How The Phillies Can Learn From the Dodgers Success

The Dodgers just won a World Series. After being labeled as chokers for spinning out in the playoffs 3 years in a row, they got over that hump and brought home some hardware by beating the Yankees. It goes to show just because you have the label of being a choker, it does not mean you can't change the narrative. They also created a rubric that the Phillies should follow.

The Phillies are now in a similar spot to the Dodgers. 3 straight years of disappointing finishes. It has left fans in doubt that this core can ever win anything. Apathy with the team has set in around the city.

The Dodgers just showed you that you can shed that label. You can go from perennial chokers to champions. They didn't blow it up and start over, they added to the core. They went out and had a busy offseason, added to the already great core, and it got them to the promised land.

After watching the Dodgers win, The Best Show Ever talked about what it could mean for the Phillies, and Tyrone Johnson had this to say.

"Get active this off-season. I'm not saying it's come back the same. But you're going to have Harper, you're going to have Turner, you're going to have Schwarber. You're going to have Wheeler. You're going to have Nola. You got a bunch of good players. So add another good player and go win. They won 95 games. When I think something had to do it, they try to talk themselves out of those players being good."

Now you aren't going to find another Shoehei Ohtani. He is a once-in-a-generation player. But it was not just Shoehei they added. Teoscar Hernandez and Tommy Edman were also huge additions for them, Hernandez coming over in the off-season and Edman being a deadline acquisition.

The Phillies can break this funk. Their core is still one of the best in the league. There is a reason they won 95 games. Yes, they choked in the Divisional round. But the Dodgers had done that two years in a row, and lost in the NLCS in 2021. But what they did was keep adding pieces, and eventually, they broke through.

They don't have to necessarily go out and add Juan Soto, who is the big ticket team this off-season. That would certainly be nice, but there are other options. Go add Jurickson Profar or Anthony Santander. get a big bullpen arm. Upgrade in Center field. Do something that makes you better. Add that piece that might just put you over the top.

The Phillies have an owner who is willing to spend money. Jayson Stark told us John Middleton will open up his checkbook if it means he gets a World Series. We are lucky in that way where the Owner truly cares about winning and will pay to get one.

They can make this already talented team better. Maybe with more talent, and hopefully better luck, things go better next year,

Winning is tough in sports. Only 1 team gets a trophy, but there is not just 1 good team every year. Luck always plays a part in it. Being hot at the right time plays a factor. But the more talent you have, the better the chance you will have players on a hot streak at the right time. Ohtani was 2 for 19 in the World Series. Guys like Freeman picked him up.

The point is, just because you have choked in the past does not mean you will choke again. The Dodgers just proved that. This Phillies team is still very talented, especially when it comes to starting pitching. But you can't just run it back like they did last year. Go out, and become even more talented. The Dodgers aren't going anywhere, and it is on the Phillies to catch up.

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.