Became only the 4th team to hit 5 home runs in a World Series game en route to 7-0 victory. 2-1 series lead, undefeated at home in the postseason thus far. All the good vibes and momentum a team could possibly ask for.

Less than 24 hours later, they’re no-hit. The 2nd team in the history of the sport to have zero hits in a World Series game.

I’ll always love this team, but I fear those 2 games and that World Series will be what defines them.

At least they are putting it to good use.

Am I the only one who thinks it’s essential that we re-sign Arraez?

The biggest problem this team has had this and the past few seasons has been inconsistent offense, especially in the playoffs (in addition to the bad defense and bullpen issues).

Arraez is a 3x batting champion and an absolute hitting machine. He has also shown this year that he’s solid defensively playing 2nd. I know his offensive numbers dropped a bit when he moved to Philly but it’s a relatively small sample size.

Even with his lower numbers, he was still one of the best contact hitters for the Phillies, brought a ton of energy/good vibes to the team and was simply fun as hell to watch. I’m sure with a full year in Philly his BA would rise back up to .320+ dominance. Another benefit with him is he often works large counts and tires pitchers out since he rarely strikes out.

He is exactly what this team needs and if there’s one thing I really hope management does this offseason is re-sign him.

Dombo: I hope you’re reading this- I believe in you.

Not sure if anyone here has posted about this yet but I thought it was very interesting. Yes, I know WAR isn't a perfect stat but I think it's pretty indicative of what the flaws of this Phillies team were.

WAR Leaders:

1. Cristopher Sanchez - 8.1 WAR (best pitcher, 2nd overall behind PCA)

2. Jesus Luzardo - 6.5 WAR (3rd best pitcher)

3. Zack Wheeler - 6.0 WAR (6th best pitcher)

4. Jhoan Duran - 3.4 WAR (2nd best relief pitcher behind Varland)

5. Aaron Nola - 3.1 WAR (33rd best pitcher, tied with Mason Miller)

6. Bryce Harper - 3.1 WAR (63rd best hitter)

7. Kyle Schwarber - 2.6 WAR (80th best hitter)

8. Bryson Stott - 1.8 WAR (best homegrown Phillies position player)

9. Tim Mayza - 1.5 WAR (our 2nd best reliever)

10. Derek Hill - 1.4 WAR (a platoon trade acquisition)

11. Andrew Painter - 1.3 WAR

12. Jonathan Bowlan - 1.3 WAR

13. Edmundo Sosa - 1.0 WAR

What about our big offseason/trade deadline acquisitions?

Luis Arraez: -0.1 WAR (w/ Phillies)

Brooks Raley: -0.3 WAR (w/ Phillies)

Caleb Killian: -0.5 WAR (w/ Phillies)

Adolis Garcia: -0.8 WAR

As you can see, we were completely carried by our starting pitching and an elite closer. What killed us was a terrible offense and bullpen, where our "elite" hitter was ranked 63rd among hitters and our 2nd best reliever was everyday Mayza. Our offseason/trade acquisitions all didn't perform (if anything they hurt the team given their negative WAR's) except for Derek Hill and we had no contributing homegrown talent besides Stott/Nola/Painter. Just super frustrating overall and I hope that if anything this post shows that Harper/Schwarber don't get a pass either (I don't even want to address the WAR's of Turner and JT).

So there’s that.

Starting with the 2025-26 off-season:

Eats $20M of Castellanos salary to finally get rid of him

Trades Matt Strahm for Johnathan Bowlan (Strahm had a 7.32 ERA this year)

Has a deal in place with Bo Bichette, one of the premier free agents available, gets undercut at the last second by the Mets who sign him to a ludicrous overpay.

Signs Brad Keller, one of the best relievers available.

Signs Adolis Garcia to replace Castellanos, a Gold Glove RF with some pop

Gives our top 2 prospects their shot in the majors

These were all good moves.

2026 In-season

Eats $15 million or whatever it was of Taijuan Walker's contract to finally get rid of him

Acquires Phillies legend Derek Hill for spare change

Trades for Luiz Arraez, the exact type of hitter our lineup needed

Trades for Brooks Raley, a lefty with stellar numbers to that point filling a huge need in the bullpen

Picks up Caleb Kilian in the Arraez trade, adding bullpen depth

Makes all these trades without giving away any top prospects

These were all good moves

Let's talk about some of his other trade history:

Jesus Luzardo for a prospect that's still nowhere near the majors

Johan Duran for a surplus pitching prospect who's now hurt

Brandon Marsh for Logan O'Hoppe, who's numbers were even worse than Realmuto this year and looks like a bust

This subs favorite overrated CF Harrison Bader for pocket lint

Edmundo Sosa for JoJo Romero, pretty fair trade for both sides but one that brought us a piece that's had a ton of huge moments

There isn't a single GM in the history of professional sports that's hit on 100% of their moves so miss me with the examples of acquisitions that didn't pan out. I'm aware of Whit Merrifield being utter dogshit in a Phillies uniform. Overall Dombrowski has done an outstanding of using trades to acquire key pieces of the team, and giving away next to nothing in the process.

What cost the team this year wasn't Dombrowski, it wasn't Trea Turner or an aging core, it was PITCHING INJURIES AND REGRESSION and that should be painfully obvious. Without the Luzardo injury, we probably win at least 1-2 more games down the stretch and have our rotation lined up for the WC series. With a couple more reliable bullpen arms, we don't need to ask Johan Duran to get 6 outs in Game 1. Hell with a better bullpen they would've been neck and neck with the Braves for the division title. And it's almost impossible to build to good bullpen when your primary trade deadline acquisition (Raley) and one of your key setup guys (Kerkering) inexplicably become incapable of getting anyone out come August, and THEN layer in injuries to Bowlan and Killian. We were matching up with the Braves in the WC series with a hodge podge pitching staff, that turned our biggest strength (SP) into a liability.

Dombrowski, frankly, had in my opinion his strongest year as a GM this past calendar year. There's no way to foresee injuries, or guys with proven track records inexplicably falling off a cliff. All the big moves he made this year I liked and agreed with at the time, and his most under the radar one (Hill) might've been the best of all.

Bring on the down votes!

Imagine if Garrett kept quiet & didn’t give the DBags bulletin board material like Arcia did the series prior.

Around the League

CWS 3 @ CLE 0 - Final

ATL 3 @ LAD 5 - Final

NYY 0 @ TB 1 - Final

SD 2 @ MIL 3 - Top 9, 0 Outs

^{Last Updated: 10/03/2026 11:56:25 PM EDT}

1. Selling everyone of Otto Kemp as the RH OF bat last offseason

2. Selling everyone on Crawford being a big plus to the lineup without any insurance if it didnt work

3. Sighing Brad Keller, (who only had one good year of record) as the only leverage arm going into the season

4. Not realizing the kerkering needed to be moved after the way 2025 ended and he was mentally cooked here. Also just expecting Alvarado to go back to being a stud even though we have seen a sharp decline for 2 years

5. Giving JT a third year and not atleast having any viable backup catcher

6. Just rolling the dice that Painter and Nola would be fine in the back end of the rotation, even though both struggled in 2025 and you made zero plans or effort to protect yourself if it didn't work out

7. Most would agree it was probably time for Topper to go. But they did it for on believing they were going to get Cora. instead they get stuck with Mattingly who was god awful and 100% worst.

8. The deadline was dreadful. Arraez was a good pickup except the way they moved the infield around it made no sense. Batting him 4th in the end didn't work. They also traded for the 4th best relief pitcher in the Mets bullpen and a guy with a 4+ ERA with the Giants who had a bottom bullpen in baseball. They also didn't get another starting pitcher that could have helped them in September.

9. The entire way they handled the last week of the season and the pitching in the playoffs was a massive joke.