No trophies for the offseason champions

Baseball’s offseason lasts a long time. The Phillies were eliminated from the playoffs on October 9th, and they won’t play another real game until March 27th. That’s almost six months without real baseball, and unless your team won the World Series (Note: The Phillies did not), you’ve got little to do but look forward to next season in hopes that it will end differently.

That’s a large reason why it is so frustrating when your favorite team spends the offseason in relative inactivity, making only minor moves. It’s far more exciting when your team is the “offseason champion.” That’s an unofficial title given to the team that either makes the splashiest free agents signing or appears to have improved their team the most.

Back in 2019, the Phillies were largely considered the offseason champs. Most of the offseason was spent speculating if the team would sign prized free agents Bryce Harper and Manny Machado (or both?). SPOILER ALERT: The Phillies eventually signed Harper and also traded for star catcher J.T. Realmuto.

This current offseason has been far less exciting, with the team making only a few non-marquee signings and one significant trade.

The frustration is heightened this year because the Phillies’ division rival – as well as the team that beat them in the playoffs – is the team that seems to have won the offseason champion title. The New York Mets grabbed headlines when they signed Juan Soto as a free agent. This has caused many fans to believe that the Phillies were already worse than the Mets, and that gap has grown larger.

Panicking is uncalled for. Despite the “They’ve finished worse every year” narrative that exists, the Phillies have increased its regular season win total for three straight years which is typically far more indicative of a team’s talent level.

There’s also a narrative that the Phillies aren’t actually that good. Some people believe that the Phillies played great in the beginning of 2024 but were a mediocre to bad team in the second half of the season. While the Phillies did suffer some regression after their unsustainably hot start, they were still a more than respectable 30-24 over the final two months of the season, despite having only 3.5 reliable starting pitchers during that time.

And it’s not like the Phillies have been completely inactive. Maybe the acquisitions of Jesus Luzardo, Max Kepler, and Joe Ross haven’t prompted fans to order new replica jerseys, but they should be upgrades over the near-zeroes the Phillies had in their spots at the end of last year.

Maybe you wanted them to trade Alec Bohm simply for the sake of them doing something, but the way the offseason played out, unless you wanted them to overpay for Alex Bregman, a Bohm trade would simply be causing a massive hole at third base for perhaps a minor upgrade elsewhere.

It should also be noted that the offseason champions often don’t live up to expectations. Even with the additions of Harper and Realmuto, the Phillies didn’t make the playoffs in 2019 (or the two seasons after). And this isn’t the first time the Mets have been crowned offseason champions, but free agent acquisitions like Francisco Lindor and Max Scherzer didn’t result in immediate postseason success.

The truth is that despite a relatively quiet offseason, the Phillies are a very good team that has improved slightly. Barring a rash of injuries or underperformance by established players, they should once again make the playoffs. While that might not be as exciting as signing the shiniest toy in the free agent market, it’s not a bad place to be.

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