Phillies Have No Excuse After Watching Dodgers Crush The Mets

The Phillies' offense struggled to put up runs on the Mets pitching. They scored just 12 combined runs in 4 games. 7 came in 1 game, with just 5 runs over the other 3 games. You might come away from that thinking the Mets pitching is pretty good. But before you draw that conclusion, go see what the Dodgers have done.

The Dodgers have played 4 games vs the Mets, just like the Phillies did. The difference is that the Dodgers have put up 30 runs in 4 games, compared to the Phillies, who put up 12. Take any 2 games from the NLCS, and the Dodgers scored at least 11 runs. Nearly more in any two-game span than the Phillies had their entire series.

The Mets lineup has also scored just 5 runs in these 4 games. Meanwhile, they put up 24 against the Phillies. We talked about how hot the Mets were, but when they ran into an actually good team, they crumbled. It is looking like the Mets were never that good, the Phillies just choked.

Coming into the Phillies series, the Mets bullpen was taxed, they were coming off a crazy travel schedule, and their rotation was all out of sorts after playing a doubleheader earlier in the week followed by 3 Wild Card games. The Phillies had every advantage. Against the Dodgers, meanwhile, they had multiple days off, could set up their rotation as they pleased, and had spent the last 5 days at home. Yet it is the Dodgers who made them look like pretenders and the Phillies who fell on their faces.

The Phillies didn't just run into a hot team. Don't give them that excuse. Clearly, the Dodgers were able to handle the Mets. The Dodgers also weren't impacted by the Bye Week. Neither were the Yankees or the Guardians. Those 3 teams all advanced, and it looks like they didn't miss a beat with that off week.

The Phillies simply failed. They choked, and not for the 1st time. In 2022, The Astros were the better team. The Phillies had a great run and ran into a buzzsaw. But the DBacks were not the better team than them, and neither were the Mets. Those were 2 average teams, that were able to expose the Phillies' flaws, before being exposed themselves in the next round.

If you have watched any of the NLCS you might have even heard the broadcasters talking about it. They literally said that they arn't getting the Dodgers to chase the pitches they got the Phillies to swing at. It turns out that if you just take balls, eventually, they will have to throw you strikes. The Dodgers have gotten pitches to hit because they don't swing at garbage. The Phillies, with a few exceptions, never did that.

We have seen them lose in the same way 2 years in a row now. There are too many guys with the same flaw in this lineup. It is not about swinging for the fences per se, but they need guys who won't go fishing for breaking balls at their shins.

Shohei Ohtani swings for the fences, his whiff rate and K rate are both below average. But he also doesn't swing at terrible pitches. Mookie Betts has a lot of power, but despite swinging hard, he doesn't strike out much and is actually in an elite class when it comes to making contact. You can be a power hitter, and not swing like some of the Phillies hitters do.

You aren't going to just find players like those 2. Shohei is the best player in the league, and Mookie Betts is probably top 5. But you can find someone who while they have pop, won't approach at-bats like the Phillies currently do. They desperately need a different kind of hitter. Somethin Jayson Stark talked about when he joined The Best Show ever earlier this week.

"They need somebody in that lineup who will make contact in a big spot and understand that's enough. Too many big swings in that lineup where only contact was needed. You watch the Mets play and you see how they take what the defense gives them in big moments in the postseason. Who's the Phillie who does that? I'm sure that they will be shopping for that kind of guy."

If there were any excuses to be bad for the Phillies, the Dodgers ruined all of them. This Mets team isn't special, they just took advantage of the Phillies' glaring weakness. The same way the Diamondbacks did. If that doesn't change, why should anyone expect different results?

That is not on the Manager, or even the hitting coach, it is on these players. They either need their players to change, or they need to shake things up with some new faces.

The Phillies just collapsed epically. Their bats went ice cold, and they let the hated Mets kick them out in 4 games. After 3 straight years of the bats blowing up in an important place, people want to shake things up. And the most obvious place to upgrade is in the outfield.

Much of the team is locked up. 1B and SS are not changing anytime soon. You could feasibly move Trea Turner somewhere else, like 2nd Base. But if that happened, it would just mean they are moving Stott to SS.

They have 1 more year of JT Realmuto and 2 more years of Castellanos. CF could change, Dombrowksi certainly did not make any commitments to Johan Rojas, but they might have that spot earmarked for Justin Crawford.

Left Field is the place to look at. Dombrowski might have said that the team likes Brandon Marsh, but that does not mean they will keep him there. He is a platoon player, who has not even been consistent in his half of the platoon.

Looking at the landscape of the Free Agent Market, Left Field is also the easiest place to upgrade. Jayson Stark joined The Best Show Ever this week and talked about some of the places the Phillies could go.

"You've got Anthony Santander, who's a switch hitter with power and is a good outfielder. You're watching Teoscar Hernandez with the Dodgers. He's strikeout-prone, but he's a he's a winning player. Tyler O'Neill is definitely a name to watch. He's hurt a lot, but right-handed hitter with big thump. I know they kick the tires on him at the deadline. Jurickson Profar is to me the profile of the kind of hitter they desperately need." 

Stark also mentioned to not completely rule Juan Soto out. It is not likely, but also not impossible. We talked about that in the below article. But for this list, we are going to keep it to names they have a decent chance at signing.

Related: Juan Soto Unlikely To Come To Phillies, But Dont Rule It Out

So how well do those 4 guys Jayson Stark mentioned fit with this team? Let's take a look at each of them.

Santander has 105 Hrs over the last 3 seasons. He hit 44 last season, with over 100 RBIs. The Phillies need some right-handed pop, they have needed it since they lost Rhys Hoskins. He can certainly provide that. His AVG is a bit low, but he is not a big swing-and-miss guy despite that. His whiff rate of 20% is better than 76% of the league. His K rate of 19.4% is better than 66% of the league. He might be a power guy with a low average, but he does put the ball in play.  

To this point, he has played in Right Field. But you could move him over to Left if needed. He might look too similar to the guys already on this team, but the actual numbers suggest a more careful approach than some of the current Phillies.

Teoscar Hernandez would fit right in with the current lineup. He is a big power guy, 116 Hrs over the past 4 seasons, with a lot of strikeouts, just under 400 over the past 2 seasons. So if you want something different, he is not your guy. Signing him would be doubling down on the current approach of this lineup, which we saw cost them vs the Mets. He is just as much of a swing-and-miss/chase guy as some of the hitters currently on this team.

But as we are seeing this year, he is a big-time playoff performer. He has helped carry the Dodgers while some of their big names put up smaller numbers than you would expect. His OPS was over 1.000 in the Padres series. But he is 0-14 in the NLCS. So you can see the hot and cold he provides. Maybe something the Phillies want to avoid given they already have other guys like that. That said, he will provide you with moments like this.

Tyler O'Neill will remind people of Kyle Schwarber, just from the right side. He hits HRs, he walks, and he strikes out. He hit 31 HRs this year in 113 games. That is some big thump from the right side. He is also a better fielder than Schwarber. O'Neill won two gold gloves in Left field earlier in his career. His overall numbers don't paint the picture of an elite left Fielder though. He has a great arm, but average range. But even if he doesn't win another Gold Glove, he would not be the liability Kyle Schwarber used to be out there. At worst, you are getting average. The Phillies won both their World Series with far worse fielders in Left.

There are some heavy splits there though. His OPS drops from 1.180 against Lefties, to .693 vs Righties. But he did hit 15 HRs vs righties. He is not unplayable vs righties the way Marsh is vs Lefties, but there is a large dropoff that takes him from being a great player on 1 side, to an average player on the other.

Like Jayson Stark said, he is a name they have looked into in the past. They tried to get him at the deadline, but nothing came to be. Now that he is a free agent, he might be the guy Dombrowski looks at. Will it fix the issues they had with not putting the ball in play? No. But he would basically provide what Rhys Hoskins used to provide for this team.

Jurickson Profar might be the guy who excites Phillies fans the most. He has okay pop, but more importantly, he makes contact. His Whiff Rate, K Rate, Chase Rate, and Walk Rate are all in the top 10% of the league. He would bring a different element to this Phillies lineup.

Jayson Stark talked about how the Phillies need a different kind of hitter.

"They need somebody in that lineup who will make contact in a big spot and understand that's enough. Too many big swings in that lineup where only contact was needed. You watch the Mets play and you see how they take what the defense gives them in big moments in the postseason. Who's the Philly who does that? I'm sure that they will be shopping for that kind of guy."

Profar is that different kind of hitter. Stark described exactly what Profar did for the Padres. He might also provide a shakeup to the culture of the team, that desperately needs a change. For me, this is the guy. The other 3 would be good options, but Profar feels like the exact kind of player they need to fix the problems that cost them in each of the past 3 seasons.