A season-ending locker room that was hoped \u2013 make that expected \u2013 to be soaked with celebratory champagne, was instead sprinkled with some sorrow-drowning beers Thursday in the visitor\u2019s clubhouse at Dodger Stadium. The Phillies saw their season end with a 2-1, 11-inning Game 4 loss in the Division Series.<\/p>\n
Players fought back tears, shared hugs, sentimental thoughts and perhaps some goodbyes, as the team fell short of their World Series-winning dreams for the fourth playoff year in a row.<\/p>\n
And now the question becomes, what\u2019s next?<\/p>\n
End of the season locker rooms are rarely a place of fun, unless those corks are being popped. But this was different. This didn\u2019t feel like just the end of a season, in some ways it did feel like the end of an era.<\/p>\n
Catcher J.T. Realmuto, always a stand-up person with the media, bluntly stated that he refused to talk about next season, letting it be known that questions should be centered around the disappointing loss, the season and his teammates. Realmuto becomes a free agent once the World Series is complete.<\/p>\n
When asked about his future, Kyle Schwarber struggled to fight back the tears as he professed his love for his teammates, his manager, the organization and his desire to return as he hits the free agent waters.<\/p>\n
Manager Rob Thomson probably summed up what this current team\u2019s identity is all about when asked about what his future may be with the club when he said: \u201cThat\u2019s out of my control. I\u2019m not even thinking about it. I got 60 people in there that are broken hearted right now, so I\u2019m thinking about that more so than my job.\u201d<\/p>\n
This team, laced with so many veterans, had a special bond. When you consider what they went through as a team, from unexpectedly getting to the World Series in 2022 to absorbing gut-wrenching playoff disappointment in the years since then, you have to believe they’re family. <\/p>\n
And as individuals, with Realmuto, Schwarber, Bryce Harper, Trea Turner and Nick Castellanos getting life-altering contracts from the club. The rise of youngsters to veterans such as Alec Bohm, Bryson Stott, Cristopher Sanchez and Ranger Suarez, who is also set to enter the free agent market. <\/p>\n
The steady hand of Thomson was a key factor ever since he took over for Joe Girardi in early June of 2022, prompting Harper to say on Thursday, \u201cI love Topper, man. He\u2019s done a great job for us. I don\u2019t know what the future holds, I have no idea. We love Topper in here.\u201d<\/p>\n
So, what may the future hold? Let\u2019s look at some thoughts and we\u2019ll start with the manager.<\/p>\n
Since taking over the club, Thomson has led them to 90, 95 and 96 regular season wins, and went 65-46 in his first season before leading the club to the World Series. His is a calming, fatherly style. He got his nickname from Joe Torre while he was with the Yankees because \u201che is always on top of everything.\u201d There is always reasoning for his decisions, though sometimes they aren\u2019t very popular with the fan base. But all are calculated moves that sometimes don\u2019t work. <\/p>\n
There is rarely a \u201cgut\u201d reasoning for his actions. He has changed through the course of the years by becoming more flexible with his lineup, with changing Schwarber out of the top spot in favor of Turner this season. He summed up who he is in the devastating loss on Thursday, by waiting on the top step of the dugout for relief pitcher Orion Kerkering, who fumbled a ground ball and threw wildly to home to allow the winning run to score, to embrace him and give him words of encouragement as chaos erupted around the field.<\/p>\n
Is Thomson back? The reality of all this is that something has to change with the Phillies. This organization, for the most part, has been in \u201crun it back\u201d mode for a few seasons now. The first look always goes to the manager when changes are made. I don\u2019t believe the organization wants to move on from him. <\/p>\n
Yes, there are questions about his handling of pitchers in the playoffs through his years, but he may have changed that narrative with his Aaron Nola-Suarez move in Game 3 against the Dodgers. The decision, ultimately, may be left up to Thomson himself.<\/p>\n
The starting pitching and the closer next year in Jhoan Duran seem to be pretty solid, with some tweaks needed to the bullpen. Sanchez is a legit No. 1 and seems to get better with every outing. The return of Zack Wheeler from his thoracic outlet decompression surgery is very much up in the air. Recovery from the surgery probably will take him to the beginning of next season, then comes the actual duty of getting in the work to be ready to start games every five days, and who knows how long that will be. <\/p>\n
Nola and Jes\u00fas Luzardo will be back, but it is not known about Suarez. The decision on him might be a direct result of what the club does with Schwarber and Realmuto.<\/p>\n
The second year back pitching from Tommy John surgery is usually the tell-tale sign of where a pitcher is, and that\u2019s what this coming season will be for top prospect Andrew Painter. You have to think that Dave Dombrowski would expect Painter to be a part of the starting lineup of pitchers going into Spring Training.<\/p>\n
While the immediate focus on the loss to the Dodgers will go to Kerkering\u2019s play, it shouldn\u2019t. There were many other reasons the team lost the series, and it begins with the top of the order in Turner, Schwarber and Harper. Those three went 4-for-35 with 15 strikeouts in the three losses to the Dodgers, 7-for-13 with two home runs and five RBIs in the win. So, if the team brings back Schwarber, can you run it back?<\/p>\n
Although he had the best season of his career and is rightfully lumped into MVP talk, I wonder if it\u2019s time to put Schwarber in the four-hole to change things up a bit. Modern baseball says a player like him should be higher in the lineup, but change seems to be needed. Perhaps a Justin Crawford or Aiden Miller, should they become everyday players, can fill in at the top of the order while moving Schwarber\u2019s power numbers to the more conventional cleanup spot.<\/p>\n
This is a pivotal off-season for Dombrowski as he has to deal with the free agents at hand, keep an eye on others out there and figure out what the plan is for the many good prospects littering the Phillies farm system. And is this another summer of trade rumors for third baseman Alec Bohm?<\/p>\n
One thing I believe we know for certain with this team is that they can\u2019t simply run it back again.<\/p>\n
Right? \u00a0<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A season-ending locker room that was hoped \u2013 make that expected \u2013 to be soaked with celebratory champagne,…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":295774,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5132],"tags":[5229,1448,2830,1311,151109,151110,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-295773","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-america","tag-pa","tag-pennsylvania","tag-philadelphia","tag-phillies-column","tag-phillies-free-agency","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115357955304804847","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295773","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=295773"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295773\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/295774"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=295773"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=295773"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=295773"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}