5 Phillies to blame for falling so far behind the Braves in the NL East standings
The Philadelphia Phillies are fighting to get back to .500. Meanwhile, the Atlanta Braves are one of the best teams in baseball and well ahead of them in the standings. The two teams faced off this past weekend and split their four games. The good news is the Phillies didn’t fall further behind. The bad news is they didn’t make up any ground.
With a mountain ahead of them, the Phillies need a lot to get right for them and even more to go wrong for the Braves in order to catch their NL East foes. Five specific Phillies deserve a bunch of the blame for falling so far behind the Braves.
First, an honorable mention to practically everyone in the bullpen. How do we possibly choose just one? While many of those inflated ERAs are the result of getting incinerated in absolute bloodbath appearances, our trust in guys like Craig Kimbrel and Gregory Soto is limited. They do deserve a lot of the blame as should these other five Phillies.
1) Blame Phillies outfielder Kyle Schwarber for falling so far behind the Braves
Kyle Schwarber is one of the oddest baseball players around. Let’s take last season for instance. A .218 batting average and .323 OBP was good enough to keep him in the leadoff spot for much of the season. He led the league with 46 home runs but also struck out more than anyone else with 200 Ks to his name.
Schwarber’s 2023 season hasn’t been nearly as productive. He has an identical .323 OBP yet only a .168 batting average and a .408 slugging percentage. He has gone deep 13 times which is a reasonable expectation at this point in the year.
The Phillies need much more than the occasional long ball out of Schwarber. Even with him hitting in a much more appropriate spot of the lineup down in the middle, he’s a limited ballplayer with one skill: crushing baseballs.
A change could be around the corner. Schwarber is a lifetime .258/.352/.607 hitter in June. Last season, after two straight months of batting below .200, he turned up the juice and cranked out a .272/.385/.680 slash line complete with 12 home runs and 27 RBI. The Phillies need a repeat.
2) Blame Phillies shortstop Trea Turner for falling so far behind the Braves
Kyle Schwarber was one of the big bats the Phillies signed ahead of the 2022 season. They went even further when they signed Trea Turner this past winter. An easy fit for the Phillies and someone everybody should’ve wanted, he has fallen well short of expectations.
Turner is hitting .243/.288/.383 through his first 236 plate appearances. A clutch home run last week helped breathe some life into his stagnant bat. He’s still well below what he needs to be. The Phillies need Turner to hit around .300, contend for the league lead in stolen bases, and create the kind of havoc many of his teammates are incapable of.
Turner got the biggest contract from the Phillies this winter and anything that goes wrong does fall on him. He’s not a complimentary piece. He should be equal to Bryce Harper on this roster. Instead, Turner has blended in alongside players like Alec Bohm and Bryson Stott who helped carry the team early on.
When the Phillies signed Turner, it should have given them a lineup capable of keeping up with the Braves. He hasn’t been able to kick it into high gear. Fortunately, the positive spin to this is he’s “due” for a breakout. Maybe his mom needs to boo him a little more often.
3) Blame Phillies pitcher Aaron Nola for falling so far behind the Braves
If you’re having doubts about whether or not the Phillies should sign Aaron Nola to an extension or even re-sign him after he hits free agency, you’re not alone. His career has been an up-and-down one. Only once in his career has the first number of his ERA ever matched what it was the season prior. He’ll have a season in the 3.00s and see it fall to the 4.00s or as it did in 2018 drop as low as 2.37.
Nola is 4-3 with a 4.59 ERA after his first 11 starts for the 2023 season. His 7.9 strikeouts per 9 is alarmingly low for a guy who has averaged a solid 10 in his career. The Phillies needed Nola to be the co-ace alongside Zack Wheeler. He has been much more average. He’s a big reason why the team is chasing the Braves instead of the other way around.
Nola hasn’t had a game yet this year where he managed to throw up a zero. His 8-inning gem against the Houston Astros is easily his best. A solo home run was all they could get across the board versus Nola that time around.
The one great attribute Nola continues to offer this team is the ability to go late into games. Unfortunately, they’re just 5-6 in his outings so aside from saving us from the bullpen there isn’t much of a benefit.
4) Blame Phillies pitcher Bailey Falter for falling so far behind the Braves
Deserving of equal blame as Bailey Falter is everyone who thought the rotation would be okay with him in it. Falter is a decent enough sixth starter and maybe bullpen piece to turn to in the same way they’ve been using Jeff Hoffman. Beyond that, he doesn’t belong on a major league roster.
Falter managed to go 0-7 with a 5.13 ERA in his 7 starts and relief appearance. It was a brutal tenure this season for a guy who showed a lot of promise last season. The problems are obvious. The Phillies gave him too much responsibility.
For those curious, Falter has won each of his two starts in Triple-A with an even worse 5.40 ERA. Baseball can be cruel. If Falter was winning games, it wouldn’t have mattered what his ERA was. He’d still be in the majors instead of riding the bus on the farm again.
There is room for Falter to pitch his way back onto the Phillies. By then, will they be too far behind the Braves for it to matter much?
Compared to others on this list, Falter is a much lesser piece. It’s still hard to ignore the losing streak he imposed whenever he stepped on the mound. Partly bad luck but also equally due to his own shortcomings, we wag a finger in his direction.
5) Blame Phillies pitcher Taijuan Walker for falling so far behind the Braves
Taijuan Walker has not been the pitcher the Phillies needed him to be. Meant to take on the role of third or fourth starter, he has somehow managed to have an even worse ERA than Bailey Falter. The difference is Walker is getting paid a lot of money and has managed to somehow go 4-2. In fact, the Phillies are 7-4 when he takes the mound. Why blame him?
It’s the losses which have been most brutal. Walker failed to pitch 5 innings in all four of the games the Phillies lost with him on the mound. He hasn’t been particularly brilliant in his or the team’s wins either. His latest victory against the Braves included 6.2 innings of work but 10 hits allowed. The Phillies won 6-4 in what was a much-needed victory for the team and Walker.
The Phillies needed Walker most during the absence of Ranger Suarez when the rest of the rotation included Falter and Matt Strahm. He failed far too often.
The early impression Walker has given Phillies fans hasn’t been a positive one. While he couldn’t have single-handedly helped them have a record matching or surpassing the Braves, the taxation on the rest of the pitching staff has undoubtedly carried over the next day because of him. How many games have the Phillies lost because of that?
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