We've seen these late season "way out of contention" spurts before. The prospects suddenly look very good, the manager looks like a genius for his decisions, the team wins and appears to be gelling and we get caught up in dreams of the following season.
I do not see more than just that; young talent being given consistent chances to play because the season is way past lost and the games have to be played. Are there some good signs? Sure, but we've seen those signs turn downward over a larger same size as the league figures hitters or pitchers out and the necessary adjustments do not happen. We will not know until next season what we truly have on hand.
There is still tons of work that needs to be done before this team is ready for the playoffs and beyond. Our pitching staff, beyond Nola and maybe 2 relievers, is largely unknown and/or not good enough. Pitching is a huge part of the puzzle - we need multiple prospects to take big steps forward and we also need to fortify them with much better vet talent acquisition and evaluation. The Morton and Buchholzs of the world are not the answer.
The positional player pool is definitely further along, but the Phillies need to show they can make the correct talent decisions and put together a ML lineup that plays a specific style of baseball including strong defense and consistently good offense. There needs to be clear evidence of a plan being executed that can succeed at the ML level.
The other major issue is the Phillies have to get serious about winning: spend real money for real talent and make it clear the rebuild is winding down and the era of ascension is here. They have dithered around the edges enough - time for Middleton to kick in and demand progress. If MacPhail and Klentak are not up to the task, find the people who are and get it done. It is what he promised all of us fans - he would be different than the Monty/Giles/Amaro/Gillick crew, time to prove it.