An All-Star lineup of guests has joined The Inquirer’s baseball podcast since it launched in February. Because it’s the holiday season and the last Phillies Extra episode of the year, we’ve put together a “Best of 2025” show to revisit some of our favorite conversations, from Kyle Schwarber and Bryce Harper to Mike Schmidt and John Middleton, and many others. Watch here.
There were some signs that the Phillies and Matt Strahm weren’t long for this world. Small ones. The kind you see in a lot of relationships between headstrong people. Certainly nothing that suggested things were fractured beyond repair. Still, there was enough smoke to at least dampen the surprise when the Phillies decided to trade their versatile setup man to the Kansas City Royals last week.
Whatever the rationale for trading Strahm, his departure reopens a major question that appeared to be solved when the Phillies signed veteran high-leverage righty Brad Keller:
Will that Thomson have enough depth at the back of his bullpen to avoid another season of Russian roulette in the sixth and seventh innings?
We tend to focus on the eighth and ninth innings when assessing the strength of a team’s bullpen. But when you look at the game’s truly elite units, you’ll usually find that they are just as dominant in the bridge to their setup/closer combo. Think about the 2008-era Phillies. Ryan Madson and Brad Lidge were one of the best setup/closer combos in the game. But think about all of the big outs you saw from guys like Chad Durbin and J.C. Romero in situations that were just as pivotal as the ones Madson and Lidge would face.
A more recent example is last year’s San Diego Padres. The most dominant bullpen in the majors by a wide margin in 2025, San Diego relievers ranked ninth in the majors in total batters faced in the seventh inning while also allowing the fourth-fewest runs. The correlation between those two numbers makes sense: the better a manager’s options in the seventh inning, the more likely he is to go to that option rather than attempt to stretch his starting pitcher. Same goes for the sixth.
Those were the innings that killed the Phillies in their NLDS loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers. Eight of the 13 runs that the Phillies allowed over four games came in the seventh inning. Another two came in the sixth inning.
Not all of those runs were charged to the bullpen. But that’s not the whole story. Think about the seventh inning of Game 2, when Thomson stuck with Jesús Luzardo rather than going to his bullpen. Luzardo allowed two runners to reach base, both of whom ended up scoring off Orion Kerkering, who then allowed two runs of his own.
A similar situation unfolded in the seventh inning of Game 4. Cristopher Sánchez took a 1-0 lead into the bottom half of the frame but allowed two of three batters to reach before Thomson pulled him. In fact, that game was Exhibit A for why a team needs at least three, and ideally four, arms who can thrive in situations where the outcome is in the balance. Not only did Thomson use closer Jhoan Duran in the seventh, and for five outs, he went to Luzardo for five outs in extras. The only other actual reliever who pitched in the first 10 innings: Matt Strahm.
In that context, it sure looks puzzling that the Phillies decided to trade Strahm for a middle reliever with a light big league track record (Jonathan Bowlan). How does a guy go from being a manager’s second-most-trustworthy option in a do-or-die postseason game to superfluous in barely two months?
Here was the explanation from Dave Dombrowski, who pointed out the presence of fellow lefties José Alvarado and fly-ball on the roster.
“We didn’t necessarily think we needed all three,” the Phillies’ president said. “[Strahm is] a year away from free agency. We were able to get a guy that we liked who has six years of [club control], and we think can help us right away. So you have to give to get. And we still feel good with our left-handers in the bullpen.”
Which is all well and good. Except, the Phillies never looked at Strahm like a typical lefty. He was even more effective against righties, in fact, with a .585 OPS against in 2025.
While the Phillies may like Bowlan, who has an impressive frame and an intriguing pitch mix as well as six more years of club control (albeit at the age of 29), Strahm’s presence in trade rumors over the last several weeks suggests the Phillies weren’t necessarily targeting the Royals’ righty. The driving force in this trade was that the Phillies were ready to move on from Strahm.
For some justifiable reasons.
Most conspicuous were Strahm’s comments after Kerkering’s fielding error in the Phillies’ NLDS elimination loss to the Dodgers, when he suggested that the team didn’t do enough pitcher’s fielding practice. A few days later, Dombrowski disputed Strahm’s characterization, going so far as to point out that Strahm did not participate in the PFP drills the team did have before the NLDS.
Not exactly bridge-burning stuff, there. But Strahm also showed some signs of decline in his age-33 season. When he was a well-deserved All-Star in 2024, he struck out a third of the batters he faced while walking 4.6% of them. Last year, both of those metrics worsened. He still struck out a solid 27.3% of batters, but his walk rate rose by almost 50%.
In fact, Strahm’s underlying results declined across the board, a clear indication that his stuff had diminished. Always a fly-ball pitcher, Strahm’s ground-ball rate plummeted by nearly a third in 2025, dropping from 31.9% to 23.8%. That decline correlated with a noticeable drop in life on his fastball, with his average velocity falling from 93.4 in 2024 to 92.3 in 2025, per Statcast.
Only four relievers in the majors have logged more than his 212⅔ innings since the Phillies signed him in 2023, three of them are younger than Strahm.
There’s a realistic chance that this move looks like a nothingburger at worst by the end of next season.
Make no mistake, though. It’s a move that weakens the Phillies bullpen in the short term. Mostly, it puts a lot more pressure on Duran, Keller, and Alvarado to remain healthy and effective. If all three pitch to their potential, the Phillies will be plenty OK in tight games. But Alvarado is in his decline phase and is coming off a season where he missed 80 games and the postseason because of a PED suspension. Keller could be a one-year wonder. Behind them is Kerkering, who has yet to blossom into the high-leverage ace the Phillies envisioned and who will have to overcome the psychological trauma of his debilitating mistake in Game 4 of the NLDS.
No team would be comfortable with those kind of question marks in the ninth inning. But the seventh can be just as important, particularly when your roster is built around its starting rotation. Last year, Phillies relievers allowed the fifth-most runs in the majors in seventh innings, despite facing the fewest batters (513, or 101 fewer than the Padres). It has been a long-running theme under Dombrowski. Since 2021, the Phillies’ bullpen has the ninth-highest seventh-inning ERA in the majors (4.46), per FanGraphs.
Trading Strahm was a defensible move. But it could easily become one that Dombrowski regrets.
First and final thoughts …
Clark Hunt and his family, who own the Kansas City Chiefs and are worth a reported $25 billion, are going to build a new domed stadium for the team in Wyandotte County, Kan. Wait, that’s not quite right. The Hunts aren’t really the ones building it. The construction is projected to take $3 billion to complete, but $1.8 billion — 60% of the cost — will come from Kansas taxpayers.
That’s OK, though, because once the stadium is finished, it’ll be a gleaming football palace where the Chiefs’ opponents will never have to face harsh Midwest winter conditions during December and January. The teams will play football the way it was meant to be played: inside an aseptic arena where the temperature is always 72.3 degrees Fahrenheit.
Best of all, the NFL is sure to hold at least one Super Bowl at the stadium. And by at least one, I mean one, because if there’s anywhere that the celebrities and fat cats and influencers who populate Super Bowl week can’t wait to go, it’s … the Missouri-Kansas border.
What we’re seeing here, of course, is the privatization of profit and the socialization of cost, a dynamic as old as the modern multibillion-dollar industry of pro sports. What we’re also seeing — and it will accelerate — is the slow death of the un-rich sports crowd. Those with the financial means to go to a game in the Chiefs’ new stadium — or in a new Eagles stadium, if Jeffrey Lurie eventually gets his way — don’t want cold and snow to mar their fun. They don’t want the experience they’re having to be common or accessible.
Attending a major pro sports contest became a luxury buy long ago. Now it’s on its way to becoming a sterile exercise only a select few can afford, and those fans who care the most, who drive interest and revenue in these games boys and girls can play, end up paying anyway, even while they are kept on the other side of the window.
If the NHL season had ended on Christmas … well, that would be a really short NHL season. Also, the Flyers would have qualified for the playoffs for the first time since 2020, and Trevor Zegras would have been considered a brilliant offseason acquisition.
But the season, of course, isn’t even half-finished yet, and, given the Flyers’ recent history, there’s still plenty of reason to wonder whether they’ll keep up a postseason-worthy pace. That natural skepticism accounts for some of the relative indifference to their relative success so far. People will believe the Flyers are a good team when they see the Flyers be a good team over a full 82 games.
There’s another reason, though, why the Flyers haven’t penetrated the broader, more mainstream public conversation about Philly sports so far: They don’t have any stars.
At his current pace, Zegras would finish with 34 goals and 83 points over 82 games, which would lead the team but place him 31st in the league in points per game. Offense has been up in the NHL for a while. This would be the fifth straight season that the average team has scored at least three goals each game, the first such stretch in the league since the early 1990s.
Yet the Flyers haven’t been part of that surge in scoring. They have not had a player with 35 goals or more in a season since 2011-12, when Scott Hartnell had 37. They have not had a player with 40 goals or more in a season since 2008-09, when Jeff Carter had 46. And they have not had a player with 50 goals or more in a season since 1997-98, when John LeClair had 51.
That recent history also explains part of the frustration and disgruntlement from the fan base over Matvei Michkov’s sluggish sophomore season. Michkov was supposed to be the franchise’s next superstar, and he still can be, but his regression has at least delayed his development into the kind of player who even a hockey neophyte knows and feels compelled to watch. The Flyers haven’t had such a star since Eric Lindros, and, at the moment, they still don’t.
A tip of the cap to Mark Whicker, an all-time great Philadelphia sports columnist, for noting that Nick Castellanos delivered the quote of the year in Philly sports.
After Phillies pitchers Cristopher Sánchez and Ranger Suárez were snubbed for the National League All-Star team in favor of the Milwaukee Brewers’ Jacob Misiorowski, who had made just five starts, Castellanos said:
“This is turning into the Savannah Bananas.”
No offense to the Bananas, who make baseball less stuffy and lots more fun for loads of kids in America. But Castellanos’ point about the All-Star Game being more than just a meaningless exhibition — that it is, still, supposed to be an acknowledgment of and accolade for those players who have performed best through a season’s first half — was well taken. Whatever one might think of his performance on the field in 2025, he launched that answer into the upper deck.
In his two games with the Indianapolis Colts this season, nearly five years after he had retired, Philip Rivers — 44 years old, father of 10, grandfather of one — has completed 41 of 62 passes for 397 yards and three touchdowns.
How hard can it be to play quarterback in the NFL if Pop-Pop can do it this well?
» READ MORE: This is a test – Merry Christmas
Harry Kalas loved Christmas. The holiday combined two of his favorite things: singing and making people happy. So when Andy Wheeler, a producer at CBS3, approached the broadcaster about reading ’Twas the Night Before Christmas in 2002, Kalas didn’t have to give it much thought.
“I’ll come right in,” he replied.
The station was recording a segment of five local broadcasters reciting the poem. Kalas would be featured alongside Marc Zumoff and Tom McGinnis of the 76ers, Merrill Reese of the Eagles, and Jim Jackson of the Flyers.
It aired Dec. 24, and a few years later, while cleaning out his desk, Wheeler found the unedited Kalas video. He watched it through, and suddenly, an idea popped into his mind.
They had the footage. Why not use the Kalas version in its entirety?
Wheeler (no relation to longtime Phillies announcer Chris Wheeler) presented it to producer Paul Pozniak and sports director Beasley Reece, who signed off. Christmas Eve was always a slow news day. This would give them something seasonal that undoubtedly would resonate with their audience.
A decades-long tradition was born. Barring breaking news (and Eagles games), the station has aired Kalas’ reading of the poem every Dec. 24 since 2005.
Management has no plans to change that.
“Obviously, people love Christmas and people love Harry Kalas,” Wheeler said. “And having him read that story, with his voice that everybody is so used to … I think people miss him and miss hearing him.
“It’s almost like watching a home movie of Christmases past.”
To Phillies employees, Kalas’ voice was as synonymous with Christmas as it was with summer. He loved carols and often sang them at the team’s holiday party.
The broadcaster would do this in a way only he could. Toward the end of the evening’s festivities, Kalas would ask those gathered to join hands to “sing the greatest Christmas song ever.” As they swayed back and forth, he’d belt out “Silent Night” in his baritone voice.
Dan Stephenson, the Phillies’ longtime video productions manager, compared it to a star gracing a stage.
“We knew at some point in the evening that Harry was going to be the entertainment,” he said. “And that was good enough for all of us.”
This wasn’t Kalas’ only December tradition. In the early 2000s, he visited retirement homes in the Philadelphia area to provide seasonal cheer.
Like the Phillies’ holiday party, these visits inevitably ended with Christmas carols. John Brazer, who worked in the team’s marketing department for 33 years, remembered driving Kalas to a retirement community in Media in 2005.
On the ride there, Brazer asked the broadcaster if he enjoyed singing to the retirees.
“John, I tell you what,” Brazer recalled Kalas saying. “I love it. I love Christmastime. But the songs I really love doing are the religious songs — ‘Hark the Herald Angels Sing’ and ‘Silent Night.’”
He got emotional for a moment, then abruptly changed his tune.
“But I really don’t like when they do a secular song. I’m not a big fan of ‘Jingle Bells’ and ‘Santa Claus is Coming to Town’ and stuff like that.”
Brazer and Kalas arrived at the retirement home a few minutes later. Kalas began taking requests, as an employee played along on the piano.
The first four songs were religious in nature. The fifth was not.
“Someone said, ‘Hey, Harry, can you sing ‘Jingle Bells?’” Brazer said. “And he [turned to] me with this disgusted look.”
Despite his personal opinions, Kalas launched into an upbeat rendition of the song with a big smile on his face, as if it were his favorite carol of all.
Brazer relayed the story to Stephenson, who wasn’t surprised. Kalas would sign every autograph with glee. He’d get all sorts of requests — fans asking him to record voicemail greetings, or to read the names of their bridal parties — and would always oblige.
It was about making people feel like they mattered.
“There was no way he wasn’t going to sing it,” Stephenson said with a laugh. “That was classic Harry.”
Wheeler had a December tradition, too. When he was a kid, growing up in Aston, his parents would read ’Twas the Night Before Christmas every Dec. 24.
The idea of having play-by-play announcers recite the poem on air was exciting, but when it came to Kalas, the young producer was nervous.
He grew up listening to the voice of the Phillies, and was worried about coming off as inexperienced (or worse, clueless). But when Kalas arrived to KYW’s studios at 5th and Market, he brought calm to a chaotic scene.
The only Christmas tree the producers could find was in the lobby, so they had Kalas do his taping there. Station employees filtered in and out, causing quite a bit of background noise. A gaggle of children with limited attention spans sat in front of him.
But none of that seemed to faze Kalas. Wheeler handed him the book (bought from a nearby Borders), and the broadcaster began to read.
His audience was entranced.
“It was almost like he played the role of Santa Claus,” Pozniak said. “With his voice, and the way he relates to people. He wasn’t too big to be talking to kids he didn’t know. It was like he was reading to his grandkids or something.”
Kalas sat in front of the tree for about 40 minutes, asking producers for feedback and reciting lines until he was satisfied. He even added his own creative flair.
Near the end of the poem, the broadcaster realized there was a reference to a pipe. He decided to give a nod to his partner, Richie Ashburn, who famously smoked in the booth.
“And the beard on his chin was as white as the snow,” Kalas read. “The stump of a pipe — like Whitey’s — he held tight in his teeth …”
Kalas grinned at Wheeler.
“Had to get that in there,” he said.
It wasn’t until a few years later, when Wheeler found the old recording, that he realized just how special Kalas’ version was. So KYW, and subsequently CBS3, began running it every Christmas Eve.
After Kalas died of heart disease in April 2009, the station considered ending the tradition. Wheeler and Pozniak were concerned that it would be in poor taste.
But Reece insisted they continue.
“This is a way of keeping him close,” he told the producers.
Years later, the recitation still has that effect. From start to finish, it captures Kalas perfectly. You can see his humanity, and his humor. You can hear the richness in his voice.
And if you listen closely enough, you can even catch his favorite carol, softly humming in the background: “Silent Night.”
Bryce Harper’s dream is to compete in the Olympics.
First, he’ll suit up for the World Baseball Classic.
Harper announced his plans Tuesday on Instagram, posting a photo of himself superimposed in a Team USA jersey. The Phillies star joins a loaded roster that includes Aaron Judge, Cal Raleigh, Bobby Witt Jr., teammate Kyle Schwarber, and ace pitchers Paul Skenes and Tarik Skubal.
“Put the colors on my chest for the 1st time when I was 15,” Harper wrote in a caption below his photo. “No other feeling like it.”
Harper was among the first players to commit to Team USA for the 2023 World Baseball Classic, but he was unable to play after undergoing Tommy John elbow surgery in the previous offseason.
As a teenager, Harper participated in several international tournaments. He won a gold medal at the 2009 Pan Am junior world championship for an under-18 U.S. national team that featured 10 future major leaguers, including Manny Machado and Nick Castellanos.
Harper never misses an opportunity to stump for major leaguers in the Olympics. He discussed it at a postseason news conference in 2023 and brought it up again when the Phillies played in London in 2024. He said he has shared his feelings with commissioner Rob Manfred.
Baseball will be reinstated as an Olympic sport in 2028 in Los Angeles. In October, Manfred told reporters at the World Series that MLB will consider extending the All-Star break in 2028 to enable major leaguers to compete in the Olympics.
“I’ve been a huge advocate of baseball getting back in the Olympics and us taking that pause during the regular season, kind of like hockey does, to just let the guys go and play,” Harper told The Inquirer in 2023. “It’d be so much fun to have that and have the game and see that in the Olympics and have the best players in the world doing it.”
Meanwhile, the WBC could serve as a warm-up act.
Team USA will compete in Pool B of the WBC field. Players will leave their respective spring-training camps in early March. The United States will open the preliminary round March 6 in Houston against Brazil. The WBC final will be played March 17 in Miami.
Harper, 33, batted .261 and slugged .487 with 27 homers and a 129 OPS-plus last season. And although those numbers were below his typical standards, he tied for sixth among first basemen in homers and ranked fifth in slugging.
Phillies backup catcher Garrett Stubbs committed to playing in the WBC for Israel. Manager Rob Thomson said recently that he hasn’t been informed of other players who will be going to the WBC. Jesús Luzardo and José Alvarado pitched for Venezuela in 2023.
It’s not unusual for a pitcher’s velocity to increase a little after transitioning from starting to relieving. But when Brad Keller moved to the Chicago Cubs bullpen last season, his fastball jumped over 3 miles per hour.
The increased zing — an average of 93.7 mph in 2024 became 97.1 mph last year — was followed by a career season. Keller posted a 2.07 ERA and 0.962 WHIP in 69⅔ innings with the Cubs, primarily pitching in a setup role. And he parlayed that into a two-year, $22 million contract with the Phillies last week.
“There’s nothing like the adrenaline spike when the phone rings and your name’s called,” Keller said on Monday. “So I really grew into that.”
Behind closer Jhoan Duran, Keller is set to become one of the Phillies’ top right-handed relief options along with Orion Kerkering. The Phillies also added righty Jonathan Bowlan to the mix last week in a trade for Matt Strahm. Another righty in competition for a bullpen spot will be Zach Pop, whom the Phillies signed to a major league deal on Monday. Pop, 29, has a 4.88 ERA in 162⅓ career innings, and spent most of last season in triple A in the Mariners and Mets organizations.
“We love Keller. We think he’s one of the best in the business, the way he stepped up last year as a reliever with the Cubs,” Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski said. “So we really like the way the bullpen now shapes up.”
It wasn’t just the move to the bullpen that led to Keller’s velocity increase last year. He also made some key mechanical adjustments, focusing on using his lower body more. And most important, Keller felt completely healthy.
The right-hander had thoracic outlet decompression surgery during the 2023 offseason, a procedure that Phillies ace Zack Wheeler also underwent on Sept. 23. Before his diagnosis with thoracic outlet syndrome, Keller’s hand would swell up so much because of the lack of blood flow that he couldn’t grip a baseball.
Keller returned to the mound in the spring of 2024 after signing with the Chicago White Sox. He said he didn’t quite feel like himself until the All-Star break.
“Granted, I kind of rushed my rehab because I had surgery in the offseason,” he said. “And I was a free agent that year, and I really tried to be with the team and finish rehab with the team, and then kind of roll through there.”
Keller was designated for assignment by the White Sox in May 2024 and spent the rest of that season in the Red Sox organization.
“I just carried that second half into last year, where it’s like, ‘All right, that’s in the rearview. I feel good. I don’t have to worry about that stuff anymore,’” Keller said.
When Keller signed with the Cubs last January, it was to be a starter. But after the deal came together late in the offseason, and the Cubs underwent an accelerated spring training before the Tokyo Series, he wasn’t fully built up. Chicago tried him out in the bullpen. And not only did Keller find success there, he also enjoyed the new role.
The Phillies believe the 97-mph version of Keller is here to stay.
“All of our scouting work, our analytical work, our pitching people that have taken a look at him, between [pitching coach] Caleb [Cotham] and the rest of the group,” Dombrowski said, “people that we’ve talked to feel like, ‘OK, this is him now.’ I mean, he’s a legit back-end-type guy.”
Keller still has a starter’s arsenal, using a five-pitch mix of four-seam, sinker, slider, changeup, and sweeper, which he introduced last season. He and Cotham have already discussed ways he could improve the newest offering.
“He thinks very similar to how I think about things,” said Keller, 30. “And he brought up some ideas of things that we feel like would be fun things to try, like throwing sweepers to lefties, changeups to righties, things like that that’s kind of a little unorthodox.”
This winter, other teams inquired about Keller’s willingness to return to a starting role. He said he was open to it, but he had more fun coming out of the bullpen.
Most fun of all, though, was experiencing the playoffs for the first time in his career. Keller had a 1.59 ERA in five postseason appearances with the Cubs in 2025, recording two saves and one hold. One of his biggest priorities in free agency this winter was joining a contender.
“Once you get a taste of that,” Keller said, “that’s what you crave every single year.”
When the Texas Rangers won the World Series in 2023, Brad Miller and Adolis García sprinted from the dugout to jubilate with their teammates behind the pitcher’s mound.
It wasn’t much of a race.
“Adolis has a torn oblique [in his left side] and is still just pulling away from me,” Miller said by phone this week, recalling the celebration. “Like, I can’t keep up with him.”
Nobody could. Not then. García was the hottest hitter on the planet for three weeks in the fall of 2023. He set a record with 22 RBIs in a postseason, including 15 in the American League Championship Series. With the Rangers facing elimination on the road in Houston, he smashed a grand slam in Game 6 and two homers in Game 7 to clinch the pennant.
“I’ve never seen a performance like that,” Miller said. “It was [freaking] insane.”
And it seems like a lifetime ago.
The Phillies signed García this week to a one-year, $10 million contract, and if he’s close to the middle-of-the-order masher that he once was, it will be a steal. From 2021 to 2023, he slugged .472 with a 113 OPS+, tied for sixth among all right-handed hitters with 97 home runs, won a Gold Glove, and was a two-time All-Star.
But in two seasons since his turn as Mr. October, he slugged .397 with a 96 OPS+ and 44 homers.
If that’s the hitter who shows up in Philly, the Rangers will be justified in not offering him a 2026 contract at a raised salary (projected $12 million) in his final year of arbitration. And it will be fair to wonder if García is an upgrade over even the right fielder he’s replacing: Nick Castellanos. Or if a Phillies outfield that is “pretty well set,” president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski said this week, will be any better than it was this year.
OK, before we go further, a reminder: Castellanos isn’t leaving because he’s a free agent. (He’s actually still on the roster, not that you’d know it.) And the Phillies aren’t choosing to move on from him — even while paying all or most of his $20 million 2026 salary — simply because he’s amid a three-year decline as a hitter and one of the worst defenders in the sport.
The Phillies aren’t bringing back Castellanos because, well, they can’t. Not after his insubordinate behavior in the dugout June 16 in Miami when manager Rob Thomson took him out for defense in the ninth inning. Castellanos brooded over losing his everyday job in August and publicly criticized Thomson in September.
Quite simply, he has to go — and thus far, the Phillies haven’t gotten much interest, according to a source, even though they’re willing to foot the bill. If they’re unable to trade Castellanos before spring training, they are expected to release him.
Either way, right field will represent upward of a $30 million outlay in 2026, even though it won’t be filled by Kyle Tucker, Cody Bellinger, or another $30 million-plus player. García will step into the payroll space occupied this year by Max Kepler, who got paid $10 million to slug .391 with 18 homers and an 88 OPS+ in a one-and-done Phillies tenure.
The Phillies believe García has more upside than Kepler and Castellanos. It’s a low bar. And even if hitting coach Kevin Long and the slugger-friendly environment of Citizens Bank Park are unable to unlock more production from García, Phillies officials still figure they will come out ahead.
But don’t take their word for it.
“What I would tell people is, Adolis is worth the price of admission,“ said Miller, the bamboo-loving former Phillies utility man and now a Rangers pre- and postgame television analyst. ”It’s not just like, ‘Oh, he’s a good outfielder.’ It’s exciting stuff, like he’ll make diving plays, he’ll throw a guy out from the wall in right field. I can just picture that at the Bank. He’ll have the arm to throw in the air from anywhere in right field and get somebody out.
“He plays with a flair. And he can do everything. I’m excited for him. I think it’s going be a breath of fresh air.”
Name the players, based on these numbers over the last two seasons:
Castellanos is Hitter A; García, if you couldn’t guess, is Hitter B. They were strikingly similar in their swing-and-miss tendencies. If anything, García exhibited marginally better discipline while Castellanos struck out slightly less frequently.
But a deeper dive into the quality of the contact each player did make helps explain why multiple Phillies scouts recommended to Dombrowski that García could be poised for a bounce back.
Over the last two seasons, the average exit velocity on balls hit by Castellanos was 88.1 mph, compared to 91.6 mph for García. Castellanos’ hard-hit rate, defined as batted balls at 95 mph or more, was 36.5%; García‘s was 47.6%.
And García‘s metrics weren’t far off his career-best 2023 season, when his average exit velocity was 92.1 mph and his hard-hit rate totaled 49.7%.
“Our scouts had very good reports on him,” Dombrowski said. “Even though some of the stuff may be slightly down, it’s still positive in many directions. The tools are there. The ball jumps off his bat still; bat speed’s still there; exit velocity is very good. Those are all things that we feel encouraged about.
“We think it has more to do with approach than it does with ability.”
The Phillies’ efforts over the years to tweak Castellanos’ approach weren’t always embraced.
Although Thomson and Long conceded that Castellanos always would be an aggressive hitter, they focused on “controlled aggression,” a happy medium in which he could still swing at pitches early in the count while laying off low-and-away breaking balls in particular. Castellanos often said the emphasis on his chase rate left him stuck between approaches.
The Phillies will soon discover if García is open to adjustments. Long and assistant hitting coach Edwar Gonzalez are expected to drop in on García at his home in Tampa, Fla., before spring training to start “chipping away,” as Thomson put it.
García said he has already had phone calls with Long.
“We believe in the same things,” he said, via assistant general manager Jorge Velandia’s interpretation. “We’re on the same page already. … The focus is not to be a hero. Just [stay] within myself.”
Whereas Castellanos tends to fish for sliders (pitchers fed him almost as many breaking pitches as fastballs this season), García is vulnerable to elevated fastballs. As such, he saw heaters 64.3% of the time and flailed away, batting .215 and slugging only .300 against 95 mph and harder.
“What Adolis did when I saw him hitting at his best is he took most of those pitches,” Miller said. “He laid off the velocity up. He was really hunting a certain spot and not necessarily tomahawking balls and doing anything crazy. He was just laying off those tough pitches.”
Never more than in the 2023 postseason.
“He would take some swings like Adrian Beltré, where he’d fall over and his helmet would fly off because he wanted it so bad,” Miller said. “But then he would recalibrate, take a deep breath. When he was at his best, it was very controlled. Because he has enough power and then some. When he stays within himself, good things happen.”
At least they used to. Since the 2023 playoffs, García’s .278 on-base percentage is the lowest among 120 players with at least 1,000 plate appearances. His .675 OPS is tied for 116th.
Corey Seager and Marcus Semien were the stars of the 2023 World Series team. But García predated both in Texas.
Acquired from the Cardinals in a cash trade in 2019, García got designated for assignment and outrighted to triple A in 2021 only to make the All-Star team later that season.
“He’s self-made, you know?” Miller said. “He was a fan favorite in Texas, truly. He was kind of ‘The Guy.’”
And when the Rangers stumbled to a 78-84 record in their title defense in 2024, Miller suggested nobody took it harder than García. He painted García as conscientious and “soft-spoken,” belying the fiery emotion that he often shows on the field.
It didn’t get much better this year. The Rangers were 26th in the majors in batting average (.234) and slugging (.381) and 22nd in runs scored (684). They got shut out 15 times and scored less than two runs in 20% of their games. Midway through the season, they fired hitting coach Donnie Ecker.
García conceded he might’ve put too much pressure on himself.
“He’s very self-aware,” Miller said.
In a sense, then, García might benefit from a change of scenery as much as Castellanos. Thomson, with Velandia’s help, delivered a message in their first phone conversation with him this week.
“You have to be yourself and relax,” Thomson said. “Have fun, be yourself, don’t try to do too much. Because we’ve got a lot of really good players around him. I know that Texas had some injuries last year. Maybe he tried to do a little bit too much for the team.”
Said Dombrowski: “We don’t need him to hit the ball out of the ballpark on every swing or every at-bat. He needs to be more under control with the swing. We think he can do that.”
And what if he does?
“There’s going to be some times,” Miller said, “where he is going to make Citizens Bank Park look very small.”
Matt Strahm ranked among the most effective lefty relievers in baseball over the last three seasons.
Yet, to the Phillies, he was expendable.
In a move that saved nearly $7 million to help address other needs (re-signing J.T. Realmuto?) — and may have been spurred by an increasingly strained relationship between the team and pitcher — the Phillies traded Strahm to the Royals on Friday for right-handed reliever Jonathan Bowlan.
“Matt’s done a nice, solid job for us,” president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski said. “He’s been a good part of our ballclub. We’re in a spot though, with three left-handers, we didn’t necessarily think we needed all three.”
Indeed, with José Alvarado’s return from an 80-game drug suspension and the emergence this year of late-blooming Tanner Banks, the Phillies have two late-inning lefties to pair with star closer Jhoan Duran, newly signed Brad Keller, and Orion Kerkering from the right side.
(They also traded for sidearming lefty Kyle Backhus from the Diamondbacks on Friday for minor league outfielder Avery Owusu-Asiedu. Backhus has minor league options and represents bullpen depth.)
So, although Strahm had a 2.71 ERA in 188 appearances since 2023, including a 2.74 mark in 66 games this year, the Phillies were comfortable with reapportioning $7.5 million salary for 2026, especially after signing Keller this week to a two-year, $22 million deal. Bowlan, 29, will make slightly more than the $780,000 major league minimum.
The Phillies began getting calls on all three lefty relievers early in the offseason, according to a major league source. They were most willing to listen on Strahm.
Because while Strahm was durable and versatile (10 starts in 2023), he faltered in each of the last two postseasons. He allowed four runs in two innings over three games against the Mets in the 2024 divisional round, then allowed Teoscar Hernández’s go-ahead three-run homer in Game 1 this year against the Dodgers.
Strahm was a veteran leader in the bullpen. But there were hints that the outspoken 34-year-old might have begun to overstep. For example, after Kerkering’s season-ending errant throw in Game 4 at Dodger Stadium, Strahm told reporters that he wished he pushed the Phillies to put their pitchers through more rigorous fielding practice.
Dombrowski pushed back on that idea in his end-of-season news conference.
“We did plenty,” Dombrowski said. “Actually, as it turns out, we did do [pitcher fielding practice] in the postseason. He didn’t do them. But we did them.”
After the trade, Dombrowski denied any issues with Strahm.
“I can’t speak for others in our situation, but if Matt would have come back with us, we’d have felt very comfortable,” he said. “I’ve always had a good relationship with him. I loved talking to his wife and his daughter. That’s from my perspective.”
Bowlan has a spot in the season-opening bullpen, alongside Duran, Keller, Alvarado, Kerkering, and Banks. He posted a 3.86 ERA in 34 appearances for the Royals and held right-handed hitters to a .182 average.
“When we look at him, not a real well-known guy, but somebody that we think can contribute to us on a strong basis from the right-hand side,” Dombrowski said. “And of course, he doesn’t have to pitch the eighth or ninth for us. We can kind of gradually work him into different situations.”
The Phillies could look at Rule 5 selection Zach McCambley and a group of optionable relievers — Backhus, Seth Johnson, Max Lazar, and newcomer Yoniel Curet — to cycle through the last two spots in the bullpen. With two vacancies on the 40-man roster, they continue to seek depth for the bullpen and starting rotation.
But the No. 1 priority remains bringing back Realmuto. MLB.com reported that the Phillies have an offer on the table. But it’s possible Realmuto is trying to get a guaranteed third year.
“We would love to re-sign him,” Dombrowski said. “But [the situation] really hasn’t changed very much.”
In jettisoning Strahm, the Phillies might have freed up a few extra dollars. They still have approximately $299 million in 2026 payroll commitments, as calculated for the luxury tax. They’re expected to stay within range of the 2025 payroll, which came in at roughly $312 million, over the fourth (and highest) tax threshold.
Dombrowski said the Phillies “continue to work through some details” in hiring Don Mattingly to be the bench coach. Mattingly is the leading candidate for the job, which opened after the postseason when Mike Calitri moved into a newly created role of major league field coordinator. … The Phillies intend to replace assistant general manager Ani Kilambi, hired away this week as GM of the Washington Nationals. Kilambi led the data and analytics arm of Dombrowski’s front office.
For two decades, Scott Franzke’s voice has been the soundtrack of the summer for Phillies fans. And his radio calls of some of the best moments in franchise history are legendary — from Jimmy Rollins’ walkoff double in the 2009 NLCS to Bryce Harper’s “Bedlam at the Bank” homer in 2022. The longtime play-by-play announcer joined Phillies Extra to talk about the team’s offseason and much more. Watch here.
