The Philadelphia Phillies offense hasn't been clicking this season. Or rather, it has, but in fits and starts. Despite coming into Wednesday's finale with the Boston Red Sox tied atop the National League East and sitting just two games back of having the best record in the majors, it has felt like a frustrating 2025 campaign for Phillies fans.
The star-studded lineup has taken us on a rollercoaster ride through 101 games. It hasn't been a top-five offense like it finished as last season. The front office has a chance to help remedy the lineup at the trade deadline, but it would be silly to think that president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski is going to make more than one move that will have a considerable impact on the lineup. Heck, he might not find any needle-moving upgrades by the time the July 31 deadline passes.
Phillies' 'hot and cold' offense might have to fix itself without trade deadline help from Dave Dombrowski
There's a reason why Dombrowski and general manager Preston Mattingly might not lean heavily into trading prospects for a bat (aside from the obvious need to spend assets to help the bullpen). While discussing the impending trade deadline, Dombrowski recently dropped some truth about the state of the lineup, per MLB.com's Todd Zolecki.
“It’s been hot and cold,” Dombrowski said, per Zolecki. “Some of that fix has to come internal. It just has to. You’re not going to go out and make a bunch of trades. You can look to supplement, but some of our guys internally, I think, we hope will do better.”
Yeah, no kidding it's hot and cold.
Phillies fans have been more than aware of this ever since the team's torrid run through the 2023 playoffs came to an abrupt halt in the final games of the National League Championship Series against the Arizona Diamondbacks. If you recall, the series looked well in hand, and everyone not in Arizona had the Phillies picked to advance to their second straight World Series. Then the wheels fell off. The bats fell silent in potential clinching Games 6 and 7, at home no less.
That set the tone for last year's disaster. After crushing the competition and running amok with an MLB-leading 303 runs through the end of May, the offense dropped to a middling 16th overall for three months before salvaging some respect with a strong September. It then fell off a cliff in the NLDS against the New York Mets and contributed to the feeble early exit from the postseason.
This season has been much of the same, just in smaller streaks than last season. During a stretch in May that saw the Phillies win nine games in a row, they looked like the juggernaut we've seen in the past. From May 16-24 they scored the third-most runs, crossing the plate 54 times. It helped them power to a 19-9 month that saw them score the fourth-most runs (141) in the majors.
But that was followed by a stretch of games in which the offense sputtered. From May 25 to June 10, they scored the fourth-fewest runs (49) leading to a 4-11 record. Then they went 9-2 from June 11-22, scoring 64 runs, the sixth-most over that span.
And that sums up the offense this season. It has been hit or miss and wildly inconsistent. Unfortunately, there's a chance that fans will have to hope they can figure it out internally. It doesn't sound like Dombrowski is planning on a major trade deadline move to help.