3 Phillies players who may have peaked in 2023

The Philadelphia Phillies had a successful 2023 season in which they posted their first 90-win season in over a decade. At the same time, they finished in the first NL Wild Card spot to reach the MLB playoffs for the second consecutive season.

So far in the playoffs, they have dispatched the Miami Marlins and will now face the Atlanta Braves in the NLDS. In accomplishing all these feats, many of the Phillies players provided valuable contributions to the ballclub over the course of the season, resulting in their successful year thus far.

For some of the players, such as Alec Bohm and Bryson Stott, 2023 was a season in which they broke out as they ended up performing beyond expectations. However, for some of the other players, it was a slightly different story for them. There were a few players that, despite their solid contributions, appeared to have peaked in terms of their performance in 2023.

Perhaps it may have been due to the year-long grind from last year's playoffs, or maybe it was due to regression as a result of fatigue or older age. Nevertheless, there is a possibility that we have already seen the best of their abilities and performance and as a result, it may not persist into their proceeding years.

Here, we take a closer look at three Phillies players who may have reached a plateau in their careers. Therefore, we should temper our expectations in terms of their production and performance going forward.

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J.T. Realmuto

Back during the 2020-21 offseason, the Phillies re-signed All-Star catcher J.T. Realmuto to a record-breaking five-year, $115.5 million contract. The contract carried an annual value of $23.1 million, the highest AAV ever for a catcher at the time. The Phillies wanted to lock him in while in his prime so that the ballclub could become strong contenders for an extended period.

Realmuto has responded with solid seasons in both 2021 and 2022, helping lead the Phillies last year right into a successful postseason in which they made it all the way to the World Series. In addition, he had been strong defensively as well, especially in 2022 when he won a Gold Glove with an 11 DRS while throwing out over 40 percent of the baserunners trying to steal off of him.

However, in 2023, Realmuto may have started to take a small step backward in terms of his production and performance. His RBI, batting average and OPS numbers were the lowest since his early years with the Miami Marlins. He also set a career-high in strikeouts in a single season with 138.

Defensively, he was still throwing out runners at a 22 percent success rate, but baserunners have attempted to steal off of him 104 times, with 81 of them being successful. As a result, baserunners were beginning to take advantage of his weakened ability to throw runners out. Not only that, his -4 DRS was the lowest mark he had recorded since his 2016 season.

Realmuto will be 33 when the 2024 MLB season gets underway. So perhaps the Phillies may want to ensure they have a solid backup in place. If they can give Realmuto more rest in the coming years, they may be able to maximize his effectiveness and slow down his potential regression as much as possible.

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Craig Kimbrel

The Phillies signed Craig Kimbrel to a value one-year, $10 million deal this past offseason to help replace closer David Robertson, who left via free agency. He was coming off a solid season with the Los Angeles Dodgers in which he was 6-7 with 22 saves along with a 3.75 ERA. However, in the seasons prior to 2022, Kimbrel had struggled somewhat with ERAs above five, but the Phillies were willing to take the chance that they were getting a revamped, stronger version of the closer.

The investment in Kimbrel has definitely paid off for the ballclub as he showed the world once again that he was one of the premium closers in the league. He posted an 8-6 winning record with 23 saves, along with a 3.26 ERA and 1.04 WHIP for the 2023 season, all while guiding the Phillies successfully into the postseason.

However, there were some potential warning signs in his performance at the same time, as Kimbrel yielded 10 home runs, the most he had given up in a season in his 14-year career. More importantly, after going through the first half of the season unscathed, Kimbrel ended up blowing five saves, along with suffering five losses down the stretch during the second half of the season.

Fortunately for the Phillies, they still ended up winning three of the five blown games, so it didn’t end up affecting them too significantly. But Kimbrel’s inconsistency near the end of the season forced the Phillies to give way to trusted reliever José Alvarado to close out some important games down the stretch.

The fact that Kimbrel may have peaked during the 2023 season before losing some steam near the end of the year should make the Phillies think twice during the upcoming offseason on whether or not to re-sign the closer. If they are getting the first half version of Kimbrel, sure, sign us up. But if it’s the latter half version, it may be in the best interest of the Phillies to move on.

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