Phillies 2026 News and Discussion

[Philsmania]

IT's not likely to be resolved quickly.

If his mind isn't on baseball, he needs to take off. For the his own good and for the team.

[andyb]

Big moves today. Reyes up, Kemp optioned. And on the negative side, Seth Johnson up for Duran who is headed for the IL. I guess we'll find out if Kellar can close though it is probably going to be a committee.

Reyes gets Chris Sale right off the bat.

4/18/26 : Felix Reyes gets the call!

Pedro Leon got released to create the 40-man spot. Possible he'll get resigned though I guess the Phillies did add another CF to AAA last week.

[VoteForKalas]

Wow, go get them, kid

[andyb]

Matt is on rapid response this afternoon. Reyes seems to have a good hit tool and plus power - but he swings at literally everything.

The Exciting Paradox of Felix Reyes

[LegoDoom]

Reyes gets Chris Sale right off the bat.

Not a problem

[zambonir]

One more turn

The Phillies will use an opener Wednesday at Wrigley Field. Taijuan Walker will still pitch in that game. But he will not start.

— Matt Gelb ( @mattgelb.bsky.social ) April 19, 2026 at 4:15 PM

[kmc1019]

Out of denying bad news, there will be no discussion of Wheeler's line at AA today.

[Philsmania]

Out of denying bad news, there will be no discussion of Wheeler's line at AA today.

No, it does not look like he will be the cavalry coming over the hill.

[zambonir]

He can't hit anyway

[andyb]

I guess we have entered the managerial hot seat watch. I would not pull the trigger now. Another two weeks of this and I might think about it. Mattingly seems the obvious in-house choice though not sure that he is the voice these players need.

The Mets, Phillies and Astros have deeper problems than their managers. That...

[zambonir]

Yeah I think it's a little early. But also the question is, if not Mattingly (who as Rosenthal notes might also be an awkward choice given the GM) is Wathan a fresh voice? I guess we could have said the same thing about Thomson in '22, and yet he was.

Desperate front offices pull the trigger early and to deflect blame from themselves, and while there's plenty of blame being pointed at DD, he's not desperate.

Of course they could also sacrifice Long, though that never seems to work either.

Easier said than done but given what the advanced stats say about the pitching, gotta ride it out a little with the offense. Maybe focus on fixing the defense (or fixing the mental approach that leads to sloppy defense).

[flyers19rw]

This type of play by this club spans a couple of seasons. Some of the faces have changed but the play persists. It was known over the winter that some changes needed to be made in order to alter the club’s play. So far there haven’t been any positive results. Nothing was done in ST to show a different strategy leaving us with SOSO.
Maybe the whole isn’t equal to the sum of its parts? If that is true, then the parts need to be changed. Getting a new manager or coach without altering strategies of play is just rearranging the seating chart. It really looks like a couple of major changes need to be made. It looks like Middleton, Dombrowski and Mattingly have their work cut out for them. It’s not going to be easy.

[Philsmania]

Wathan managed the Pigs through 2017 (after having worked his way up the Phillies' system from Williamsport on up and enjoyed some success) and was a candidate for the Phillies job after that season which ultimately went to Kapler. His consolation prize has been being the Phillies third base coach ever since. He hasn't managed in nine years, though and would be a rookie ML manager. How would the veteran players respond to that? Having Mattingly--an experienced ML managerial hand--behind him as bench coach might help with the optics but it's still a fair question.

Regardless, I don't see them making a move until around 25% of the season passes. The 25% mark comes after the May 8-10 weekend series at CBP against the Rockies which concludes a ten game stretch at Miami followed by three against the erstwhile Philadelphia Athletics and three against the Rockies so, by then, we can squint and see the Phillies possibly having some wind behind their backs at that point. Teams generally don't fire managers on the road...that's considered low.

[zambonir]

I think a fresher, younger - and Wathan's only young compared to Mattingly (and Thomson and Dickerson too) - voice might matter more than MLB experience. And I doubt they'd bring in an outside hire. I suppose Contreras would have to be an option too.

But I agree, not sure it would even happen in mid-May. It took until early June in '22. Though that season started better and only got bad in May.

[andyb]

The younger internal candidate is probably Anthony Contreras at Lehigh Valley. I think he made some future MLB managerial prospect lists after they got him from the Padres system.

[Austinfan]

Something something age curves . . .
I think they'll play better, but hoping for improvement on a team with mostly over 30 players is fool's gold.
Though you really have to wonder when all the young players, Bohm, Stott, Marchan, flatline or regress.

Crawford should leadoff. At least salvage something from this seaon.
But with those contracts, don't even think they can blow it up.

[zambonir]

They're certainly not gonna white-flag it early. Gonna be a sad little All-Star week at this point, though I'm sure they'll have a few players and a HR Derby participant.

And only picking 36th at a draft Phillies fans can attend in person.

https://www.mlb.com/phillies/news/mlb-phillies-2026-all-star-week-schedule

[Philsmania]

.
Though you really have to wonder when all the young players, Bohm, Stott, Marchan, flatline or regress.

Crawford should leadoff. At least salvage something from this seaon.
But with those contracts, don't even think they can blow it up.

The failure to fully develop position players into good everyday ML regulars--or even valuable bench guys--is a long-running problem, going back to when the last great core--Burrell, Rollins, Utley and Howard, et al.--graduated. Since then, with the exception of Hoskins (and to a lesser extent Galvis and Cesar Hernandez), every Phillies hitting position-playing prospect who made it to the Show has fizzled when they got there--Brown, Asche, Ruf, Kingery, JP Crawford seemed to be unraveling here (we possibly did him a favor shipping him out), Quinn, Altherr, Haseley, Moniak (who didn't exactly kick down the door to get here), Luke Williams, Darrick Hall, now Bohm, Stott and Rojas (and Kemp?). Add to that list young guys we got from trades like Alfaro and Nick Williams. Odubel Herrera dramatically plateauing in 2018 and never recovering. Now, not all of these guys were hot prospects but the length of that list is shocking and begs the question "What do we keep doing wrong?". Will Crawford break that schnied?

[zambonir]

And Franco.

But Stott is just as good as Galvis and Hernandez were. Or he was, anyway. And while Marsh was acquired in trade he was still raw material at that point.

There just hasn't been enough balance/depth beyond the complementary players. Not developing a single power/corner bat (and having fewer ways to add another one with 1B and DH locked) has also been a problem since (and before) Rhys.

Assembling two cores on the same age curve (one of older free agents and one of younger players who are about to hit their decline curve and would be expensive free agents themselves If they had reached their full potential) also not ideal.

[flyers19rw]

JMO but some of this platooning is counterproductive. The musical chairs being played around 2B and CF is creating a problem. Stott’s glove is as good as it gets at 2B. Just play him and work with his hitting and confidence. Yanking him for Sosa doesn’t work out since he makes mistakes in the field that Stott wouldn’t. (His error the other night opened the door to a three run inning that put the game into the skids) Sosa’s hitting is marginal. He’ll do fine for a short period of time and then he slides due to overexposure.
It’s a similar situation with CF with Marsh and Crawford. As a left fielder, Marsh is fine. As a center fielder, not so much. His lack of range hurts. Add to that he struggles with left handed pitching. Better to put Crawford in CF and leave him alone. Put Marsh permanently in LF.
If the Phillies can’t commit to Stott at 2B and Crawford in CF, then move them out and find others.