Captain, The title hopes would have probably been gone even with Turner and Wheeler still playing. Face it – as a team, the Phils can’t hit good pitching, and too many of the Phils top players just don’t come through in the clutch. Even though he has had the best year in his career, Schwarber is still #5 in all of baseball for runners left on base.
What’s more, every one of the Phils pitchers can be and has been hit this season. That includes Wheeler, Nola, and Duran. So, the Phils’ pitching is not as tight as it needs to be to win a world championship.
Thompson has also chosen a terrible time to create team unrest by not playing Castellanos full time. Castellanos carried the team offensively for the first half of the season, and doesn’t deserve to be treated the way he has been the past few weeks, especially since he’s still under contract for 2026. He speaks his mind, and that has probably rubbed Thompson and the Phils’ front office the wrong way.
Part of benching Castellanos may have to do with the Phils need to shed salary this offseason in an attempt to resign Schwarber. Castellanos may already have one foot out the door, and $20 million, minus the amount of money the Phils will have to send to another team to trade Castellanos, could be put toward Schwarber’s future offer.
Suarez is gone, and Realmuto may be gone as well. So, it would appear to the uninformed that the Phils will have money to burn this offseason, and signing Schwarber should be easy for the Phils to do, regardless of how much he costs.
The Phils are probably already counting on Suarez leaving, but will try to resign Realmuto. However, Realmuto was the pioneer for better catchers salaries, and with his second half performance, it’s doubtful he’ll give the Phils the hometown discount they expect. Realmuto is making $23 million this year and will probably be looking for a $100 million 4-year contract at minimum. He’ll easily get that from another team if the Phils don’t pony up. Suarez is only making $8.8 million this year, but he’ll command a $20 – $25 million a year, multi-year contract from another team as well.
Even if Wheeler doesn’t play in 2026, his salary will still count against the Phils’ payroll and luxury tax issues. So, at most, the Phils will gain $20 + $8.8 + $23+ million, or roughly $52 million if Castellanos is traded without a money requirement, and if Suarez and Realmuto leave.
Unfortunately, guys like Duran, Bader, and most of the Phils’ current starters will be expecting sizeable salary increases in 2026. What’s more, additional outfield help and a replacement for Realmuto won’t come cheap, nor will resigning Robertson who is currently making a pro-rated $16 million salary..
So, will the Phils be able to afford Schwarber after this season? Estimates call for him signing his next contract for as little as $100 million over 4 years to $300 million over 7 years. If the past is prologue, the Phils will be reluctant to extend him for more than 3 years because of his age, inability to play defense, and history of inconsistency, and unwilling to match the offers of big market teams that miss out on the world series this year, but have money to burn and see Schwarber as an upgrade at DH. So, regardless of what you read online or in the papers, the Phils extending Schwarber may be more difficult and unlikely than people realize.
Finally, Dave Roberts criticized MLBs playoff structure last season because it gave the top 2 division winners in each league a first-round bye in the playoffs. Currently, that would be the Brewers and Phils in the NL, and Blue Jays and Tigers in the AL. Specifically, Roberts felt the bye was a disadvantage to teams because they had the potential to lose their momentum and competitive edge during the bye week.
If Roberts is correct, the top teams I’ve mentioned will start the playoffs at a disadvantage. This makes one wonder if a few of the more savvy teams in baseball have been playing well enough to win their division or a wild card this year, but not playing well enough to have the best or second best overall record in their league. Managers can easily control games to position strong teams favorably for the playoffs. So, it will be interesting to see how teams like the Dodgers and Astros do in the playoffs, even though they didn’t finish the season with the best records in their leagues.
