Philadelphia Phillies pitchers and catchers reported to Clearwater, Florida for spring training Feb.16, with all position players reporting to spring training Feb. 21, baseball is well on its way back.
The 2023 season will be one with high expectations for Philadelphia. The Phillies are coming off of a 2022 season that saw them make a Cinderella run to the World Series, only to have the clock strike midnight in six games, after a memorable 450-foot home run by Yordan Alvarez that put the Houston Astros in front for good.
Following their loss in the Fall Classic, the Phillies decided that their championship window was now wide open and signed one of the biggest free agents of the offseason in shortstop Trea Turner.
In his only full season with the Los Angeles Dodgers, the two-time National League (NL) All Star hit .298, tallied 100 RBIs and finished with a 4.5 WAR. Those numbers earned the former Dodger and Washington Nationals shortstop a monster 11-year, $300 million contract.
The addition of Turner adds another quality bat to a lineup that has plenty of them already in Bryce Harper, Rhys Hoskins, Kyle Schwarber, Nick Castellanos, J.T Realmuto and Alec Bohm.
Turner is also an average fielder, finishing with a -1 defensive runs saved (DRS) in 2022. The only Phillies players who had a better DRS than Turner last season were Realmuto, Josh Harrison, Edmundo Sosa and Hoskins.
The Phillies were once again a poor defensive side in 2022, finishing 25th in team DRS. For reference, Philadelphia was the only playoff team outside the top 20 in team DRS, and only one of two outside the top half of the league in the statistics.
The Phillies were able to mask their fielding issues with their powerful bats, as well as quality pitching at the top end of their starting rotation.
Aaron Nola and Zach Wheeler are the stars of the rotation. The two starters held a 3.25 and 2.82 Earned Run Average (ERA) respectively in 2022. Nola struck out 235 hitters, which was good for third in the National League.
The two members of the 2022 Phillies rotation that finished with an ERA higher than 4.00, Zach Eflin and Kyle Gibson, both departed from the club in the offseason.
They brought in Tijuan Walker from the New York Mets as a replacement. In 2022, Walker finished with a 3.49 ERA and 132 strikeouts. Walker was a solid member of the Mets rotation for the last two years, and should be a quality addition to the Philadelphia rotation.
The Phillies also replenished the losses of Noah Syndergaard and David Robertson in their bullpen with the additions of relief pitchers such as Craig Kimbrel and Matthew Strahm.
The expectations and optimism surrounding the 2023 Philadelphia Phillies are understandably high following their run last fall, but it must be remembered that both the Atlanta Braves and Mets won 101 games last season.
Both teams should be able to win 95 or more games again, and it will be tough for the Phillies to keep up with them.
With that being said, the Phillies finally broke through the playoff wall that had stood in front of them for 11 years, and should be in the playoff mix again all the way to the end in 2023.
