3 biggest mistakes by the front office that doomed the Phillies in 2023
From starting pitching to the bullpen to the bench, the Phillies lacked depth in important areas.
The Philadelphia Phillies fell short of their goal of winning the World Series in 2023 by losing in embarrassing fashion in the NLCS. The Phillies were heavy favorites against an 84-win Diamondbacks team and even had a 2-0 series lead before losing four of the next five games including two at home and watching Arizona celebrate at Citizens Bank Park.
The biggest reason the Phillies failed to win another NL Pennant was because their stars fell flat on their faces. That's rather obvious. Trea Turner, Nick Castellanos, and even Bryce Harper no-showed in Game 7 after Aaron Nola's rough Game 6 start forced them to even play in the winner-take-all game.
While the stars failed to execute, this was an imperfect team Rob Thomson was managing. There were several mistakes made in 2023 by Dave Dombrowski and the Phillies front office that wound up holding them back in the long run.
The Michael Lorenzen trade turned out to be a disaster
The big trade the Phillies made at the trade deadline was the deal that netted them Michael Lorenzen from the Tigers. At the time, this felt like a logical add. Lorenzen had an All-Star first half for Detroit, and the Phillies got him when he was at his peak.
The trade looked even better after two dominant starts for Lorenzen to begin his Phillies career, including a no-hitter. Unfortunately, the right-hander had a 7.96 ERA in his next five starts and was bumped from the rotation entirely. Lorenzen was put into the bullpen and was used in low-leverage spots when games were out of reach.
The Phillies traded one of their top prospects, Hao-Yu Lee, in order to get Lorenzen. Instead of acquiring a guy who'd become a replaceable reliever, they could've gotten a difference-maker like Jordan Montgomery from the Rangers.
The Phillies had two starters they were comfortable with in Zack Wheeler and Aaron Nola. Ranger Suárez is a pitcher they were somewhat comfortable with, but he only went past five innings once in his four postseason starts. After that, between Taijuan Walker, Cristopher Sánchez, and Lorenzen, there wasn't much there.
What we thought was a deep rotation turned out to be anything but, and a big reason for that was the Lorenzen deal.
Refusing to upgrade the bench turned out to be a major issue
While the starting lineup is as stacked as they come, the Phillies' bench left a lot to be desired. There wasn't a single bat off the bench an opposing manager was ever going to fear, especially when Brandon Marsh was in the lineup.
Philadelphia spent much of the season with a bench that consisted of players like Garrett Stubbs, Cristian Pache, Edmundo Sosa, Jake Cave, and Josh Harrison. That, obviously, is not good enough. There's no bat there that any pitcher would sweat facing.
The depth of this team was tested very quickly when Rhys Hoskins went down with injury. This forced the likes of Darrick Hall, Kody Clemens, and even Jake Cave to play much of the first base before Bryce Harper was well enough to play the field. That was a problem as well.
The season ended with Jake Cave coming off the bench to pinch hit for Cristian Pache, who had pinch hit earlier for Johan Rojas. Obviously, it's not the only reason they lost and there's no way we could know how things would've gone had they acquired a legitimate bench bat, but adding more depth and making this team deeper should've been a priority for Dave Dombrowski.
Not acquiring another high-leverage arm doomed the Phillies bullpen
The Phillies bullpen was one of the best units in baseball in the regular season, but the postseason is a whole other beast. In reality, there weren't many arms in there that Rob Thomson could completely trust.
José Alvarado was their best reliever by far in the regular season and postseason, although the run he allowed in Game 7 was huge. Jeff Hoffman was used often and was great outside of the Austin Riley blast in Atlanta. Who was next in the pecking order in terms of relievers you could really trust? Matt Strahm?
Craig Kimbrel's playoff history wasn't good entering the season, and his Arizona series was an absolute nightmare. Seranthony Domínguez had a good postseason, but his inability to pitch in high-leverage spots in the regular season forced Thomson to avoid using him in big moments. This is why the Phillies had to turn to a guy like Orion Kerkering to pitch in the seventh inning of a one-run game in the NLCS. That went about as well as anyone could've expected.
The Phillies needed another high-leverage arm to pair with Alvarado and Hoffman. You can somewhat understand trusting Kimbrel, but even then, they'd still need another arm. There weren't enough late-game arms for Rob Thomson to go to. There's a good chance they would have won that Arizona series had they signed or acquired just one more reliever.
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