As we enter yet another baseball season, the Philadelphia Phillies have been just as infuriating as ever. A dynamite starting rotation has been let down time and again by an offense that falls asleep on the job more often than not. All the while the front office turns a blind eye to the gaping holes in the ship’s waterline, continuing to fantasize that this will be the year that everything goes right. Phillies fans are all too accustomed to these disconcerting facts of life, but unfortunately a massive underlying issue is looming just below the surface.
Despite their myriad flaws, the Phillies are a good baseball team. They possess plenty of starpower, and when things are going well they are legitimately one of the best teams in all of baseball. However, anyone who watches sports knows that no team gets through an entire season with everything going well, and the Phillies are not immune to that reality.
The unpredictability of a 162-game baseball season makes depth a crucial aspect of roster construction. Unfortunately, it’s one aspect that Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski has failed miserably at. A top-heavy club reliant upon aging stars with bloated contracts has zero backup plans in place in case something goes wrong. Almost every area of the team is stretched to its limit, and just one wrench in the gears could cause the whole thing to come toppling down.Â
Depth is one of the most important parts of roster construction. Unfortunately, the Phillies don't have much of it
Take the starting rotation for instance. The current group of Cristopher Sánchez, Jesús Luzardo, Aaron Nola, Andrew Painter and Taijuan Walker is oozing with upside (sans Walker). Add to that a healthy Zack Wheeler in a few weeks and it’s perhaps the best rotation in baseball. However, there is no one else aside from them.Â
Wheeler’s imminent return should mercifully demote Walker back to the bullpen where he belongs, but what if someone else gets hurt? Walker and his 9.31 ERA will once again be the next man up. If Dombrowski finally owns up to his $72 million mistake and cuts bait on Walker, there’s not much more than dregs at Triple-A Lehigh Valley to pick up the slack. The best options there are Quad-A arms Alan Rangel, Tucker Davidson and Bryse Wilson, failed Atlanta Braves first-rounder Ryan Cusick, and decently-regarded prospect Jean Cabrera.
The outfield is in a similarly precarious state. Rookie Justin Crawford has impressed in his first taste of major league action, Brandon Marsh has been his usual self excelling against right-handed pitching, and free agent pickup Adolis GarcÃa has been arguably the team’s top hitter thus far. However, all three of them have significant question marks.
What if the league adjusts to Crawford and his groundball-happy ways, turning him into Ben Revere 2.0? What if Marsh gets mired in another dreadful slump like he was for all of April last year? What if GarcÃa turns back into the pumpkin he was in 2024 and 2025? It’s not likely that all three outfielders will collapse at the same time, but one or two certainly could over the course of six months.Â
If the Phillies do find themselves needing outfield help they’ll be hard-pressed to find it internally. Front office darling Otto Kemp is a decent platoon option, but has looked completely miscast on the outfield grass so far. Slugging prospect Gabriel Rincones Jr. has plenty of promise, but started the year on the Injured List and has yet to prove he can hit lefties. Lehigh Valley doesn't offer much hope as they currently employ washed up big leaguers Óscar Mercado, Pedro León and Bryan De La Cruz. If the outfield becomes a problem, the Phillies will need to make a trade to address it.
Now let’s pivot to the infield. First base and shortstop are locked down by superstars Bryce Harper and Trea Turner, so no problems there. However, second and third base are manned by a pair of first-rounders in Bryson Stott and Alec Bohm, respectively. Both players have been quite underwhelming over the course of their Phillies tenures for very different reasons.
Stott provides blazing speed and Gold Glove-caliber defense, but has failed to impress at the plate despite showing flashes of upside. Bohm is pretty much the exact opposite, as a plodding, granite glove at the hot corner whose one redeeming feature has been his roughly league-average bat. Neither player is useless, and both have the potential to take a step forward, but neither one has done so after years of opportunities.
While there’s still hope that Stott or Bohm could really turn it on this year, what if either one does the opposite? Stott has gone through long stretches of looking completely lost at the plate, and has found himself ceding playing time to Edmundo Sosa on more than one occasion. Bohm became the whipping boy for the fanbase back in 2024 when his production cratered and his attitude became even worse during a disastrous playoff run.
If either one of Stott or Bohm starts to slide from unimpressive into unplayable, there’s not much in the way of a plan B. The aforementioned Sosa is a terrific bench player, but his free-swinging ways limit his upside in a starting role. Uber-prospect Aidan Miller may be the long-term answer somewhere on the infield, but back issues have held him out of minor league action to start the year, with no return date in sight.
If the infield picture wasn’t depressing enough, let’s add veteran backstop J.T. Realmuto to the mix. The longtime best catcher in baseball is now 35 years old and has been ridden hard and put away wet, having caught more innings than anyone else in three of the past four seasons. The three-time All-Star hit an offensive nadir in 2025, and his underlying skills have fallen off a cliff.
Knowing that the team’s longtime workhorse behind the plate was nearing the end of his rope, Dombrowski did nothing to prepare for a post-Realmuto world, shipping out top catching prospect Eduardo Tait at last year’s trade deadline. Instead of trading for a solid option like Ryan Jeffers this past winter, or signing a decent stopgap like Victor Caratini, Dombrowski tried to appease a fanbase out for blood by paying through the nose for three more years of Realmuto’s decline.
Unless Realmuto can somehow turn back the clock, the Phillies are going to be stuck with an overpaid shell of the best catcher in franchise history. To make matters worse, if Realmuto goes down, the team will depend upon Rafael Marchán, who has a grand total of 84 major league games under his belt, and chief vibes officer Garrett Stubbs. Not a very inspiring tandem.
If Dombrowski is going to be taken to task for his failures, then it’s only fair to give him credit where it’s due. The one part of the roster that the Phillies have succeeded in stockpiling depth is the bullpen. A relief corps that employed the likes of Jordan Romano, Craig Kimbrel and Jeurys Familia in recent years has suddenly become a strength in 2026.
The blockbuster trade for Jhoan Duran last summer gave fans something they had been dreaming of ever since the Brad Lidge days: a lockdown closer. Dombrowski further solidified the pen this winter by bringing in breakout hurler Brad Keller in free agency. Smaller trades added Kyle Backhus and Jonathan Bowlan to go alongside existing options José Alvarado, Orion Kerkering and Tanner Banks.
Unlike other areas of the roster, decent bullpen options can be found in Triple-A. Seth Johnson, Lou Trivino, Chase Shugart and Génesis Cabrera all have big league experience and decent upside. Further down the minor league ladder are prospects Alex McFarlane and Gage Wood, two fireballers who could be devastating weapons out of the pen if the club’s dreams of developing them into starting pitchers don’t work out.
The Doomsday Preppers approach to hoarding relief talent should have served as a blueprint for how to build out other areas of need. What would have been wrong with throwing a few million at old friend Austin Hays to solidify a lefty-heavy outfield mix? Why not bring back Walker Buehler on a minor league deal to add another interesting arm to the rotation mix?
There are always plenty of veterans left without a chair when the music stops during the offseason. Unfortunately, the Phillies didn’t do a very good job of taking advantage of that to safeguard against injuries and ineffectiveness.
Hopefully, all of these concerns will prove to be paranoia as a healthy and successful Phillies team coasts to another divisional crown. Unfortunately, we’ve all watched too much baseball in our lives to expect things to be that easy, and Dave Dombrowski and the Phillies have made things harder than they have to be by failing to shore up weak spots on a team that can’t afford to waste another chance at hoisting a World Series trophy.