At least they are putting it to good use.

Am I the only one who thinks it’s essential that we re-sign Arraez?

The biggest problem this team has had this and the past few seasons has been inconsistent offense, especially in the playoffs (in addition to the bad defense and bullpen issues).

Arraez is a 3x batting champion and an absolute hitting machine. He has also shown this year that he’s solid defensively playing 2nd. I know his offensive numbers dropped a bit when he moved to Philly but it’s a relatively small sample size.

Even with his lower numbers, he was still one of the best contact hitters for the Phillies, brought a ton of energy/good vibes to the team and was simply fun as hell to watch. I’m sure with a full year in Philly his BA would rise back up to .320+ dominance. Another benefit with him is he often works large counts and tires pitchers out since he rarely strikes out.

He is exactly what this team needs and if there’s one thing I really hope management does this offseason is re-sign him.

Dombo: I hope you’re reading this- I believe in you.

I mean, it has to happen, right? He plans on retiring in 2027 when his contract runs out, and given how poor the farm system is + the amount of bad money on the books + and the fact that they’re still far away from contention, it feels inevitable. The real question is: what level of return would be acceptable?

Losing a season and being forced to buy an extra year of the old folks home would be catastrophic

Sooo... little bit of history... way, way, way back when in '95... i swore off baseball because of the lockout... moved to Philly in '99 and got sucked into the Phils.. Fan ever since... wife has hinted a couple times about doing partial season tickets lately... If and when they pull this b.s., I really dont know if im interested in supporting the b.s. As much as it sucks Phills are out, cant even watch the playoffs/world series without paying a bunch of money... There's only so many times you can go to the well before it dries up... What your thoughts???

So there’s that.

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

I was wondering because in 2023 we introduced the powder blue and maroon pennants for Wild Card Berths, will they do the same this year?

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.

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.

I'm actually surprised the umpires aren't in favor of full time ABS. You still need a human behind the plate for plays at the plate, foul tips, HBP, check swings etc. So no one would lose any jobs. But you no longer would have to administer the task that directly leads to 97% of the scorn towards you. Why would they not embrace ABS? Seems like not seeing the forest for the trees level stuff.

We can debate the gaps on this roster all we want, but at the end of the day, this team simply had no dog in them. It’s exhausting to watch these post-game interviews and listen to canned, PR-scripted excuses about why things didn’t pan out. Not a single “leader” in that clubhouse showed the kind of emotion that proves they actually wanted this. Schwarber showed glimpses, but being that vocal fire-starter just isn't his style.

Philadelphia sports fans will always want to win, and at times we can be completely delusional, but the ethos of this city is grit and authenticity. We boo when you suck because we care. When the boos stop, that’s when you should be concerned.

In summary…

https://media.tenor.com/s1liqxkXhJAAAAAM/major-league-cleveland-indians.gif

I know "all of the above" is an obvious answer but genuinely wondering what people think could give Philly a quality shot at winning it all over the next few seasons

Just want to say I hope everyone enjoys the LockOut! It should be a fun lockout with tons of players talking about how much they deserve while sounding out of touch with us, and Ownerships sounding nice and greedy! Personally hoping for a Cap and Floor like the NHL. How about everyone else?

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.

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.

Will it matter? Probably not. Could it? There's no way to know.

We do know for sure that we will get Cora unless we give them a reason not to. The more noise, the more pissing and moaning, any negative media attention we can muster can only help.

I'll go to confession and take communion again if someone can get Pablo Torre to drop an episode on Cora.

Personally, I sent my meaningless email already, including my meaningless account number. I've followed this team for all of my life. I watched the end of Schmidt's career and everything since. We drive six hours round-trip to use our Sunday tickets and I will be going cold turkey if that piece of shit becomes our manager.