3 amazing Phillies moves that worked out better than expected in 2024
Despite their early playoff exit, there were some positive moves to take away from the Phillies’ season.
Earlier this offseason, we looked at four moves the Philadelphia Phillies made that ended up backfiring big time, contributing to the disappointing end of their 2024 campaign. Despite that, there were still some positives that the Phillies can take away from this past season. In fact, there were some amazing moves they made that actually worked out better than expected.
Here, we will take a look at three of those moves that actually gave the Phillies faithful something to cheer about despite the forgettable way the year ended.
3 amazing Phillies moves that worked out better than expected in 2024
The minor signing of José Ruiz
Back in November 2023, the Phillies made a minor signing to add pitching depth to the organization when they inked reliever José Ruiz to a one-year minor league deal. When the Phillies ran into some injury woes with their bullpen early in 2024, they selected Ruiz's contract and promoted him to the big leagues in May after his fine work in the minors to start the season.
From there, Ruiz made sure that the Phillies weren’t going to send him back by putting together a solid season in the majors. In 52 appearances, he posted a stellar 5-1 record with a 3.71 ERA and 1.33 WHIP, giving up 21 earned runs with 17 walks and 52 strikeouts in 51 innings pitched.
More importantly, he remained one of the Phillies’ trusted arms out of the bullpen along with Jeff Hoffman, Orion Kerkering and Matt Strahm when others began to struggle a bit during the second half of the season. Ruiz stepped up and provided unexpected stability to the Phillies' relief corps.
Trusting Edmundo Sosa during Trea Turner’s absence
When Trea Turner went down with a left hamstring injury in early May, he was expected to be out for weeks, leaving a huge gaping hole at shortstop. Instead of pushing the panic button to look for a quick temporary replacement via the trade route, the Phillies turned to backup infielder Edmundo Sosa to fill the void.
For someone not known to be an offensive juggernaut throughout his MLB career, Sosa sure did his best Turner impression. Sosa compiled a strong .282 batting average and .851 OPS, along with 22 runs scored, five doubles, four triples, four home runs, 17 RBI and three stolen bases over 33 games in Turner’s absence.
For comparison’s sake, Sosa only batted .235 with a .621 OPS, with just 15 runs scored, six doubles, two home runs, 12 RBI and four stolen bases the rest of the way in 49 games played that included 29 starts. In retrospect, the Phillies easily could have gotten that kind of feeble output from him when Turner was sidelined. But they essentially made the daring, but right call in handing Sosa the baton at the right time to keep Philadelphia competitive without missing a beat.
Sticking with Nick Castellanos despite his huge early slump
Finally, there's Nick Castellanos and his horrendous start to the 2024 campaign. Coming off an All-Star season in his second year with the Phillies in 2023, Castellanos was anything but during his first four weeks this season.
In his first 26 games, he compiled an ugly .177 average and .431 OPS, with just six runs scored, one triple, zero home runs, seven RBI and 22 strikeouts in 96 at-bats. For someone who had been struggling for such a long stretch of time, it was quite surprising that Phillies’ manager Rob Thomson didn’t bench him or give him some time off to reset and refocus on his game.
Instead, Thomson stuck with Castellanos, believing that given his veteran experience he would eventually work things out and turn the corner. That risky move ended up paying off as Castellanos hit .269 with an .800 OPS, with 74 runs scored, 30 doubles, three triples, 23 home runs and 79 RBI the rest of the way.
More importantly, he was actually one of the Phillies’ key offensive producers down the stretch to get them into the playoffs when many of the team’s star players struggled. By sticking with Castellanos all the way, he also accomplished the rare feat of suiting up in all 162 games this year for Philadelphia, becoming the oldest Phillie to do so in 42 years. Not bad for someone who seemed destined for the bench and a down season at the beginning of the year.
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