Every MLB team strives to have a competitive advantage over another. The game of baseball thrives on its aesthetics, but the analytical side gives teams more information than ever before. The Philadelphia Phillies fit right into that line of thinking. Having a leadoff hitter such as Kyle Schwarber would have been unheard of, but the analytics of today tell a very different story.
The Phillies have thrived in the newer era of analytics and have won baseball games in a much more numbers-driven way. President of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski helped revamp the analytics department upon his arrival in 2021 and then began outsourcing their data through the company Zelus Analytics in 2022.
On March 14, the Phillies sued Zelus for breach of contract (subscription required) for allegedly attempting to sell its platform to division rivals, per Matt Gelb of The Athletic. Their previous contracts included "division-exclusive" licenses that prevented any other team in the National League East from receiving such data. According to Alex Schiffer of Front Office Sports, the Phillies have also asked a judge for a temporary restraining order to restrict more MLB teams from acquiring licenses from the company's Titan Intelligence Platform.
The Phillies are suing an analytics company for allegedly breaching their exclusivity contract by selling parts of their platform to other teams.
— Front Office Sports (@FOS) March 19, 2025
Philadelphia says the platform reaching other teams would cause "irreparable harm" to its front office's competitive advantage.
How Phillies' analytics outsourcing to Zelus Analytics became more of a problem than a solution
Did the deal for the Phillies end up being more of a headache than it was a solution? The question becomes, as referenced by MLB insider Ken Rosenthal, why not have faith in your own people to get this done internally?
"You've got an analytics department now of 40-plus people," Rosenthal said last week on Foul Territory. "Why do you need to outsource anything? To go to another company for anything? I don't really follow that. ... But it just seems to me that you should have confidence in your own people to get it done ..."
"It just seems to me that you should have confidence in your own people to get it done."@Ken_Rosenthal is curious why the Phillies need to outsource data when they already have an extensive analytics department in-house. pic.twitter.com/NdPqYqLKHd
— Foul Territory (@FoulTerritoryTV) March 21, 2025
The Phillies have built a substantial analytics department since Dombrowski took the helm, but are now in a legal battle with a partner who allegedly breached their contract, potentially exposing valuable information to rivals. It's possible certain things are easier being outsourced, but perhaps it would have been better to do it internally all along.
The analytical staffing has grown to be amongst the largest in the sport under the Phillies CEO and managing partner John Middleton. Now, with potential exposure to the work they've done, the Phillies are more vulnerable to losing their competitive edge and putting an unwarranted obstacle in their quest for a World Series title.
Other MLB teams have their own resources for gathering and crunching data, but a team like the Phillies cannot afford to lose what makes them great in a very competitive league. Even if the Phillies win this legal battle and are awarded compensatory damages, the Phillies organization could be better off trusting themselves for gathering and utilizing data for their future success.