Phillies bank-busters Bryce Harper, Trea Turner, Kyle Schwarber, Nick Castellanos money in Game 1 of NLCS

Baseball was always a numbers game, and it’s becoming more about numbers every day. The numbers that matter most, of course, are at the bottom of the “Win” column.

The next most important numbers: the bottom line. Return on investment. Relative value.

Lately, the Phillies have meshed a lot of the former with biggest among latter. Phillies managing partner John Middleton has outlaid more than $1 billion in contracts, mostly administered by president Dave Dombrowski. At this moment, it feels like it’s paying off all at once. On the strength of its eight- and nine-digit employees, the Phillies finished the division series and took Game 1 of the National League Championship Series against Arizona, 5-3.

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“Dave Dombrowski does a phenomenal job of bringing the right guys in,” said Bryce Harper, whose contract is the richest of them all, at $330 million. “I think being able to have Mr. Middleton let Dave do his job is huge.”

They got to the World Series last season, spent more — $300 million on Trea Turner, plus others — and seem headed back there posthaste. It didn’t feel like this in the first three games of the postseason — the Marlins’ two-game roll-over in the wild-card round and the Braves’ sleepwalk through Game 1 of the NLDS.

No, something awakened in the Phillies after Game 2 in Atlanta. The ace, Zack Wheeler, faltered in the seventh. The bullpen blew it later. Turner committed two errors at shortstop. Harper got doubled off first to end the game in an all-time base running blunder.

They make the most money of any of the Phillies. They’ve been earning their money in the three games since.

So have the other money men.

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Dombrowski spent $245.4 million on this 2023 roster, the highest payroll in Phillies franchise history and the fifth-highest in baseball this season. Outlay does not guarantee return. The three biggest spenders, the Mets, Yankees, and Padres, didn’t even make the playoffs, although the Rangers outspent the Phillies by $6 million, and they’re two wins from the World Series. In order, Harper, Turner, Wheeler, J.T. Realmuto, Nick Castellanos, Kyle Schwarber, Taijuan Walker, Aaron Nola, and Craig Kimbrel made the most money. Walker, the fourth starter, has been the odd man out in the playoffs; he might get his chance in Game 4 on Friday.

“It’s been pretty cool,” Wheeler said. “You see players you grow up watching get big contracts and play well at meaningful times. You say, ‘I want to do that.’ ”

Wheeler has been the most consistently excellent among the mega-millionaires. On Monday, he gave up two runs on three hits and no walks with eight strikeouts in six innings. It was his ninth start. He has the lowest OPS-against of any pitcher with at least nine playoff starts, at .445.

Even more remarkable, Wheeler left Monday’s game with a WHIP (walks and hits per innings pitched) of 0.70, the best mark in playoff history of any pitcher in any nine-start span, and, of course, the best of any pitcher in his first nine playoff starts.

He is proud of that stat.

“You want to keep guys off the bases as much as possible and come out of there feeling like you barely threw,” he said.

That’s what he’s paid to do.

» READ MORE: Phillies’ Nick Castellanos is ‘locked in’ at a historic playoff pace

“Getting the contract is great,” said Wheeler, who is in the fourth season of a five-year, $118 million deal. “Going out there and doing the job, doing it consistently, and doing it with a group of guys who are also doing it, it’s pretty cool.”

Since Game 3 of the NLDS at Atlanta, the money men have been doing their jobs in the biggest of ways and in the biggest of moments.

Maybe it was the sight of the Braves celebrating a win they didn’t deserve like they’d finally won a second World Series since 1995. Maye it was the postgame taunting in the clubhouse by Braves shortstop Orlando Arcia: “Attaboy, Harper!”

Attaboy, indeed. Attaboy, all of ‘em.

On Monday night, Harper ($27.5 million) homered in the first inning, his third homer in three games, and added an RBI single to give the Phillies a 4-0 lead seven outs into the contest. That gave him five hits in his last nine at-bats. He walked and scored in the fifth, which meant he’d reached base in eight of 12 plate appearances.

» READ MORE: Attaboy! Bryce Harper adds to his legend with two revenge homers, pushes Phillies to a 2-1 NLDS lead

Turner ($27.2 million) doubled in the third, making him 7-for-11 and 8-for-12 in plate appearances.

Wheeler ($24.5 million) gave up a leadoff single, retired 15 Diamondbacks in a row, gave up a hit and a homer, got the next three out, and was done after 81 pitches in six innings.

Realmuto ($23.8 million) drove in Harper with a single in the fifth, which made it 5-0 and meant that every Phillie had reached base.

Castellanos ($20 million) homered in the second inning, his fifth homer in the three games in question. That made him 6-for-8 with five homers, reaching base in seven of nine appearances.

And then, of course, there was lovable Schwarber ($20 million), who’d had one hit in his last 15 at-bats. He blasted the first pitch the Phillies saw in the NLCS 408 feet at 117.1 mph to right field.

Kimbrel ($10 million) locked down the save, his third of the playoffs. He also held the Braves in the late innings of Game 4, which spelled their exit.

It was dependable ol’ Nola ($16 million) who didn’t let the hangover linger. He shut down the Braves in Game 3, with 5⅔ innings and two runs.

He’ll have another chance to earn his money Tuesday night in Game 2 of the NLCS.

They all will.