The Phillies are 13-9, in playoff positioning, just took a series from a divisional foe and everyone remains angry across the Delaware Valley. It's justified, too! Losing a Sunday game that the Phillies should've won following an embarrassingly close win on Saturday will do that to a fan base. There are plenty of positives for the Fightins right now, but to ignore the warts would be foolish.
From the serious to the esoteric, here are five thoughts I currently have on the Phils…
The Phillies have their best 1-2 rotation punch in nearly 15 years
Zack Wheeler is in the running for the game's most dominant pitcher. Cristopher Sánchez, in his age-28 season coming off his first All-Star nod last year, has got the goods, too. Sánchez struck out 12 batters in seven innings of work this past Thursday in a win over San Francisco. The next day, Wheeler followed up that performance with a 13-strikeout gem in another Phils win.
That was historic for the Phillies:
13 strikeouts for Zack Wheeler tonight.
12 strikeouts for Cristopher Sanchez yesterday.
First time the Phillies have had starters K 12+ in back-to-back games since …
2 guys named Roy Halladay & Cliff Lee did it on April 24-25, 2011— Jayson Stark (@jaysonst) April 19, 2025
Wheeler is not quite the late, great Roy Halladay (though maybe closer than people would think) and Sánchez is not Cliff Lee, but this duo is good enough to front a World Series-winning rotation unquestionably.
Could Kyle Schwarber have a top-10 NL MVP finish?
Here are the numbers for two National League designated hitters:
| Stat | Player A | Player B |
| AVG | .277 | .269 |
| OBP | .375 | .424 |
| SLG | .530 | .577 |
| OPS | .905 | 1.001 |
| OPS+ | 158 | 180 |
| HR | 6 | 7 |
Player A is super-duper-star Shohei Ohtani. Player B is Kyle Schwarber. Sure, the Phillies would flip Schwarber for Ohtani in a millisecond if offered such an outrageous trade, but this simply speaks to how good Schwarber has been this early in the year. Ohtani was considered the presumptive NL MVP favorite heading into the 2025 season and while he's been elite, he hasn't quite been at his previous all-world level. I'm sure he'll get there at some point, but this quick little comp has me wondering if Schwarber could have his highest MVP finish ever.
Schwarber has garnered down-ballot NL MVP votes in all three seasons that he's worn red pinstripes. He was 16th in 2022, 19th in 2023 and 15th last year. A top-10 finish should be on the table at least this year!
Obviously, Schwarber himself would take a World Series win over any regular season accolades, but he's been totally raking so far in 2025.
Jordan Romano is persona non grata in Philadelphia
I apologize for crushing a guy literally on his birthday, but after this weekend set against Miami at Citizens Bank Park, does any athlete in Philly have a lower approval rating than Jordan Romano? In nine appearances so far this season, Romano has an astronomical 15.26 ERA.
One more meltdown and he needs to be DFA'd, right?
The Phillies have a championship-level rotation, a playoff-level lineup and a Triple-A-level bullpen. The front office brass needs to make major moves to boost the team's host of relievers before the trade deadline. If they don't, the Phillies will meekly bail out early yet again in the postseason or perhaps miss out on the playoffs entirely in a stacked National League!
How has Bryson Stott done as a leadoff hitter?
I was staunchly anti-Bryson Stott at the top of the order for the Phillies and remain rather skeptical of this being the Fightins' best lineup construction going forward, but the early returns this year have been more than fine. Let's have some fun with small-sample sizes…
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In leading off games outright in eight plate appearances, Stott has reached base five times.
As a leadoff hitter overall in 38 plate appearances, Stott is hitting .294 with a .754 OPS. I'd like my leadoff hitter to walk a tad more and I'd like almost any player on the field to have more pop than Stott does, but those numbers are both much better than his career marks (.257 average, .699 OPS).
I'm a leadoff Schwarber guy, but perhaps leading off is the type of groove Stott needs to put his career on the right path in his age-27 campaign.
The Phillies' City Connect uniforms should be centered on the Phillie Phanatic
For the Phillies Phanatic's birthday on Sunday, the Phillies wore their usual Phanatic-centric batting practice caps for the game itself in honor of the greatest mascot of all time:
The Phillies are wearing their Phanatic caps today for the Phanatic's birthday 🎂 pic.twitter.com/wqV4HAkbdr
— MLB (@MLB) April 20, 2025
I'm far from the first person to echo this sentiment, but the Phillies' City Connect uniforms should really be built around the Phanatic. Their blue-and-yellow look has run its course in Year 2 and was unpopular to begin with anyway. I dig the caps, but the uniforms are crap. Let's have some fun and get weird with it. How about green uniforms for the Phanatic with a touch of pink as accents? Everyone loves the Phanatic, including Bryce Harper! He needs to lead the charge on that front.
A Friday evening at Citizens Bank Park should be a magical time for fans. It should not be clouded with these loathed City Connects.
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