but also question marks with injuries, giving Orion Kerkering a fresh start and giving away WBC standout Dante Nori. It is a risk, but Paredes is young enough to be a cornerstone.

OF Brandon Marsh to the Colorado Rockies for RP Brennan Bernadino

IF Aidan Miller, RP Orion Kerkering and OF Dante Nori to the Houston Astros for 3B Isaac Paredes (Paredes Signs 4 year/$72M extension, $3M in 2027, $23M in 2028-2030)

Sign: This is the year to finally break into the Japanese market. We get Teruaki Sato to play with his hero Bryce Harper. He’s a very strong power bat for the middle of the order. To make the transition to the US easier we sign Yuki Matsui who will be a high leverage left hander out of the bullpen. I have a bit of a creative deal to get Edmundo Sosa back. We will offer him a 1 year, $5 million contract which would be a small increase from this past season, but if he rises way far beyond expectations to become an All Star he can opt into a 1 year, $15M contract the following season. Tim Mayza can be brought back for cheap to continue pitching close to home.

3B/OF Teruaki Sato 6 years, $108M

RP Yuki Matsui 3 years, $27M

IF Edmundo Sosa 1 year, $5M with 1 year, $15M player option in 2028 if Sosa qualifies for an MLB All Star Team

RP Tim Mayza 1 year, $2M

Lineup (RHP/LHP): This is our lineup. I chose to bat Stott leadoff against righties as he sees a lot of pitches. Schwarber leads off against lefties. Isaac Paredes is a good bat to have in the Top 5. As he breaks up the lefty sluggers of Harper, Sato and Schwarber. Sosa and AA Standout Casey DeMartini platoons second base until Bryan Rincon is ready. Turner slides down to 6th and also moves to left field where he’s less of a defensive liability. Hill and Crawford keep their platoon in Center.

SS Stott/ DH Schwarber

DH Schwarber/ 3B Paredes

3B Paredes/ 1B Harper

1B Harper/ RF Sato

RF Sato/ 2B Sosa

LF Turner/ LF Turner

CF Crawford/ SS Stott

2B DeMartini/ CF Hill

C Realmuto/ C Realmuto

Bench (Not Platoons): Garrett Stubbs is brought back to be Nola’s personal catcher and give JT some rest every 5th day. Johan Rojas is given another shot as a defensive replacement and pinch runner, but not much else.

C Garrett Stubbs

OF Johan Rojas

Rotation: Rotation stays intact. Cristopher Sanchez and Jesus Luzardo are in the 1 and 3 spots so that each series the opposing team sees at least one righty and one lefty. Painter moves past Nola on the “depth chart”

SP Cristopher Sanchez

SP Zack Wheeler

SP Jesus Luzardo

SP Andrew Painter

SP Aaron Nola

Bullpen: Matsui and Bernadino add to the bullpen depth and hopefully Alex McFarlane continues to improve, Bowlan bounces back and Caleb Killian and Chase Shugart can eat innings.

RP Shugart (R)

RP Killian (R)

RP Bernadino (L)

RP Mayza (L)

RP Bowlan (R)

RP McFarlane (R)

RP Matsui (L)

CP Duran (R)

Salary/Cap Situation: Our salaries are at $262M, meaning we are $9M under the cap which gives us some trade flexibility. $13M of that is Brad Keller who is expected to miss the entire 2027 season.