Phillies refuse to place blame for lost championship contending season

The Philadelphia Phillies now face a long winter looking back on what went wrong and what can be improved on coming into 2025. Fans are clamoring for change after another early exit from postseason contention.

The NLDS showed the inconsistent offense going silent for innings at a time with most games not seeing a run cross the plate before the sixth inning, per MLB.com's Todd Zolecki. The bullpen was at an all-time postseason worst, failing to bail out the team when there was a struggle to produce offensively. The one bright spot came from the starting pitching, which remained consistent all of 2024.

A burning question heading into the Phillies' end-of-year press conference was what will change to fix this club and what will the team look like going forward? Will the Phillies have a different look and identity that will drive them to success? On Tuesday, Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski issued some clarity.

Phillies refuse to place blame for lost championship contending season

Something that came out of the press conference was the unexpected announcement that the entirety of the coaching staff would be returning for 2025. Manager Rob Thomson even received an extension, signing him through the 2026 season.

"To me, it was pretty simple in that regard," Dombrowski said. "Anytime you have a disappointing finish, which we did, it’s also hard to put that on [the coaching staff's] backs in that case. We all share collectively in what happened.”

The belief coming out of the organization is that the club as it now stands, is good enough to win, per Zolecki.

“I do think it’s a club capable of winning a world championship,” Dombrowski said.

Dombrowski also left the door open, as he usually does, for the possibility that changes could happen later on, possibly with another star.

“You’re also open-minded to making adjustments,” he said, per Zolecki. “I think that’s a necessity. You want to get better. You’re never happy unless you win the whole thing. We didn’t win the whole thing. I think we have a real good core of players, but I think we’ll be open-minded to make our club better. That’s really our goal."

The same belief in the team after three regressively failing postseasons is starting to feel stale. If the coaching staff wasn't the problem and the core is expected to remain about the same, then where does the growth of the club come in?

It is almost astonishing that not even one immediate move is taking place after the utter embarrassment that the Phillies were faced with after losing in the NLDS after a first-round bye that they fought so hard to protect.

It is entirely possible that the roster can be improved from here with the same staff that got them so far and seems to have legitimate chemistry with the club. Maybe there is more juice to squeeze out of the coaching staff before it's time to move on.

The Phillies need to adapt and make sure this is who they want taking them to the promised land. This squad has moments where it seems good enough to win, if not something will have to give in order to get there.

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