The Philadelphia Phillies' offseason has been a rollercoaster of a ride for fans. After the brutal ouster from the playoffs at the hands of the division rival New York Mets in the NLDS, fans were chomping at the bit to see some changes to the roster. It hasn't exactly been as compelling as we first thought it would be.
The most glaring need coming into the winter months was to improve the outfield production after the 2024 group finished 20th in fWAR and 21st with a less-than-encouraging 93 wRC+. And then there was obviously a need to fill the void left in the bullpen by the departures of fan-favorite Jeff Hoffman and trade deadline acquisition Carlos Estévez.
Forget about any big-name free agent signings fans had been drooling over the thought of. The signing of veteran Max Kepler has "addressed" the outfield situation, and the bullpen has been filled out by adding former All-Star closer Jordan Romano and depth arm Joe Ross. Those were hardly the needle-moving additions the fanbase envisioned two months ago when the offseason got underway.
Todd Zolecki says exactly what every Phillies fan is thinking about offseason moves
The Phillies are still a good team, one of the best in the National League, but at least one Phillies beat writer thinks that the team still needs to do more. MLB.com's Todd Zolecki recently contributed to the platform's compilation of questions each team needs to answer before spring training, which is just a little over five weeks away.
The question the Phillies need to answer is, what else" do they have up their sleeves? This can't be it, can it? Zolecki doesn't believe so.
"It would be surprising, however, if the Phillies don’t do something more significant before Spring Training. They need to," Zolecki says.
It's hard to argue against that statement.
After Phillies fans were teased with potential trades for young left-handed starter Garrett Crochet, All-Star outfielder Kyle Tucker, and even veteran third baseman Nolan Arenado — whether that would actually be a good move is up for debate — the team's biggest move has been to upgrade the starting rotation by trading for left-hander Jesús Luzardo. Sure, making a strength even stronger is hard to argue against, but the starting five won't help the outfield.
At the beginning of the offseason, it sounded like Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski was on board with a roster shakeup. His tune has since changed. Now, the Phillies seem content with the handful of moves they've made to "tweak" the roster's periphery.
But, like Zolecki says, they need to do something more significant.