The Philadelphia Phillies secured a ticket to the NLDS by securing the second seed and a bye. They didn’t have to wait long to find out who they’d be facing, as the Los Angeles Dodgers comfortably defeated the Cincinnati Reds in the National League Wild Card round.
With the Dodgers, baseball’s top club from a year ago, visiting Philadelphia for the NLDS, there will undoubtedly be plenty of fears and worry before the game begins.
One of the worries is that the lineup is nearly identical to what it was in 2024, when the Phillies suffered a heartbreaking loss to the New York Mets. However, Trea Turner believes that those fears are overstated, as reported by Matt Gelb of The Athletic, and that the NL batting champion ignored them coming into the NLDS.
“You hear people say, ‘it’s the same lineup. It’s the same lineup.'” Turner said. “Our lineup was always good enough to win the World Series. It’s always been good enough. We just haven’t produced. You know what I mean?”
While this Phillies lineup is essentially identical to the one from 2024, it has a significantly different attitude and vibe than it had last year. Turner is an excellent example, since he hit.304 for the season, the highest average among all eligible National League hitters.
Kyle Schwarber is hitting the ball better than he ever has, with 56 home runs this season.
Despite having a bad year, Bryce Harper is one of the best hitters in playoff history, so there’s no reason to be concerned about him.
The rest of the lineup is where most of the concerns lay, but even so, this edition is a significant improvement over 2024. Bryson Stott, Alec Bohm, and Brandon Marsh all enter the playoffs on a high note, whereas in 2024 they struggled so severely that Bohm was benched.
J.T. Realmuto has shown signs of being a great hitter this season, while Harrison Bader has dominated center field since the trade deadline.
And in right field, Nick Castellanos and Max Kepler have established a formidable platoon, with both expected to start for the Phillies this playoffs.
Their bench options are also good, with Otto Kemp, Weston Wilson, Edmundo Sosa, and Rafael Marchan improving on last year’s backups.
Overall, this postseason roster is better than last year’s, and more importantly, they aren’t as cold as they were in October 2024. This club entered October on fire, and they’re more than capable of defeating any team in the playoffs.
There will always be supporters who are anxious about the Phillies’ lineup. They had the tools to be World Series champions in 2024, but they couldn’t pull it off when it counted the most.
The 2024 lineup was good enough for the World Series. Aside from the improvements in center and right field this year, all of the players are performing better than they did the previous year.
Fans of the Philadelphia Phillies should be confidence in the roster heading into the NLDS, as this team has demonstrated the ability to be one of the best in baseball all year, particularly in the past month.