The Phillies-Mets rivalry has been jolted back to life. What’s in store for the revival in 2025?

The half-filled champagne flutes sat on a card table in the visitors’ clubhouse at Citi Field in New York, remnants of a toast that seemed anticlimactic.

A few years earlier, sure, the Phillies absolutely celebrated clinching a playoff berth. They partied hard. But by last Sept. 20, after qualifying for the tournament for the third season in a row, the goalposts had moved.

The real rager? Save it for a bigger achievement.

Sure enough, the Phillies were back in that same room 19 days later, and wouldn’t you know it, the champagne flowed again. This time, though, the bacchanal happened in the home clubhouse after the Mets — the Mets! — booted the Phillies from the postseason.

» READ MORE: In Year 7 of the Bryce Harper era, the Phillies have one last chance to get it right with this core

And with that, a 63-year-old rivalry jolted back to life.

“The Mets played us well all year long, and that was a tough matchup for us,” Bryce Harper said. “But at the same time, we had to get it done and we didn’t get it done. That team just flat-out beat us.”

Said reliever Matt Strahm: “We ran into an absolute missile of a team, how hot they were.”

It marked the first time the National League East foes met in the postseason, but that isn’t surprising. The playoff field didn’t expand beyond one wild card until 2012.

The real stunner: Both teams have had a winning record in the same season only 10 times. When the Phillies won the World Series in 1980, the Mets finished 24 games out of first place. When the Mets went all the way six years later, the Phillies were 21½ games back.

Historically, they haven’t been heated adversaries separated by 112 miles of interstate as much as ships passing on opposite ends of the Jersey Turnpike.

The apex for Phillies-Mets came in 2007, when Jimmy Rollins made a 12-word boast — “I think we are the team to beat in the NL East” — and the Phillies came from 7½ games behind with 17 to play to chase down the swooning Mets for a division title.

And for two glorious years, in 2007 and ’08, it was the best rivalry in baseball, hotter than Cardinals-Cubs and Dodgers-Giants, with more dislike than even Yankees-Red Sox.

» READ MORE: Phillies’ response to the Mets signing Juan Soto: We’re still good

“I’ve gotten to know Jimmy really well over the years — couldn’t be a better guy ― but back then I truly hated him,” former Mets third baseman David Wright said last year. “That’s what made that rivalry so great. I loved that intensity, and I loved that feeling. I wanted to beat them so badly that it probably took me out of my game a little bit. But I loved every second of those games because they had that core, we had our core, and I just truly enjoyed it.”

There’s about to be a Phillies-Mets revival — and it isn’t only the ripple effect of a four-game divisional-round series last October. Both teams are owned by pot-committed billionaires. As such, both rosters are more star-filled than a planetarium. The Mets added Juan Soto to Francisco Lindor’s galaxy in the offseason; the Phillies are built around Harper, Trea Turner, and Zack Wheeler, a former Met, by the way.

Oh, and entering the weekend, they were separated by one game atop the NL East, with the 11-8 Phillies on the heels of the 12-7 Mets.

There are also rivalries within the rivalry. And with the Phillies set to walk back into Citi Field on Monday — 194 days after being vanquished — let’s dig into some of the subplots that will define this iteration of Phillies-Mets.

For 102 games in 2018, Harper and Soto played together in the Nationals outfield.

“It was really fun,” Soto said at the All-Star Game last year. “He took me under his wing and tried to tell me how things work in MLB.”

And Soto followed Harper almost step for step.

Harper made his major league debut at age 19 in 2012, six years before Soto came along as a 19-year-old. In 2019, Harper leveraged his relative youth as a 26-year-old free agent to sign for 13 years and $330 million, then the largest contract in North American pro sports history.

Six years later, Soto, at 26, more than doubled it.

» READ MORE: The Bryce Harper conversation: Why he’s open to an outfield return, his love of Pilates, playing past 40, and more

“Guys are getting what they’re worth,” Harper said in spring training of Soto’s 15-year, $765 million jaw-dropper.

In other words, good for Soto. And great for anyone with an interest in Phillies-Mets. Because who doesn’t love generational hitters — and ex-teammates, to boot — going head to head as the faces of their franchises?

Well, maybe not pitchers.

“Guys like [Soto] always stay in the NL East, I feel like,” said Aaron Nola, against whom Soto is 9-for-35 with three homers, 15 walks, and a 1.051 OPS. “He’s a good player. He’s a really good hitter. Our starting rotation’s faced him a good bit. He’s obviously going to be tough. The Mets are going to be good. We have to execute our pitches against him. That’s really all you can do.”

Lindor and Turner made their major league debuts 69 days apart in 2015. Since then, here’s how they ranked through Thursday among active players who spent at least 85% of their games at shortstop:

» READ MORE: It’s up to Kevin Long to bring about change with Phillies hitters. And it starts with Trea Turner.

Lindor played in the World Series with Cleveland in 2016; Turner won it with Washington in 2019. Lindor’s 10-year, $341 million contract is the largest ever for a shortstop; Turner’s 11-year, $300 million deal ranks fourth.

If Harper and Soto are Batman (or is it batsmen?) in the Phillies-Mets universe, Turner and Lindor are the primary sidekick. It could be argued, actually, that each is the catalyst of his respective offense.

Lindor struck a forever blow with the Game 4 grand slam at Citi Field that all but clinched last year’s division series. Turner hasn’t had that moment yet.

Alonso got to free agency last winter with 226 homers through his age-29 season. But as a below-average defender at first base, his best offer was a two-year, $54 million deal from the Mets, who know him best.

What does that mean for Schwarber?

Eligible for free agency after the season, Schwarber had 290 career homers through Thursday, including 137 since 2022, the third-highest total behind Aaron Judge (164) and Shohei Ohtani (138) and ahead of Alonso (125). Like Alonso, he’s among the most feared sluggers in the sport.

» READ MORE: Q&A: Kyle Schwarber on a possible extension and whether this Phillies core has an expiration date

But Schwarber turned 32 in March and is a designated hitter. If it was a bear market for Alonso last winter, isn’t it fair for Schwarber to expect the same?

“Good question,” Schwarber told Phillies Extra, The Inquirer’s baseball show, in spring training. “I feel like I live on a daily basis. But I’ve said this plenty of times: This is where I felt like I’ve truly gotten to be myself and be the player I’m able to be. I feel like there’s still a better version in the tank.”

Before signing with the Phillies in December 2019, Wheeler gave the Mets a chance to top the five-year, $118 million offer.

They passed.

It was a sliding doors moment in Phillies-Mets history.

Although Wheeler came to the majors with the Mets in 2013 as part of a collection of kid pitchers that included Matt Harvey, Jacob deGrom, Noah Syndergaard, and Steven Matz, it wasn’t until he got to the Phillies that he turned into a perennial Cy Young Award candidate.

» READ MORE: He’s baseball’s top big-game pitcher at the peak of his powers. Is a Cy Young Award next for Zack Wheeler?

Wheeler and then-Mets general manager Brodie Van Wagenen slung barbs through the media. Van Wagenen is long gone from the front office. But if the Mets needed a reminder of Wheeler’s dominance, he held them to one hit and four walks in seven innings of Game 1 last year.

The Mets have a deep rotation that lacks an ace. Imagine if Wheeler anchored a starting staff with Kodai Senga, Clay Holmes, David Peterson, Tylor Megill, Griffin Canning, and injured Sean Manaea. Wheeler doesn’t dwell on it.

“It’s fun playing against those guys always,” he said. “But at the same time, I’ve been over here for a while now. There’s no hard feelings. Everything has kind of changed over there, personnel-wise. It’s just baseball at this point.”

There were good reasons last year to believe in Bohm and Vientos as the third basemen of the future for the Phillies and Mets. Consider their production before the All-Star break:

But a bruised hand cooled Bohm in September, eventually leading to a Game 2 benching in the division series. Vientos starred in the playoffs, going 9-for-16 with two homers against the Phillies and hitting three homers against the Dodgers in the NL Championship Series.

» READ MORE: 'I'm going to be a different player for sure:' On Alec Bohm’s search for perspective amid early-season struggle.

So, as the Phillies discussed potential trades for Bohm in the offseason, the Mets banked on Vientos in the middle of the order behind Lindor and Soto, especially when it looked like they might not bring back Alonso.

Bohm and Vientos have gotten off to poor starts. Through Thursday, Bohm was batting .173 with a .411 OPS; Vientos was at .152 with a .511 OPS.

But both third basemen remain important pieces to their respective lineups, especially given the lack of offense the Phillies and Mets have gotten out of other positions, notably center field.

In November, Middleton offered a concise explanation for why the Phillies weren’t joining the bidding for Soto.

“At the end of the day,” the owner said, “I just think he likes New York.”

Middleton knew something else, too. Mets owner Steve Cohen runs his baseball team like he treats his art collection. If he wants something badly enough, there isn’t a price he won’t pay to get it.

And Cohen coveted Soto.

» READ MORE: Inspired by the Eagles’ Super Bowl win, John Middleton readies for another Phillies season with high expectations

Cohen is the wealthiest owner in baseball, and the Mets have the second-highest payroll — $328.5 million, as calculated for the luxury tax, according to Cot’s Baseball Contracts.

But Middleton’s pockets are plenty deep. He also runs the Phillies with the sensibility of a fan and the competitive drive of a former collegiate wrestler. With a projected payroll of $308.9 million, the Phillies are over the highest tax threshold, aptly dubbed within the industry as the “Steve Cohen tax.”

And Middleton says he’s willing to keep going.

“I look at the payroll — and I push [president of baseball operations] Dave [Dombrowski] to look at the payroll — as a meaningful guidepost," Middleton said in spring training. “But that’s kind of all it is.”

And a fully funded Phillies-Mets rivalry figures to only make it even more competitive.