The Philadelphia Phillies got off to a rip-roaring start this MLB season, with the zenith coming after a series victory over the defending champion Los Angeles Dodgers that pushed their record to 7-2 on the young campaign. But then a lackluster performance in a series loss in Atlanta led to more uneven play against both St. Louis and San Francisco.
The team seemed to right the ship with a pair of wins over Miami, but an Easter Sunday collapse in the series finale versus the Fish set the stage for what became a five-game losing streak this past week that included an embarrassing sweep at the hands of the New York Mets. The Phillies rallied late last week to win their last two games against the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field, but the damage was done, as the team dropped out of the top 10 in MLB.com's Power Rankings.
Phillies' brutal week sees them sink like a rock in MLB Power Rankings
You can't blame Will Leitch at MLB.com for sliding the Phillies all the way down to No. 13 in the rankings, even though it's fairly obvious that he had them ticketed for that slot even before their extra inning victory on Sunday night. After all, despite these last two wins, the Phillies and their fans wouldn't feel very confident in a series against any of the teams currently ahead of them, and that's what these rankings are meant to reflect.
Luckily for the Phillies, however, baseball is a long season. (Probably too long.) We haven't even hit the 20 percent mark on the 2025 season. Alec Bohm has yet to hit a home run. Brandon Marsh is looking to improve as he "rehabs" in the minors. Ranger Suárez has yet to pitch for the team this season, with his return perhaps coming as early as this week. And Andrew Painter lurks in the shadows, a weapon being prepped to deploy later this summer. Heck, even Aaron Nola looked a lot better in his last start, delivering a performance that should have resulted in his first win of the season but didn't because of a lack of run support.
The point is, these types of power rankings are merely snapshots of this moment in time. In the Phillies' case, their drop from No. 5 last week all the way down to No. 13 this week was pretty much deserved. But keep in mind how quickly the tide can turn. Case in point — the Mets followed up their sweep of the Phillies by dropping two of three to the Nationals, which included coughing up a 7-1 lead on Sunday. Good times can go off the cliff in the same way that bad times can improve in an instant.
With long-term projections, the Phillies are still a top club. Just look at some of the teams ahead of them. Seattle is looking good, but their offense is not impressive overall and their pitching (which is impressive) is banged up. More importantly, four NL West clubs aren't going to finish ahead of the Phillies, as they are in this week's power rankings. Maybe treading water for a while and then ramping it up later in the year isn't so bad for the Phillies after all. In fact, isn't it preferable to the way last season went, where they started out like a house afire and then were .500 for the last 100 games or so?
The Phillies were rightfully jockeying with the Dodgers for a top spot in just about everyone's rankings a few weeks ago, and now they are rightfully more in the middle of the pack. That's how it goes when you stick it out for the full 162. The bullpen's well-documented early struggles and a sagging lineup of underperforming highly-paid players have been a concern over the first month of the season. But there are enough reasons for optimism to get the Phillies further up the standings — and the power rankings — in the weeks and months to come.