I'd like to see them compete with the Dodgers and Mets but not only is there only so much money, clearly, but also only so many players on a roster. And while I'm also all for making the team better, we spent so many years complaining that the Phillies were too slow to bring up prospects and too quick to pull the plug on them. The only way to upgrade and improve the depth significantly is to write off Painter, Kemp or even Crawford as contributors this year.
Not that any of those guys should be untouchable if the team isn't good enough. Neither is Garcia. But with Walker already an $18 million 6th starter/possible long man they can't really give another SP a guaranteed contract. They just gotta try and hit on another Turnbull or minor league deal type guy.
The Dodgers way would also be to ride Walker and some other fungible as hard as possible in the first half and save more of Painter (and Wheeler!) for October innings.
The hardest thing, IMO, is that the thin system also means they can't make a creative trade. The Dodgers, for instance, have both a pitcher (Bobby Miller whose MLB career we already ruined) and a AAA bat possibly available in trade, which probably wouldn't take too much (though I don't think we need a LHB 1B/LF). The Cubs are maybe going to trade either Hoerner or Shaw, but they would both cost.
It's pretty interesting DD really thought they had Bichette signed. Now that we know that, more reason to expect they might still try something ... or else to expect a lot more next year.
