After dropping the series against the Miami Marlins, the Phillies head to the all-star break with a 48-41 record, putting them third in the NL East and half a game outside the final wild card spot. Some players have exceeded expectations and some players have played below expectations, so let’s assess each player at the halfway point, keeping it simple for some and expanding on others.
TREA TURNER
Trea Turner came into Philadelphia following a season where he won the silver slugger award. His dominance during the World Baseball Classic brought in expectations that were higher than originally anticipated, and while I strongly believe his 11 year stint in Philadelphia will be seen as a great one, his start has been underwhelming. He’s had some really good moments and some really bad moments. I wish he wouldn’t make as many defensive mistakes or swing at pitches way out of the zone. As one of the two 10+ year, $300M+ guys on the team, we should be able to lean on him and we haven’t been able to. The bright side of all of this is he’s handling the media scrutiny better than most people would. A lot of people will bypass that part, but it does matter. How many people have come here, been held accountable by the fans, and got “chased out” by how poorly they handled it? I’m taking any positive I can get and I truly feel like we’ll see a better Trea in the secind half.
ALEC BOHM
I’ve been impressed at his ability to hold his own playing both third & first base, but I do prefer watching him play third base. His .280 bating average is solid, but I was expecting more homers and power. We have power hitters (who aren’t power hitting right now) and we need guys that can hit for average, so a .280 average is okay, but needs to be higher. I really want the power to get there more than I want a higher average. Bohmer is easily one of my favorites, but he needs to get that power.
BRYSON STOTT
It’s no secret that he’s my favorite player. He’s having a fantastic sophomore season at the half and it has been a joy to watch. Starting the season with a 17 game hit streak, which broke the franchise record, is just the start. He’s another hit for average guy, and his .301 average at the half is beautiful. He’s turned into an everyday second baseman (looking at you, Topper) and his battles at the plate, while they don’t always become hits, are productive. I wish he’d walk more, but I’ll take the .301 average with lengthy plate battles any day of the week. When the Phillies signed Turner, they moved him to second base and it has been a smooth transition. His continued improvement is something to look forward to going into the second half and beyond.
JT REALMUTO
JT, while another one of my favorites, has had a pretty underwhelming season from an offensive standpoint. He’s batting .249 and only has 10 home runs. He is the highest paid catcher in MLB history, which means you need to do more than block pitches and throw guys out. I try to be as optimistic as possible when discussing the players, but out of all of the guys struggling at the half, Trea is the only one that concerns me less.
EDMUNDO SOSA
Sosa is an interesting one. With Rhys tearing his ACL, we were expecting to see him more than we thought going into spring training. While I don’t think he’s performed as expected, I wouldn’t say he’s been super underwhelming. He’s solid defensively and he’s had some crucial hits. He’s batting .375 to start July and .333 the last 15 days, so hopefully he’s on the rise already. He’s a player I enjoy watching a lot and i’m anxious to see how his second half goes because I think he’ll be impactful, especially down the stretch.
JOSH HARRISON
Josh Harrison has been frustrating the first half of the season. Thomson insists on having him face lefties over Stott, but he’s batting .189 against lefties. He has two home runs so far, both against righties. I’m getting 2022 Didi Gregorius vibes from him, which is suoer unfortunate because I liked Harrison going into the season and he’s a good guy. Does he finish the year in a Phils uniform? I’m not so confident in that.
DARICK HALL
I feel like you can’t really evaluate Hall’s season fairly. He had a fantastic spring training, followed by a rough start, followed by an injury. He is definitely struggling, but he hasn’t really had a chance to get comfortable at the major league level this season. I mean the guy has only had 38 at-bats this season, give him some time and consistency before really assessing him. He is one of the nicest guys you’ll ever meet, so to say I’m rooting for him to bounce back in the second half is a severe understatement.
ALL-STAR NICK CASTELLANOS
By far the MVP of the Phillies’ first half. I expected him to greatly improve from last year, but man he exceeded even my expectations. Like every batter, I wish he was hitting more homers, but I will happily take the .301, 13 home run half that got him an all-star appearance. His defense has improved significantly from last year, becoming a solid right fielder. He has been the brightest spot this season and I’m very excited to see how he finishes the season.
BRANDON MARSH
Marsh didn’t have as good of a half as I expected, especially after how good his start to the season was, but he still had a decent first half. He’s had some struggles in center field and was slumping pretty hard for a while, only batting .208 in May with one home run. His offense will be fine, it’s his mistakes on the field that I have a bigger issue with. Some of his mistakes in the field have been pretty costly. Him missing a ball against the Nationals, leading to a grand slam is the first example that comes to mind. I expect him to have a better second half, he needs to.
CRISTIAN PACHE
Pache is doing more than anyone expected of him. He was a top prospect (12th overall) and was traded to the Athletics in the Matt Olson deal before the start of the 2022 season. We acquired him from the Athletics on March 29 of this year for pitcher Billy Sullivan. This trade was originally seen as a defensive replacement at the end of games for Marsh due to his lack of offense, but he has exceeded expectations to say the least. He doesn’t play every day, but he’s batting .327 with a .957 OPS in his short time here. He’s made an impact, especially with his go-ahead two-run home run with two outs in the 9th inning on Friday against Miami. With the possibility of Bryce going to first and putting Schwarber at DH, it’ll be interesting to see what the Phillies do at the trade deadline regarding that spot.
KYLE SCHWARBER
Schwarber had a disappointing first half of the season. He has 22 home runs, but he’s batting .184 with an OBP of .313 and a -1.2 WAR. Hopefully Bryce is able to play first base soon after the break so he can be the DH and focus solely on hitting. We know when we signed him that he wasn’t going to be a gold glove outfielder and he wasn’t meant to play left field as much as he has been playing, but he has made some crucial mistakes in the field this year. The Phillies need to make a move that puts him at DH when Bryce can go to first base. I love Schwarber, and I think he’ll have a better second half, but it was an underwhelming half from him.
BRYCE HARPER
Can one even complain about a player that came back from Tommy John surgery two months ahead of schedule? We’re supposed to be anticipating his return at this time, not evaluating his first half of the season. He isn’t hitting home runs like he typically would, but he is batting .290 with a .8 WAR. My only complaint is how he’s been hitting against lefty pitchers. His .222 average is about .035 worse than his normal average against lefties. I’m not expecting a huge difference in the second half, but I’d be crazy to say he won’t improve. The surgery is to blame for the lack of power, so that will definitely come back and I’m not concerned.
GARRETT STUBBS
Stubbs has only played 19 games and they’re never back-to-back appearances, so the lack of consistency could be contributing to his .234 batting average. He still has a positive WAR at .1, but it’s less than his 1.1 from last year. The vibes guy will be just fine, he just doesn’t play much because JT plays as much as he can.
DYLAN COVEY
The beginning of his Phillies career was abysmal, but his last 7.1 innings have only led to two earned runs and a .200 opponent batting average. He’s been serviceable of late.
JEFF HOFFMAN
Hoffman had a rough couple games in June, but other than those, he has been solid. His 1.08 WHIP is the lowest of his career.
ALL-STAR CRAIG KIMBREL
Our second all-star! Kimbrel, while I originally thought the payment was high, was my pick for sneaky good signing before spring training started and that has become a huge understatement. While he didn’t start the year the best, he was rewarded with reliever of the month for June due to his dominance during the month. He posted a .133 era during the month of June and he has continued it into early July. With the injuries to Alvarado and Dominguez, he has really helped the bullpen stay a bright spot for this team. I am very excited to see what he does in the second half.
YUNIOR MARTE
Yunior had a good spring training with a 2.61 ERA and 1.06 WHIP, and I was hopeful that it would translate to the regular season, but it didn’t. He was sent down to Lehigh Valley to work on his issues and eventually came back up a decent pitcher. He’s been improving, so hopefully he continues that in the second half.
AARON NOLA
He’s been very underwhelming and hasn’t been the ace we expect, or need, him to be. Is it the long postseason? Maybe, but I doubt it. He’s notorious for giving up the long ball and having weird 4th inning collapses, so nothing is really new, it’s just happening more. The pitch clock cannot be an excuse anymore, nor do I think that plays a part.
I was asked on Twitter:
Should the Phillies pursue contract negotiations with him as the 3rd starter he’s shown himself to be?
I definitely wouldn’t be opposed to bringing him back, but he’ll get a better offer elsewhere. I would not offer him as much as he’s asking and I bet he’ll get close to that somewhere else in the offseason.
Can he be an ace?
I don’t think so. We throw that word out to players way too often, but I think he can be a solid #2 again.
He’s in a contract year and I was expecting more, especially with how he did down the stretch. He had bad World Series and NLCS appearances, but he did great in the NLDS, NLWC, and helped get us to the postseason to begin with. He needs to be better in the second half if he wants even half of the big contract he’s asking for.
CRISTOPHER SANCHEZ
If someone were to ask me “why don’t you look at wins or losses for a pitcher?” I point them right to this guy. Sanchez has been the perfect “bullpen game” pitcher since he’s come back up from Lehigh Valley. His worst outing was against the struggling Mets in a 4-2 loss. In the other three appearances, he’s allowed two runs in two of the games (WSH (L) & OAK (W)) and one run in the other (TB(W)). While the Phillies need to get another starter, I like where Sanchez looks to be headed.
GREGORY SOTO
Trading for Soto made daycare fans upset, but this was an absolute win of a trade by Dombrowski. He’s had a couple outings where he’s struggled, but he has overall been a very good addition to the team. With Alvarado and Seranthony being injured to start the second half, we’re most likely going to lean on him to close out games. Yet another player I’m excited to see in the second half.
MATT STRAHM
Strahm was incredible to start the season and carried the team when Ranger was hurt. He’s been a huge help, but I’m glad to see his workload decrease. He has only pitched over 100 innings once in his career and he’s at 55.1 currently.
RANGER SUAREZ
Ranger’s first few games after injury were not good, then he started to look like Ranger, then hasn’t looked good the last couple starts. It’s been up and down for him to start the year, but I’m hoping he’ll turn it around. He needs to turn it around if this team wants to make it back into the postseason.
TAIJUAN WALKER
Another guy that didn’t get going until a little after the season started, but I have really enjoyed Taijuan Walker in a Phillies uniform. Speaking only about this first half, Taijuan has a case to be seen as the #1 or #2 pitcher. As a whole is a different story, but he has a case this first half of the 2023 season specifically. All I hear from Mets fans is “they haven’t experienced second half Taijuan Walker yet,” so we’ll see if it’s truly something that happens in the second half or just the Mets that makes everyone collapse in the second half.
ZACK WHEELER
Wheeler isn’t having the season I expected him to have and he really hasn’t been the same since the world series disasters. His ERA is ridiculously high at 4.05, but his WHIP is 1.19 and his WAR is 1.6. He’s still a great pitcher obviously, but his numbers are half of what his 2022 season was. Like Nola, the pitch clock can’t be used as an excuse at this point in the season but I do think it’s contributing to his issues little. When batters get on base is when he really struggles, which is when a pitcher needs the most time to gather themselves. It’s certainly not excusable, but it’s just something I’ve seen people mention and see some validity to. His velocity is down 2MPH, so age could also be contributing to it.
JOSE ALVARADO
If I had to describe this guy in one word: unreal. He’s on the IL for the second time this season at the moment, but he was lights out the first half and has been lights out ever since he came back up from Lehigh Valley. I’m anxious for his return and am overly excited to see his second half. He’s consistent and his 1.38 ERA with 1.15 WHIP show that.
SERANTHONY DOMINGUEZ
His 4.33 ERA and 1.56 WHIP aren’t ideal. He’s had his struggles this year and is currently on the IL, but I anticipate a bigger second half for him as we make the postseason push. I expected slightly better numbers from him after such a good year last year, but these aren’t bad. It also takes a bit for relief pitchers to lower their ERA if they have one bad outing.
I try to have positive outlooks on players, but I really do believe we’ll see better performances from a lot of the guys in the second half. The last series of the half was frustrating, but that doesn’t change my excitement for the second half. I’m craving another Red October and I can’t wait to go back.
