Despite all the fanbase's bellyaching, the Philadelphia Phillies are still a good team. No, the offseason hasn't gone well for the Phillies in terms of successfully executing a trade for a big name. And yes, their rivals, both in the division and National League, have added big pieces. It's not a great recipe to appease the fans.
But as Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski has been preaching since his end-of-season presser, this Phillies team is still good. The real question that is eating away at Phillies fans is whether the team as currently constructed is good enough to win an NL pennant and return to the World Series.
Phillies still considered a top-five team in baseball even if it doesn't feel like it
While fans have serious doubts about where the Phillies stack up against the competition in 2025, MLB.com's Todd Zolecki made an interesting observation on a recent episode of The Phillies Show podcast. Stepping back from the hyperfocused bubble Phillies fans live in, where every flaw of the team seems magnified (this is true of every fanbase, not just Philadelphia), the rest of baseball still sees the Phillies as a top-five team.
"Nationally, in the game of baseball, the Phillies are still regarded as a top-five team, a World Series contending team ...," Zolecki said about his interactions at the Winter Meetings last week. "The view amongst people in baseball is that they're a pretty good team, and they could win the World Series next year."
Former Phillies general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. agreed with Zolecki.
"Correct, correct. If the ball rolls the right way and they play better baseball at the right time, now I know the fans don't want to hear that necessarily, but that's true," Amaro said.
"I agree, there's a lot of teams around baseball that would like to have the Phillies' problems, you know," Jim Salisbury added. "But you know, the fact of the matter is they were a .500 team after about June 10, including the postseason. Just right on the nose .500, so you know they need to play better. We like their personnel; that personnel needs to improve and play better, they still need a tweak."
Yes, they do still need a tweak. Luckily, there's plenty of offseason left for Dombrowski and company to make some moves. What those moves will look like as they butt up against the $301 million top luxury tax threshold is another matter. It's hard to see them making a big, flashy free agent signing or trade without moving some salary off the books.
Dombrowski has said since day one of the offseason that they're being open-minded this winter, but it sounds like a roster-shaking move might not be the avenue the front office takes for the second offseason in a row.
“The way I look at it is we have a very good team,” Dombrowski said ahead of the Winter Meetings, per Zolecki. “We won a lot of games last year. We won our division. We basically have mostly our whole club back. We’re not an aged club. I look at us as having a very good club going into next year. ... We didn’t play well against the Mets. But the reality is we have a really good club and I think we’ll have a really good club next year."
Regardless, seeing them miss out on both Garrett Crochet and Kyle Tucker has been hard to watch.