CLEARWATER, Fla. — During Tuesday morning’s bullpen sessions at the Phillies’ Carpenter Complex, José Alvarado and Jhoan Duran were pitching at opposite flanks of the seven-pack of mounds.
It was an early look at likely the two hardest-throwing relievers in the Phillies’ 2026 bullpen, who only were able to team up for exactly 24 days last season. The Phillies acquired Duran at the trade deadline in July, while Alvarado was away from the team serving an 80-game suspension for a positive performance-enhancing drug test.
He returned in August, but only pitched in eight games before a left forearm strain ended his season. He was ineligible for the playoffs due to the PED suspension.
Now healthy and back in camp, Alvarado does not want to dwell on the past.
“I know everything that passed last year, I want to say last year is over,” Alvarado said. “I prepare for coming healthy in this spring. I’m so happy for me, what I see in this spring now. Keep working hard and never give up.”
This winter, the Phillies picked up the $9 million club option on Alvarado’s contract for 2026. The 30-year-old lefty will be a free agent after this season.
Alvarado said he ramped up slower with his throwing program this offseason, with fewer bullpen sessions and live at-bats than he’s typically done by this point. According to Phillies pitching coach Caleb Cotham, that was planned out of caution for Alvarado’s forearm.
“I wouldn’t use the word behind, but it’s just more intentional with the build-up,” Cotham said. “He’s normally overly prepared. Now it’s just more a normal build-up.”
Alvarado is also planning to represent Venezuela at the World Baseball Classic in March, which will help accelerate his ramp-up.
At this point in the spring, bullpen sessions aren’t so much focused on velocity, since pitchers are still building up and, in some cases, experimenting. Alvarado has been working on his four-seam fastball. He relies almost exclusively on his sinker-cutter mix, but in past springs, he has also toyed with bringing back his curveball and four-seamer, both of which he threw more when he first broke into the big leagues.
So far, they haven’t really stayed in his arsenal when the regular season starts. In a limited sample size of 26 innings due to his abbreviated 2025 season, Alvarado threw 22 curveballs (4.8% of his pitches) and six four-seamers (1.3%). When he did throw the four-seam, it averaged 99.6 mph.
The Phillies are planning to have José Alvarado (left) and Jhoan Duran as a late-inning, 1-2 punch out of the bullpen.
“I’m not very confident on that pitch, because when it’s game time, it’s different energy. It looked good,” Alvarado said of his four-seam after a recent bullpen session. “ … Every result I see right now is good. I am in a good spot right now; I need to keep it like that.”
Will the four-seam stick around this time?
“I think a lot of times things that stick are things that work,” Cotham said. “So I think the avenue for me in getting it to stick is he’s got to feel good with it, but it’s also got to work. And we got to work to help him, and find the spots with [catcher] J.T. [Realmuto] and when not to throw it.”
The four-seam can give Alvarado another tool for certain right-handed hitters who handle sinkers well. Cotham also said that working on the four-seam can also help Alvarado fine-tune his other, bread-and-butter fastball.
“It’s also a nice way to keep the sinker calibrated, because he can feel the difference in the four-seam, sinker,” he said. “He’s a guy where the sinker can fly similar to a four-seam sometimes. So actually keeping those both in practice helps keep the sinker going.”
The Grapefruit League, which starts for the Phillies on Saturday, will provide an opportunity for Alvarado to mix in the four-seam to test it out in games.
“Alvy’s a guy where … there’s a lot of feel to his game and wanting to feel the delivery,” Cotham said. “So if he feels good with it, what I tell him is, I’m in. It’s just a matter of when and why, where we use it.”
Extra bases
Brandon Marsh was a full participant in batting practice Tuesday after a cut on his foot limited him the day before. “He’s full go,” Thomson said.
CLEARWATER, Fla. — Six years into his major-league career, Alec Bohm knows exactly who he is as a player.
Also, who he’s not.
“In the grand scheme of things,” Bohm said here Tuesday, “you think about it, I’m prototypically not your average cleanup hitter. Body type-wise, yeah. But the way my game is, I guess, is not that of a typical [No.] 4 hitter.”
Bohm has thought about it. A lot. Because he does look the part — 6-foot-5, with shoulders that block the sun and never-ending arms and legs. But he hasn’t hit more than 20 homers or slugged .450 in a full season.
And yet, guess the Phillies‘ most frequent cleanup hitter over the last two seasons — and the leading candidate to reprise the role on opening day of Bohm’s last year before free agency.
Rob Thomson hasn’t settled on the order but wants Trea Turner, Kyle Schwarber, and Bryce Harper to bat in the first inning. And whether Schwarber and Harper bat second and third, or vice versa, the cleanup hitter will be tasked with protecting one of the Phillies’ feared lefty sluggers.
Thomson has mentioned new right fielder Adolis García and J.T. Realmuto as options. But he noted that Bohm “would have taken down most of the at-bats” in the cleanup spot if not for two stints on the injured list. He was the cleanup hitter 102 times — and an All-Star — in 2024.
Phillies third baseman Alec Bohm hasn’t hit more than 20 homers or slugged .450 in a full season of his career.
Get ready, then, for one more round of the familiar gripe about the Phillies’ atypical cleanup hitter, notably that someone as big and strong as Bohm doesn’t hit more balls over the fence.
“Anybody that says that has no [bleeping] clue how hard this game is and how good the pitching is at this point,” Bohm said. “Would you rather me swing at stuff that’s bouncing in front of the plate and strike out 180 times and get you 25 to 30 home runs so you feel better about it? Or do you want me to hit .280 and drive in 80 to 90 to 100 runs and hit 40 doubles and do it that way?
“To me, that’s more productive than me walking up there and striking out 190 times. That’s not my game.”
Bohm concedes that his game was “down last year.” He opened the season in a 9-for-60 tailspin with one extra-base hit through 14 games. He missed 27 games after the All-Star break with a cracked left rib and 11 in September with a cyst in his left shoulder that needed to be drained.
And after back-to-back 97-RBI seasons in which he was 11% more productive than league average based on OPS-plus, he backslid to 18 doubles, 11 homers, and a .741 OPS, 2% more productive than league average.
The Phillies shuttled Nick Castellanos, Realmuto, and Bohm through the cleanup spot, behind Harper. Phillies cleanup hitters combined for a .720 OPS, 20th in the majors. And Harper saw the lowest rate of pitches in the strike zone (43%) of anyone who qualified for the batting title.
Coincidence? Somewhat. Harper saw 42.6% of pitches in the zone through his first six Phillies seasons (2019-24). He has long contended that teams take extreme care in how they pitch to him no matter who bats behind him.
“There’s a lot of situations throughout the game, especially later in the game, where they’re obviously not going to let the franchise player beat them,” Bohm said. “You’ve got a righty on the mound, who in their right mind would let Bryce beat them?”
When Phillies third baseman Alec Bohm was an All-Star in 2024, he batted in the cleanup spot 102 times.
Maybe it would make the decision to pitch around Harper more difficult if Schwarber batted behind him, so Thomson is mulling that arrangement.
“But if Schwarbs is sitting there [in the No. 3 spot], the same thing’s going to kind of happen, right?” Harper said. “So, whoever’s in that four spot is going to have a big job to do.”
Bohm believes he’s up for it, even if his homer total doesn’t rise far above his 14.8 average over the last four years.
“For me, it’s not necessarily putting up a certain number of home runs,” Bohm said. “It’s just, am I executing with runners in scoring position? Am I driving in runs? Am I putting tough at-bats up there?
“The protection [of Harper or Schwarber] aspect of it, the way I want to go about it just being a good situational baseball player. The home runs, the damage, the doubles, all that stuff is going to come. But it’s not going to come as frequently if I’m up there trying to force it.”
Bohm’s best work over the years has come with runners in scoring position, largely because he makes more consistent contact than most hitters in the Phillies’ lineup. Even last year, his strikeout rate (16.3%) was well below major-league average (22.2%).
It’s one of the attributes cited by Thomson as a reason to like Bohm in the cleanup spot.
“If there’s runners out there, he’s going to put the ball in play,” Thomson said. “Typically, he hits a lot of doubles. And I love doubles. I love home runs, but I love doubles as well because that clears the bases.”
Phillies right fielder Adolis Garcia (left) is another candidate to bat in the cleanup spot.
And Bohm has millions of reasons to capitalize on another opportunity to fill the cleanup role. He’s eligible for free agency after the season, which he said feels “really far off in the distance.”
Bohm’s successor may be only a few lockers away in the spring-training clubhouse. Top prospect Aidan Miller will play third base at times this year. And the Phillies discussed moving on from Bohm in each of the last two offseasons. They nearly signed free-agent infielder Bo Bichette last month, a move that would’ve corresponded with trading Bohm.
But for as long as he’s here, Bohm believes he can handle batting behind Harper or Schwarber.
“I can do things in a different way to create runs and not let the other team go, ‘We got through Kyle, now just walk Bryce, and we should be home free,’” Bohm said. “What I do is put the ball in play to where I’m not a hole behind a very important piece of our lineup.”
CLEARWATER, Fla. — Four innings before Orion Kerkering’s error sealed the Phillies’ fate in Game 4 of the 2025 National League Division Series, home plate umpire Mark Wegner made a call that may have helped tilt the game.
Cristopher Sánchez’s 2-2 pitch to Alex Call in the seventh, which caught the inside edge of the plate, was called a ball. What could have been a strikeout ultimately became a walk, and Justin Dean, who pinch ran for Call, went on to score the tying run in a game the Los Angeles Dodgers won, 2-1, in 11 innings.
In the quiet clubhouse after the Phillies were eliminated, Sánchez said that Wegner actually apologized to him for missing the strike.
“He knows he missed it,” Sánchez said through a team interpreter. “He knows he missed it because he told me, and he apologized to me. But a lot of pressure, important game, important situation, you can’t miss those things. You can’t miss those calls.”
With the automated ball-strike challenge system arriving to MLB in 2026, it’s possible those impactful misses could be a thing of the past. Under the system, each team starts with two challenges, which can be used by the pitcher, catcher, or batter to challenge a pitch call. If a challenge is unsuccessful, the team loses it.
According to the rules, challenges must be made immediately after the umpire’s call, and no input from the bench or manager is allowed. A team without challenges in extra innings will receive an additional one.
The Phillies piloted the system during spring training last year, and they will use this spring as a chance to get further acclimated.
“I think it will change the game a lot late, just making sure those calls are right in the biggest moments,” shortstop Trea Turner said. “Even if a team challenges and they’re wrong, at least you know the call is right. So I think that’s going to be big later on.”
Some critics of the system think that ABS removes the “human element” of baseball in the umpire’s strike zone.
“It’s kind of now that human element’s back on the players,” Turner said. “So that’s kind of interesting. It’s going to be fun to watch.”
The Phillies will eventually develop a strategy for using ABS as the regular season begins. Some teams only allow catchers to challenge, rather than pitchers, since they have a better vantage point. Teams also might prefer to save their challenges for after a certain inning of the game.
But for the first few weeks of spring training, Phillies manager Rob Thomson will have no rules.
“We need to push them to use it, so that they can learn,” Thomson said. “And as the situations come up, we just talk them through it. ‘This might be a situation where you should use it,’ even if they didn’t. ‘No, maybe that’s not the situation.’ But we still want them to try and get some experience with it.”
The Seattle Mariners’ Julio Rodriguez challenges a pitch call, initiating a review with the automated ball-strike challenge system during a spring training game last February in Peoria, Ariz.
Turner said that typically, when he has disagreed with umpires’ calls at the plate and then reviewed the footage later, he is often right about pitches he thought were inside or outside, but has been wrong about pitches high or low.
“I think that’s part of this. You’ve got to know what you’re good at, and where you’re good at,” he said. “I don’t plan on challenging too much, but if I do, I’ll probably be on the corners more so than up and down. And I think some guys are good at some things, and you’re going to have to learn.”
Extra bases
Zack Wheeler threw out to 120 feet for the first time Monday as he continues his rehab from thoracic outlet decompression surgery. Thomson said he did not have a date for when Wheeler will get on a mound, but “he’s getting there.” … Kerkering (mild hamstring strain) is running and doing agility drills and threw on flat ground. The next step is a light bullpen session, possibly on Wednesday, according to Thomson. … Brandon Marsh cut his foot off the field and did not fully participate in the workout, although he did glove work and played catch. “It’s minor,” Thomson said. “I wouldn’t be surprised if he was out there hitting [Tuesday].”
CLEARWATER, Fla. — Brandon Marsh stood in the outfield of the main stadium here the other day alongside a half-dozen teammates when it dawned on him.
“I was the oldest guy out there,” he said, a toothy smile forming above his lumberjack beard, “and I was like, ‘What the heck?’ I’ve never, ever in my life been in this position.”
Don’t tell Marsh, then, that these are the Same Old Phillies.
Other changes: A 22-year-old rookie (Justin Crawford) in center field, and a righty-hitting utility man (Otto Kemp) who might see most of his playing time in left field whenever the Phillies face left-handed pitching.
And — voila! — Marsh is the new dean of an outfield that critics believe will be among the worst in the majors.
Brandon Marsh didn’t have a hit in April but batted .303 over the final five months of the season.
“It’s going to be almost a complete different outfield, I know that,” said Marsh, limited in the Phillies’ first full-squad workout Monday because of a cut on his foot that Thomson didn’t consider serious. “But we have some incredible guys here that are going to step up. As humans, we always want to challenge ourselves. It’s going to be a fun challenge for us, and nothing that we’re not capable of doing.”
Maybe. Crawford did bat .300 at every level of the minors despite hitting a high rate of balls on the ground. García, a two-time All-Star, is three years removed from 39 homers and a dominant postseason for the World Series-champion Texas Rangers. Kemp impressed team officials with his grit last season while playing through shoulder and knee injuries.
But any improvement over last season, when the Phillies ranked 19th in the majors in outfield OPS (.710) and 21st in wins above replacement (3.2, measured by Fangraphs) must involve Marsh.
It has been nearly four years since the Phillies traded for Marsh. With Bryson Stott and Alec Bohm, he comprised a group of young, often goofy players dubbed by teammates as the “Daycare” along the way to the 2022 World Series. He has been a supporting cast member ever since.
Marsh is 28 now. He has two seasons before free agency. And still, there are questions about his ceiling as a player.
Take last season, for instance. Marsh was 4-for-42 — and hitless in April (0-for-29) — when he strained his right hamstring. The injury was mild. Physically, he was ready to return after the minimum 10-day term on the injured list. Mentally, he was a wreck.
“Honestly, I’ve never been on a baseball field and felt that low before,” Marsh said. “Not low as in depression or anything, but just like self-belief and just realizing like, ‘Dang, am I really cut out for this?’
“But I think the second half of last year really proved — not to anyone else but just to myself — that I can get through the thick of it. You know?”
Indeed, upon returning May 3, Marsh batted .303 with 25 doubles, 10 homers, and a .358 on-base percentage for the rest of the season. Among 96 National League players with at least 350 plate appearances after May 1, Marsh ranked 17th with an .836 OPS.
Brandon Marsh’s .836 OPS from May 3 through the rest of the season ranked 17th in the National League among players with at least 350 plate appearances.
Never mind, then, that Marsh continued to struggle to hit left-handed pitching. The Phillies would sign up for his post-April production from last season and install him as the strong (lefty-hitting) half of a left-field platoon.
But can they count on Marsh being that player?
“I’ve got to go off what the last five months looked like,” Thomson said. “All our analytics and what we see with our eyes has told us that that’s who he is. Now, maybe he’s becoming that. Hopefully he has a full year of that type of performance.”
If anything, the depths of Marsh’s struggle were surprising because of when it occurred.
Given the length of the season, with a game almost every day for six months, most players, especially veterans, downplay April slumps. It’s early, they insist, while falling back on clichés about the numbers on the back of their baseball card.
But Marsh — Bohm, too, his roommate and close friend who started in a 9-for-60 tailspin — was drowning.
“You play in Philadelphia and you’re hitting .090,” Marsh said. “… And I deserved every bit of boos I got and every bit of bashing that I got, and I just had to wear it the best I could. Some days were harder than others, for sure.
“I remember saying that to someone, like, ‘It’s April.’ But it’s easy to get overwhelmed, and there were days where I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, this mountain might be too steep to climb.’ I might be too low, fighting for keeping a job and stuff like that. There was a whole bunch of stuff going on.
“Me and Bohmer, I remember us just driving home and we were like, ‘Bro, it can’t get any worse.’”
The Phillies signed Adolis García this offseason to replace Nick Castellanos in right field.
It helped that the Phillies gave Marsh a few extra days on his injury rehab assignment at triple-A Lehigh Valley. He credited catcher Garrett Stubbs for changing his perspective.
“Show up and smile,” Stubbs said.
“When Brandon Marsh was with us, we had some epic wins, a couple walk-off home runs, and he was just as happy as anybody on our team,” triple-A hitting coach Adam Lind said. “Maybe that’s just what it was. Sometimes a rehab assignment can just reignite that joy in the game. You can take a deep breath.”
In any case, Marsh salvaged his season. He batted .280 overall, “but it felt like I hit .800.” And the Phillies chose to remake their outfield around him.
Garcia represents “a very big bounce-back candidate,” as Bryce Harper put it.
“I think he’s going to have a lot more fun hitting in Philly than he did in a big Texas stadium,” Harper said. “But also, you’re not really sure until it happens.”
Ditto for Crawford, whom the Phillies expect to bring speed and energy to the bottom of the lineup. But he also would be the youngest player in a Phillies’ opening-day lineup since Freddy Galvis in 2012.
So, Marsh looked around the outfield the other day as the constant at the one spot on the Phillies’ roster that has undergone massive change. Last April, he never would’ve guessed it.
“I’m glad that bad stretch happened because it showed just to myself what I could crawl out of,” Marsh said. “I have that self-confidence now of feeling like you’re a dude, like you’re supposed to be here. That’s kind of where I’m at.”
CLEARWATER, Fla. — Next month will mark three years since Trea Turner made history with one swing at Miami’s LoanDepot Park.
During the 2023 World Baseball Classic, Turner became the first Team USA player in a decade to hit a grand slam in the tournament. It propelled his team to a come-from-behind win over then-undefeated Venezuela in the quarterfinals, and it was just one of many big moments for Turner that March.
He finished with five home runs to tie a WBC record, helping his team to a silver medal.
But this year, when Bryce Harper, Kyle Schwarber, and Brad Keller leave Phillies spring training to join Team USA for the 2026 iteration of the international tournament, Turner will not join them.
“The phone never rang,” Turner said. “I wish those guys the best. I think it’s so much fun. I gladly would have done it again. I said the last time, if they ever asked, I would say yes. They’ve got a great roster this year, stacked.”
Team USA manager Mark DeRosa included Kansas City Royals star Bobby Witt Jr. and the Baltimore Orioles’ Gunnar Henderson as shortstops on his roster. Milwaukee’s Brice Turang is the second baseman for the American team, while Toronto’s Ernie Clement is listed as a utility infielder.
Turner won the National League batting title in 2025 with a .304 average and also had one of the best seasons of his career defensively. He posted +17 outs above average at shortstop, ranking in the 99th percentile at his position according to StatCast data.
“I think we’re in a good spot to win,” Turner said of Team USA. “I’ll definitely be watching it, and I wish Kyle and Bryce and all these guys, [Edmundo] Sosa, everyone playing, I hope they perform well for their countries, and it’s a lot of fun.”
Other WBC participants from the Phillies’ major league roster are Sosa (Panama); Cristopher Sánchez and Johan Rojas (Dominican Republic); Taijuan Walker (Mexico); José Alvarado (Venezuela); Garrett Stubbs and 21-year-old (Israel); and Aaron Nola (Italy).
Turner knows that Harper, in particular, is excited to play in the WBC. He had planned to join the team alongside Turner in 2023 but was unable to participate after undergoing Tommy John elbow surgery the previous winter.
The Phillies jog during the first full-squad workout of spring training on Monday.
“You have to prepare a little bit differently in spring training for that,” Turner said. “You’ve got to kind of get out there earlier, and get your at-bats earlier. So it seems like he’s working harder. But at the same time, he’s just got to get ready, because he’s going to have live at-bats. But he’s competitive.”
Turner’s own offseason was about the same as usual for him, he said. His main priority this year is maintaining his health, which also happened to be the main theme of manager Rob Thomson’s speech to the team Monday morning ahead of the first official full-squad workout of the spring.
Turner, 32, missed time in each of the last two seasons with hamstring strains, and he is aiming to prevent that from happening again primarily through nutrition and hydration.
“Body feels good. Still feel young, although when I have to play with guys like this and Aidan and whatnot, makes me feel old,” Turner said, gesturing to the nearby lockers of 22-year-old Justin Crawford and 21-year-old Aidan Miller. “But I feel 25. I feel ready.”
Turner is looking forward to how Crawford and his speed could help lengthen the bottom half of the Phillies’ lineup. He said he hadn’t seen much of Miller before Monday, when they did infield work together.
“Glove looks good,” Turner said. “Got a chance to talk to him, just trying to get to know him a little bit more. Seems like a great kid, had a good season last year, and excited for him to be around much more and contribute. Because we need guys like that.
“We need to build depth. We need some younger guys. And I think that’s really important for a good organization.”
Scenes from the Phillies first full spring training workout
// Timestamp 02/16/26 2:02pm
‘He’s getting there’: Zach Wheeler continues recovery from blood clot
Zack Wheeler threw out to 120 feet for the first time today. Rob Thomson said he doesn't know yet when Wheeler will get back on a mound, but "he's getting there."
The surprising things Phillies players brought with them to spring training
// Timestamp 02/16/26 12:17pm
Spring training photos: Phillies first full-squad workout
BayCare Ballpark in Clearwater, Fla. ahead of the Phillies’ first full-squad workout. Bryce Harper works with new bench coach Don Mattingly. Kyle Schwarber takes some swings during batting practice. The Phillies’ first spring training game is Saturday against the Toronto Blue Jays.
Top pitching prospect Andrew Painter will be under no limitations this spring as he competes for a spot in the Phillies’ rotation. He is set to appear in Grapefruit League games for the first time since prior to his ulnar collateral ligament injury and subsequent Tommy John elbow surgery in 2023.
“I’m sure he’s excited. It’s really the first full year where he’s completely healthy, and where he’s got everything back,” Thomson said. “And when I’m talking about everything, I’m talking about stuff, combined with command and control. So I think he’s really excited. I would think so. I’m excited for him, because I’m thinking he’s really going to be a big piece for us.”
Mike Trout talks position change, being prevented from playing in World Baseball Classic
Mike Trout wants to move back to center field this season.
Los Angeles Angels star Mike Trout plans to be back in center field this season, he told reporters Monday at the team’s spring training complex in Tempe, Ariz.
Trout moved to right field last season in an attempt to keep the 34-year-old South Jersey native healthy, but in April he was sidelined for a month by a bone bruise and finished out the year as a designated hitter.
Mike Trout says he is playing center field again. He said playing right wasn’t comfortable and he felt like it was more running.
Also said he feels good about where his swing is. He finished last season on a hot streak.
Trout played 130 games last season, the most since 2019. But Angles general manager Perry Minasian signaled back in December he’d be open to Trout returning to center field.
“I’m not ruling anything out,” Minasian said, according to MLB.com’s Rhett Bollinger. “We’ll see where the team looks like when we get to Spring Training and what’s in place and what gives us the best chance to win games. Might be playing center. One day might be playing left. One day might be DHing. I don’t know.”
Trout also told reporters he wanted to play in this year’s World Baseball Classic, but was prevented due to insurance issues related to his 12-year, $426.5 million contract with the Angels that runs through the 2030 season.
Essentially, Trout couldn’t find insurance coverage to cover the roughly $37 million he’s owed this season if he were to be injured during the global baseball tournament.
Mike Trout says he’ll move back to playing CF this year. He also wanted to play in the WBC but insurance prevented him from playing, calling it disappointing
They also sent lefty Matt Strahm to the Royals for Jonathan Bowlan in a reliever swap. And they added bullpen depth with Zach McCambley (Rule 5 draft), lefty Kyle Backhus (trade with Arizona), Yoniel Curet (trade with Tampa Bay), Chase Shugart (trade with Pittsburgh), and Zach Pop (free agent).
So which new Phillies is most intriguing for 2026?
Lauber: Does Justin Crawford count as “new?” Oh, OK, we’ll get to him later. In that case, García. In 2023, he hit 39 homers, got down-ballot MVP votes, and dominated the postseason for the World Series champion Rangers. The Phillies bet on bouncebacks last year from Max Kepler and Jordan Romano and went bust. Will their latest free-agent gamble work out better?
March: Keller. The right-hander had been a starter for most of his career before his breakout season last year as a high-leverage reliever for the Cubs, and he has retained his starter’s arsenal of four-seam, sinker, slider, changeup, and sweeper. That, plus a jump of over 3 mph on his fastball in 2025, makes him an intriguing back-end option in the Phillies’ bullpen.
Which Phillies players to watch at spring training
All eyes will be on prospect Justin Crawford during spring training.
What’s the Phillies’ biggest roster decision?
Lauber: Although the decision to commit to Justin Crawford was made early in the offseason, it’s about to play out in real time. At 22, he would be the youngest outfielder to make a Phillies opening-day roster since Greg Luzinski and Mike Anderson in 1973. As the Phillies turn over the keys to center field, Crawford will be at the center of attention.
March: The Phillies stocked up on potential bullpen depth this winter, making a host of minor league deals, a few trades, and a Rule 5 selection of Zach McCambley. Six reliever spots are likely spoken for, barring injury: lefties José Alvarado and Tanner Banks, and righties Jhoan Duran, Brad Keller, Orion Kerkering, and Jonathan Bowlan. There will be some stiff competition for the final two spots.
Which prospect should fans look out for?
Lauber: As you watch Crawford and Andrew Painter, don’t take your eyes off Aidan Miller. The Phillies intend to expose the 22-year-old shortstop to third base in spring training, but it will be interesting to see how much third he actually plays — and how fast they push him if he starts hot in triple A and/or Alec Bohm falters again in April.
March: Gabriel Rincones Jr. made a big impression last spring with a couple of towering home runs. The outfielder was added to the Phillies’ 40-man roster ahead of the Rule 5 draft, and he could get a major league look at some point in 2026. Rincones, who will be 25 next month, struggles against left-handed pitching, so any opportunity would likely be in a strict platoon. But he has some big power potential against righties.
A clean-shaven Nick Castellanos, dressed in a brown Padres hoodie, made his first public comments Sunday after signing a one-year deal with San Diego.
The former Phillies outfielder, who was released by the organization on Thursday, met with the media at the Padres’ spring training complex in Peoria, Ariz. He also spent time taking reps at first base. He is expected to see time there as the Padres already have an All-Star rightfielder in Fernando Tatis Jr.
Castellanos told reporters Sunday he “had a good idea” he would not be back with the Phillies following their exit in the National League Division Series. This winter, the Phillies repeatedly expressed interest in finding a change of scenery for Castellanos after he developed friction with manager Rob Thomson.
After his release, Castellanos posted a letter on Instagram thanking members of the organization and explaining the “Miami Incident.” During the eighth inning of a June 16 game in Miami, Castellanos said he brought a beer into the dugout after Thomson replaced him for defensive purposes. He was benched for the following game as punishment.
In his letter, Castellanos wrote that he “will learn from” the incident.
“I think [what] I said I will learn from this is I guess just letting my emotions get the best of me in a moment,” he said Sunday. “Possibly if I see things that frustrate me or I don’t believe are conducive to winning, to speak up instead of letting things just pile up over time and pile up over time and finally when I address it, it’s less emotional.”
Bryce Harper responds to Phillies exec ahead of Spring Training
Bryce Harper fist-bumps Phillies teammates Sunday ahead of the team’s workout in Clearwater, Fla.
Bryce Harper touched down in Phillies camp, pulled on a black T-shirt — no, not the black T-shirt that went viral over the holidays — and summarized one of the weirdest weeks in an offseason of his career.
“For Dave [Dombrowski] to come out and say those things,“ Harper said, ”it’s kind of wild to me still.”
Key word: Still. Because this was Sunday, 122 days after the Phillies’ highest-ranking baseball official gave a 90-second answer 34 minutes into a 54-minute news conference about whether Harper’s good-but-not-great 2025 season was a one-off or the start of a downward trend.
Pardon the rehashed sound bite, but well, here goes: “Of course he’s still a quality player,” Dombrowski said, “still an All-Star-caliber player. He didn’t have an elite season like he has had in the past. And I guess we only find out if he becomes elite [again], or if he continues to be good.”
Cue the hysteria, fomented by sports-talk radio and social media. And a candid answer to a good question exploded into unfounded speculation that the Phillies would consider trading Harper. (For what it’s worth, John Middleton is clear about wanting Harper to go into the Hall of Fame with a “P” on his plaque.)
Harper is self-aware. He wasn’t satisfied with last season. There were factors, including an inflamed right wrist that caused him to miss 22 games. But he also swung at a career-high rate of pitches out of the zone, a problem given that Harper saw fewer strikes than any hitter in baseball. He also delivered fewer hits in the clutch than ever before.
“Obviously,” he said after digesting it for four months, “not the best year of my career.”
But the substance of Dombrowski’s comments didn’t bother Harper as much as the forum.
“The big thing for me was, when we first met with this organization [in 2019] it was, ‘Hey, we’re always going to keep things in-house, and we expect you to do the same thing,’” Harper said. “So, when that didn’t happen, it kind of took me for a run a little bit. I don’t know.
“It’s kind of a wild situation, that even happening.”
Pitcher Taijuan Walker looks on while wearing his hat backward Sunday. Pitcher Cristopher Sanchez on the mound as palm trees swerve in the background. Brandon Marsh shares a laugh during spring training workouts Thursday. Pitcher Zack Wheeler warms up last week. Phillies manager Rob Thomson looks on during spring training workouts.
Tom McCarthy is entering his 19th season as the TV voice of the Phillies.
NBC Sports Philadelphia will once again broadcast 12 Phillies spring training games in 2026 — 10 on the main channel and two on NBC Sports Philadelphia+.
The network’s TV schedule kicks off Sunday with the Phillies’ afternoon matchup against the Pittsburgh Pirates at BayCare Ballpark in Clearwater, Fla., where the team has played spring ball for 78 years.
The Phillies March 4 exhibition game against Canada ahead of the World Basball classic will also air on NBC Sports Philadelphia.
In addition, a handful of spring training games will stream live on the Phillies’ website.
Here are all the Phillies spring training games airing on NBC Sports Philadelphia:
Sunday vs. Pittsburgh Pirates, 1:05 p.m. (NBCSP)
Feb. 25 vs Detroit Tigers, 1:05 p.m. (NBCSP)
Feb. 27 vs. Florida Marlins (split squad), 1:05 p.m. (NBCSP)
March 1 vs. New York Yankees, 1:05 p.m. (NBCSP)
March 4 vs. Canada, 1:05 p.m. (NBCSP)
March 5 vs. Boston Red Sox, 1:05 p.m. (NBCSP+)
March 8 at Minnesota Twins, 1:05 p.m. (NBCSP)
March 10 vs. New York Yankees, 1:05 p.m. (NBCSP)
March 13 vs. Baltimore Orioles, 1:05 p.m. (NBCSP+)
J.T. Realmuto just started his eighth spring training with the Phillies. But for a week in January, he wasn’t sure he’d be back. Realmuto sits down with Phillies Extra, The Inquirer’s baseball podcast, to discuss his roller-coaster offseason contract talks, the release of Nick Castellanos, his outlook for the 2026 starting rotation, and more. Watch here:
CLEARWATER, Fla. — A clean-shaven Nick Castellanos, dressed in a brown Padres hoodie, made his first public comments Sunday after signing a one-year deal with San Diego.
The former Phillies outfielder, who was released by the organization on Thursday, met with the media at the Padres’ spring training complex in Peoria, Ariz. He also spent time taking reps at first base. He is expected to see time there as the Padres already have an All-Star rightfielder in Fernando Tatis Jr.
Castellanos told reporters Sunday he “had a good idea” he would not be back with the Phillies following their exit in the National League Division Series. This winter, the Phillies repeatedly expressed interest in finding a change of scenery for Castellanos after he developed friction with manager Rob Thomson.
Castellanos expressed his excitement about playing for rookie Padres manager Craig Stammen, mentioning Stammen’s 13-year MLB career as a pitcher. Thomson never played in the major leagues.
“He’s a player. He’s done it,” Castellanos said of Stammen. “He’s put on spikes. He’s grinded. He’s felt the feeling of success, and he’s also felt the feeling of when the game doesn’t go your way. There’s a lot of respect in that. I’m excited to do whatever he needs me to do.”
On the Padres, Castellanos is reuniting with childhood friend Manny Machado, a former teammate on the U.S. 18-and-under team.
After his release, Castellanos posted a letter on Instagram thanking members of the organization and explaining the “Miami Incident.” During the eighth inning of a June 16 game in Miami, Castellanos said he brought a beer into the dugout after Thomson replaced him for defensive purposes. He was benched for the following game as punishment.
In his letter, Castellanos wrote that he “will learn from” the incident.
“I think [what] I said I will learn from this is I guess just letting my emotions get the best of me in a moment,” he said Sunday. “Possibly if I see things that frustrate me or I don’t believe are conducive to winning, to speak up instead of letting things just pile up over time and pile up over time and finally when I address it, it’s less emotional.”
Castellanos, who will turn 34 on March 4, batted .250 with 17 homers and 72 RBIs last season. He grades out poorly according to defensive metrics. He posted -12 outs above average and -11 defensive runs saved in 2025, both ranking as the worst among major league right fielders.
A.J. Preller, the Padres’ president of baseball operations, said Sunday that San Diego had done a lot of homework on Castellanos. He is signed to a league minimum contract ($780,000), with the Phillies responsible for the remainder of his $20 million deal.
Nick Castellanos batted .250 with 17 homers and 72 RBIs for the Phillies last season.
“He was just super-forthright about the last year in Philly, the incident that was written about,” Preller said. “We talk about it all the time, I make many mistakes in this job. But ultimately, when people own up to those mistakes — and he did that in our call. It’s about giving guys another opportunity. He gets a fresh start here and a fresh opportunity.”
When Castellanos was asked if he wished anything would have ended differently in Philadelphia, he said he wished the Phillies would have won a World Series.
“Winning solves everything,” he said. “The one thing that I wish would’ve ended up different is that we would’ve won.”
Extra bases
The Phillies’ first full-squad workout is scheduled for Monday. … A nonroster invitee, shortstop José Rodriguez, is starting spring a bit behind after suffering a shoulder injury in winter ball. Thomson said that Rodriguez is still able to hit.
CLEARWATER, Fla. — Bryce Harper doesn’t want to hear anything about the Dodgers’ nearly $400 million dollar roster being “bad for baseball.”
Following two straight World Series titles — eliminating the Phillies en route to their latest — and with their record-setting payroll, the Dodgers are viewed by some as baseball’s villains, propelling the sport toward a work stoppage in the 2027 labor negotiations.
Harper has a different opinion.
“It bothers me when everybody talks about the Dodgers spending money,” Harper said Sunday. “No, they draft, they develop, they do it the right way. … Each team in baseball has an opportunity to do the same thing. Maybe not at the upper echelon of money, but they can draft, they can develop, they can trade.
“I think a lot of teams can do that in baseball, and they should.”
Harper believes that the Phillies’ roster still stacks up with other top teams, including the Dodgers. In his first media scrum of the 2026 season on Sunday, he said that the expectation for the Phillies this year — and every year — is to win the National League East and make a deep postseason run afterward.
The Phillies have won the division the last two seasons, and also increased their regular-season win total from 95 in 2024 to 96 last season. But the playoff results have not followed, with two straight exits in the NL Divisional Series.
Bryce Harper says he is impressed by 21-year-old infielder Aidan Miller, running during a Phillies workout on Friday.
“The Mets got better, getting Freddy Peralta and a couple other guys on their club,” Harper said. “I mean, the Braves are going to be really good again this year, getting a lot of their guys back, they’re going to be healthy. And so obviously, I feel like the East is a juggernaut. So just got to go and play our game. Understand we’re a really good team and go from there.”
A neon green sign in the shape of the Phanatic hangs from the top of Harper’s locker in the BayCare Ballpark clubhouse. It was illuminated Sunday, indicating that the first baseman — and the rest of the remaining position players — had reported to the complex. The team’s first full-squad workout is scheduled for Monday.
“He’s a great kid,” Harper said of Miller. “He understands what he has to do. Obviously, everybody in this organization is super-excited about it. I talked to him last year a lot. I talked with him this year a little bit already. He has a bright future in this organization. I think it just kind of gets it going a little bit more.”
Harper is also looking forward to seeing other younger players, especially outfielder Justin Crawford and pitcher Andrew Painter, get an opportunity with the major league club this season. The Phillies have not had a rookie start on opening day since 2022, when Bryson Stott first broke camp with the team.
“New blood, man,” Harper said. “It’s good.”
Phillies pitcher Andrew Painter warming up Sunday ahead of the team’s workout.
He also acknowledged that to reach that goal of winning the NL East, and the quest for a World Series run beyond that, those rookies will need to step up. Crawford is expected to be the Phillies’ everyday center fielder. There is also an opening for Painter in the starting rotation, after Ranger Suárez’s free agency departure and with Zack Wheeler doubtful for opening day as he continues to rehab from thoracic outlet decompression surgery.
Painter, the Phillies’ top pitching prospect, posted a 5.49 ERA last season in the minors, his first back from Tommy John surgery.
“I’m hoping he bounces back this year, and we need him to,” Harper said. “We have no idea what Wheels is going to look like. We all hope that obviously, Wheels comes back and is Zack Wheeler, because there’s nobody better in baseball when he’s going good. But we have no idea.
“When you lose a guy like Ranger, that’s a really tough thing. So you’re expected to fill the shoes of two guys that are really, really good. So I hope he can do it, and we definitely need him to do it.”
CLEARWATER, Fla. — Bryce Harper touched down in Phillies camp, pulled on a black T-shirt — no, not the black T-shirt that went viral over the holidays — and summarized one of the weirdest weeks in an offseason of his career.
“For Dave [Dombrowski] to come out and say those things,“ Harper said, ”it’s kind of wild to me still.”
Key word: Still. Because this was Sunday, 122 days after the Phillies’ highest-ranking baseball official gave a 90-second answer 34 minutes into a 54-minute news conference about whether Harper’s good-but-not-great 2025 season was a one-off or the start of a downward trend.
Pardon the rehashed sound bite, but well, here goes: “Of course he’s still a quality player,” Dombrowski said, “still an All-Star-caliber player. He didn’t have an elite season like he has had in the past. And I guess we only find out if he becomes elite [again], or if he continues to be good.”
Bryce Harper missed 22 games for the Phillies last season because of an inflamed right wrist.
Cue the hysteria, fomented by sports-talk radio and social media. And a candid answer to a good question exploded into unfounded speculation that the Phillies would consider trading Harper. (For what it’s worth, John Middleton is clear about wanting Harper to go into the Hall of Fame with a “P” on his plaque.)
Harper is self-aware. He wasn’t satisfied with last season. There were factors, including an inflamed right wrist that caused him to miss 22 games. But he also swung at a career-high rate of pitches out of the zone, a problem given that Harper saw fewer strikes than any hitter in baseball. He also delivered fewer hits in the clutch than ever before.
“Obviously,” he said after digesting it for four months, “not the best year of my career.”
But the substance of Dombrowski’s comments didn’t bother Harper as much as the forum.
“The big thing for me was, when we first met with this organization [in 2019] it was, ‘Hey, we’re always going to keep things in-house, and we expect you to do the same thing,’” Harper said. “So, when that didn’t happen, it kind of took me for a run a little bit. I don’t know.
“It’s kind of a wild situation, that even happening.”
Dombrowski reached out to Harper about 10 days later. The whole affair seemed to be over. Then, in December, a video posted to Harper’s TikTok account showing him working out while wearing a T-shirt with two words across the chest: “NOT ELITE.”
Is Harper using Dombrowski’s critique as motivation?
“I don’t need to be motivated to be great in my career or anything else,“ Harper said. ”That’s just not a motivating factor for me.”
So, why the T-shirt?
“They made the shirts for me and I wore them,” he said. “If they’re going to make them, I’m going to wear them.”
OK then. Just don’t be surprised if Harper channels all of this into an MVP-worthy season. Because elite athletes have a way of turning more innocuous slights into fuel. Michael Jordan was notorious for it. Tom Brady, too.
Bryce Harper says it was kind of “wild” the way Phillies President Dave Dombrowski made his comments about Bryce’s season and that it was not elite.
Bryce says he is always available to anyone with the team and he had an understanding that everything would be kept “in house”… pic.twitter.com/MdzkjVII0l
“I just know his mindset is he wants to perform,“ manager Rob Thomson said. “He loves playing the game. He wants to perform for himself, for his teammates, for the organization, for the city of Philadelphia. With the way he’s come into camp, the shape that he’s in, we’ve got to keep him healthy and I think he’s going to have a huge year.”
Harper does appear to have bulked up since last season. Other than hiring a new trainer, he said he didn’t change much about his offseason program at home in Nashville.
The wrist, which hitting coach Kevin Long said bothered Harper before he went on the injured list last season, is fully healed. Harper said he hasn’t felt pain since June.
“Really happy about that,” he said. “My offseason was pretty similar to what I do each offseason. Just trying to make sure my body is where it needs to be. Just pretty much all the same stuff, getting in and making sure I’m ready to go.”
Maybe the stakes of the WBC will be invigorating for Harper, never a fan of the tedium of spring training.
“I feel like I’m pretty excited to play,” Harper said. “My face might not look it a lot of times. But I’m excited to be out there. I love being part of the culture and the group and Philly baseball. I don’t want that to ever not be the notion. I don’t smile all the time or I don’t laugh all the time, but I enjoy playing this game.”
With baseball returning to the Olympics in 2028 in Los Angeles, MLB is considering allowing players to compete, a scenario for which Harper has long lobbied.
In that case, the WBC would be a precursor. And Team USA is loaded. For years, many of the sport’s top starting pitchers resisted the WBC. But Tarik Skubal and Paul Skenes are at the top of the U.S. team’s rotation.
“Being able to take a step back and act like you are 16, 17, 18 years old again playing with your buddies,” Harper said, “really looking forward to it.
“And having Aaron Judge hitting behind me is going to be a lot of fun as well.”
Which brings up another question that looms over Harper this spring: How will the Phillies protect him in the lineup?
Thomson has considered putting Kyle Schwarber behind Harper. It was the other way around for most of last season. But then who will protect Schwarber? Alec Bohm and new right fielder Adolis García are the leading cleanup-hitter candidates.
“The four spot has a huge impact,” Harper said. “I think the numbers in the four spot weren’t very good last year for our whole team. Whoever’s in that four spot is going to have a big job to do.”
As far as his relationship with Dombrowski?
“We keep things in-house, that’s just how it’s always been, and in that moment, it just didn’t happen,” Harper said. “I think my locker is always open for them to come and talk to me, and vice versa. It is what it is right now.”
