The Phillies’ young core has helped form MLB’s deepest roster. Just like Bryce Harper wanted.
The Phillies used to be top-heavy with a few stars, but if injuries or other struggles surfaced, they collapsed. The last two weeks have reinforced how far they have come since then.
On the final day of the 2021 season, Bryce Harper capped his successful MVP bid with his 100th walk, league-leading 42nd double, and a clearly stated challenge to everyone in the organization.
“We can’t just keep going out and buying and buying and buying [free agents],” he said then, as the Phillies missed the playoffs for the 10th year in a row and third in the Harper era. “We need homegrown talent. When you look at teams that have homegrown talent, those are the teams that have success.
“As a whole, we need our minor leagues to be better. We need guys to come up from the minor leagues and have success, not to have to go up and down. Guys that can play every single day.”
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Harper recalled that mission statement the other night, a few days after Bryson Stott had another two-hit game and Kody Clemens drove in four runs and Cristopher Sánchez went seven innings. He thought about his words in relation to Alec Bohm and Ranger Suárez, the Phillies’ best player and pitcher so far this season.
And Harper drew a straight line from each of them to a 31-13 record, the best mark in baseball entering play Thursday and tied for the second-best 44-game start in the franchise’s 142-season history.
Because even though the Phillies would keep reeling in free-agent fish — Kyle Schwarber, Nick Castellanos, and Trea Turner weren’t on the hook yet — the biggest difference between September 2021 and May 2024 isn’t the impact of owner John Middleton’s green but rather the ripening of green players who have helped form the deepest roster in the sport.
In 2021, the Phillies had the MVP (Harper), Cy Young runner-up (Zack Wheeler), and best catcher in baseball (J.T. Realmuto), along with a solid homegrown starter (Aaron Nola) and slugger (Rhys Hoskins). They were five of the top 50 players in the game. Any team would have taken them at the head of the roster.
But the Phillies were a Jenga tower. They were top-heavy, without the foundation of a productive farm system or functional infrastructure. And when they encountered injuries and other inevitable struggles of a 162-game season, well, the whole thing caved in on itself.
The last two weeks have reinforced how far they have come since then.
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Turner strained his left hamstring May 3 and expects to be sidelined for at least six weeks. Losing a player of his caliber would have crippled the Phillies three years ago. Now, they have multiple ways of replacing their star shortstop.
Initially, at least, Edmundo Sosa is filling in. If playing every day exposes his bat, as it has in the past, Stott can slide over to shortstop and Whit Merrifield, a two-time American League hits leader-turned-utility man, can take over at second base.
Schwarber recently missed three games with a stiff lower back. So the DH spot became a revolving door for Bohm, Harper, and Castellanos to get semi-breathers while manager Rob Thomson filled in the gaps with Merrifield and spare outfielder Cristian Pache.
The Phillies were 22-11 with Turner in the lineup; they’re 9-2 so far without him. They won Monday in New York without Turner, Realmuto, and Schwarber (though he did pinch-hit in the ninth). They beat the Mets again Tuesday without Turner, Realmuto, and Harper.
“We have so much flexibility right now,” Thomson said. “Our roster is really built well by our front office. Because we’ve got guys that can play just about anywhere on the diamond. We’ve got left-handed hitters; we’ve got right-handed hitters. We can mix and match. We can do a lot of different things. So it makes it really comfortable for me.”
Sure, but the roster is deeper not only because of opportunistic moves by president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski. It’s because of the maturation of young players into core pieces, precisely what Harper was calling for in 2021.
Let’s take them, and their development, one by one:
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Bohm: He went from Rookie of the Year runner-up in the short 2020 season to one of the worst players in the majors in 2021. His defense cratered early in 2022, muddling his place in the lineup. But he has morphed into a reliable third baseman and the cleanup-hitting protection for Harper.
Stott: A first-round pick in 2019 and rookie shortstop in the 2022 World Series, he plays a Gold Glove-caliber second base and comfortably hits anywhere in the lineup. With Turner, Realmuto, and Harper out Tuesday, Stott reached base four times from the No. 3 spot.
Brandon Marsh: He isn’t homegrown but might as well be after the Phillies adopted him from the Angels in a deadline trade in 2022. Eventually, he’s going to have to hit lefties. But he has been the Phillies’ sixth-best position player, according to wins above replacement, largely because of his defense in left field.
Johan Rojas: Although his offense remains below average, he provides energy out of the No. 9 spot and typically elite center-field defense.
Suárez and Sánchez: The highest-performing starting rotation in baseball includes Sánchez (3.43 ERA in eight starts) at the back end and is being led by Suárez, whose 1.37 ERA is the lowest ever by a Phillies pitcher nine starts into a season since earned runs became an official stat in 1912.
“The team was in a different kind of state [in 2021]. You could see that,” Harper said. “From GM to manager to what John wanted to do with his team. And then you draft and you see Stotter, Bohmer, Nola getting better, Rojas. Sánchy came from Tampa, but how old was he when he got here?
“Marsh, was kind of on the outs [with the Angels], and he gets here and brings his beard with him and the hair and everything. He’s a good player, and the fans love him. You always have those guys, too. He’s kind of that role player for us.
“Each guy, individually, you can really rely on them each night. I think that goes to show what our clubhouse kind of looks like.”
It’s reductive to say the Phillies are better now because they have more good players. Every World Series contender has depth.
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But as Bohm, Stott, Marsh, Suárez, and the others graduated from the minors and began to fill out the middle of the roster behind the high-priced stars, the Phillies moved into the realm of playoff contenders. Now, as fully formed major leaguers, they’re among the team’s best players.
Just like Harper wanted in 2021.
“Dombrowski’s done a really good job of really rounding out our roster and making sure we have those pieces and that depth in the minor leagues to come up at any point and help us win,” Harper said. “I said it a couple years ago: We have to be able to rely on our young guys and our minor league guys to develop and come up and help at any point. I think we’re doing a good job of that right now.”