The Phillies are reeling as they face a tough stretch of games. Can their prospects really help?

It’s astonishing how quickly a season can go straight to hell in a handbasket. Less than a week ago, the Phillies had the best record in baseball, elite starting pitching, and a functional offense.

Now, Phillies bench bat Weston Wilson has pitched twice in six days. He pitches only when there is no hope of winning. He has pitched three innings and allowed no runs and no walks. It can be reasonably argued that, behind Ranger Suárez, Wilson has lately been their most effective pitcher.

Like the 2023 playoff Sixers, the 2023 playoff Phillies, the 2023 Eagles, and the 2023-24 Flyers, these Phillies stand on the brink of collapse.

» READ MORE: Murphy: The Phillies need a breath of fresh air in their lineup. Dave Dombrowski should start looking within.

They are the victim of injury and timing and suddenly bad pitching and hitting that either feasts or famines. No matter what happens this weekend in Pittsburgh, the next four weeks likely will tell the tale of the Phillies’ 2025 season, manager Rob Thomson’s future, whether Kyle Schwarber re-signs, and whether Dave Dombrowski’s gambles with John Middleton’s millions have the remotest chance of paying off in October.

Beginning Monday, they’ll face the Cubs, Blue Jays, Mets, Astros, Braves, and Padres, all extremely capable teams. They’ll have six days off, if you include the four-game mid-June road trip to woeful Miami.

As they enter a weekend series in Pittsburgh, things are dire.

Aaron Nola, who first stunk, was then hurt, and is hurt still, is hurt again; his ankle got a little better, but now his side pains him.

Zack Wheeler is on paternity leave a week after he probably lost the Cy Young Award again, giving up six runs to the Braves and Chris Sale, who stole it from him last season because of one bad start.

Jesús Luzardo, who was on track to be the National League’s starting pitcher for the All-Star Game, has seen his fastball flatten and seems to be tipping his pitches. He gave up 20 runs in his last two starts, in which he recorded a total of 17 outs.

» READ MORE: Can starters provide relief? Sizing up who could fill a need in the Phillies’ bullpen for the playoffs.

Closer José Alvarado will be suspended for 63 more games; he got suspended on May 18 for 80 all told after he tested positive for PEDs. He’s ineligible to pitch in the playoffs.

Alvarado’s understudies are leaky. Matt Strahm has a 5.06 ERA in his last 18 outings, while Jordan Romano, in his last five games, gave up seven hits and five walks in 4⅓ innings.

Catcher J.T. Realmuto’s effectiveness will be neutered after a foul-ball deflection Wednesday that contused the area whence his life-force springs. He missed Thursday’s blowout loss in Canada, among other things.

And now, first baseman Bryce Harper. He missed five games with a bruised elbow, played all three in Toronto to begin this road trip, but missed the first of what looks to be several more games battling a chronic wrist issue.

The Phillies on Saturday put Harper on the 10-day IL and called up Otto Kemp from triple A, but unless Kemp gets regular playing time — Alec Bohm has been playing first with Edmundo Sosa replacing him at third — Kemp, a late bloomer at 25, is unlikely to make a difference.

All of this is true as the Phillies enter a meaningless series against the Pirates — meaningless in that their likely victories will provide no cogent barometer of what sort of team they are a week into the third month of a make-or-break season.

What about the rest of the prospects?

Nah.

After just 11⅓ major league innings, Mick Abel is not a long-term answer. He’ll serve as a placeholder for Nola, but that’s it. After just 35 minor league games, only five of them at triple A, neither is top prospect Andrew Painter, whom the Phillies insist won’t be ready until mid-July. After 240 triple-A plate appearances, neither is powerless center fielder Justin Crawford.

Despite understandable exasperation, this isn’t the time for experimentation with kids. Not for a team with a one-year window, so determined by the term of contracted employment of Kyle Joseph Schwarber.

» READ MORE: Early Phillies trade deadline preview: Bullpen help will be costly. Here are some relievers to watch.

It’s up to the players already making a combined $296 million this season to pull out of this.

Can they?

With the exception of the latest edition of the Eagles, Philly has lately become the land of monumental collapse again.

The Sixers of the brief James Harden/Joel Embiid era (all of Embiid’s eras are brief) led the rival Celtics three games to two in the 2023 Eastern Conference semifinals and held a fourth-quarter lead late in Game 6 before being outscored, 136-91, in the final 53 minutes of the series.

In October 2023, the Phillies held a 3-2 lead in the NLCS against an underwhelming Diamondbacks team but lost the last two games at home.

Later in 2023, the Eagles, who’d been 10-1, lost five of six games and were blown out of the playoffs.

The Flyers were locked in on an unlikely playoff spot with 11 games to play in the 2023-24 season before they went 0-6-2 and fell out of contention.

Now, the Phillies are poised to slip into irrelevance before Father’s Day.

The $10 million left fielder, Kepler, is hitting .214, one percentage point worse than the left-handed platoon portion of center field, Brandon Marsh, and both of them botched plays in Toronto in the series the Phillies just lost.

So did Trea Turner, the $300 million slugger-turned-singles-hitter who, in April, briefly saw an uptick in the slovenly shortstop he has played since he arrived in 2023, having convinced the Phillies that, in his 30s, he’d be the same .870 OPS guy he’d been since his mid-20s (his OPS as a Phillie is .793. Yeah. Oops.).

» READ MORE: Hayes: Phillies pitchers again failed to protect Bryce Harper after he got injured by a pitch

The pitching is injured or absent or suspended or just lousy. The defense is worse. The offense doesn’t work unless Harper or Schwarber propels it.

The Phillies entered Pittsburgh having lost six of their last seven games.

No matter what happens in the Steel City, like Realmuto, the Phillies are going to have to find some brassies in order to save their season.