Phillies spring training 2025: TV schedule, new rules, how to watch and stream

Spring training is finally here, with the Phillies kicking off their Grapefruit League schedule Saturday afternoon against the Detroit Tigers.

But the only way to watch the game is if you have tickets.

The game won’t air on NBC Sports Philadelphia, MLB Network, or anywhere else, but you can follow the Phillies’ 2025 spring training debut on 94.1 WIP beginning at 1:05 p.m. Saturday. Nabil Crismatt, a right-handed reliever invited to camp on a minor-league contract, will get the start for the Phillies.

NBC Sports Philadelphia’s first game will be Sunday’s matchup against the Baltimore Orioles at BayCare Ballpark at 1:05 p.m.

Much like the Phillies’ roster itself, the number of NBC Sports Philadelphia’s broadcasts will basically be the same as last year. The network will air 12 Phillies spring training games, on par with last season but down from 16 in 2019.

The Phillies do have some questions to figure out in spring training, such as who will be the leadoff hitter — Kyle Schwarber or Trea Turner, who is open to the move. There’s also prized prospect Andrew Painter, who won’t pitch in spring training games but is expected to make his major league debut sometime this summer.

Here’s everything you need to know to watch or stream Phillies spring training games:

NBC Sports Philadelphia will broadcast 12 games — five on the main channel and seven on NBC Sports Philadelphia+.

Returning for the 18th season of his second stint with the Phillies is play-by-play announcer Tom McCarthy, who will be joined in the booth by a familiar cast of analysts that includes Rubén Amaro Jr., Ben Davis, and John Kruk.

MLB Network will broadcast five games, while ESPN will air one — March 5 against the Tigers at 1:05 p.m.

Radio listeners can tune into 94.1 WIP to hear 11 weekend games. Play-by-play announcer Scott Franzke is back for his 20th season calling the Phillies. Joining him will be a rotation featuring veteran analyst Larry Anderson and Kevin Stocker, who once again will call a majority of Phillies radio games.

Joining McCarthy and company in the booth in Clearwater will be former Phillies pitcher Cole Hamels, who is giving broadcasting a try and calling a few spring training games for NBC Sports Philadelphia.

After officially retiring last year, Hamels is back in camp with the Phillies as a guest instructor, where he’s been tasked with helping the team’s pitchers. It’ll also give him the opportunity to get up to speed on today’s focus on analytics driven by heavy data crunching.

“The game of baseball, it’s constantly going and changing, and you just can’t disappear for too long otherwise you’ll never be able to understand where it’s gone,” Hamels told my colleague Scott Lauber earlier this month. “I’m still pretty fresh, with understanding the sort of old-school mentality, but then the transition of the new-school, the analytic part.”

NBC Sports Philadelphia will stream its games on the NBC Sports app, but a subscription to a cable service is required. Fans in the Philadelphia metro area can also get NBC Sports Philadelphia on fuboTV, YouTube TV, and Hulu + Live TV. The network is not available on Sling TV or DirecTV Stream.

One thing Phillies fans still can’t do is stream games without a cable subscription. NBCUniversal is in the process of putting NBC Sports Philadelphia and its three remaining regional sports networks in Boston, San Francisco, and northern California on Peacock, NBC’s subscription streaming service. But it’s unclear if that will happen prior to the start of the regular season or at all — NBC Universal chairman Mark Lazarus had previously said NBC Sports planned to put the regional sports networks on Peacock sometime in 2023. The company has yet to offer any updates, two years later.

For the third straight season, the Phillies will exclusively stream a handful of spring training games from BayCare Ballpark for free on the team’s website, called by pre- and postgame radio host Gregg Murphy. The team will also provide an audio-only feed featuring Murphy and Stocker for a few midweek road games that aren’t airing on WIP.

There are no major rule changes for spring training, but the league will initiate some minor tweaks. There also will be the debut of robot umpires, through the soonest they would arrive during the regular season would be 2026.

The Phillies are scheduled to open the 2025 season on Thursday, March 27, against the Washington Nationals at 3:05 p.m. at Nationals Park in Washington, D.C. The Phillies’ home opener at Citizens Bank Park is a few days later on Monday, March 31, against the Colorado Rockies at 3:05 p.m.

Tickets to the home opener are only available as part of a three-game pack sold by the Phillies. Otherwise, you’ll need to find tickets on the secondary market, where the cheapest seats are going for about $100 a ticket before fees.

The Phillies have had several memorable openers since they were defeated, 4-3, by Old Hoss Radbourn of the Providence Grays on May 1, 1883. Here are nine of the more memorable season openers in franchise history.