As the New Year’s cheer unwinds and calendars swap out for the 2025 model, the baseball community looks up to the realization that, in just over a month, the best baseball players from over 20 countries will flock to Florida and Arizona to begin Spring Training once more.
For the Philadelphia Phillies, they will return to Clearwater after once again falling short of the goal of a World Series title in 2024. Another year has passed for a team that already owned the fourth-oldest lineup of batters in 2024, per Baseball Reference.
So as the Phillies collectively come out of their offseason slumber and re-engage ahead of their report date, here are three New Year’s resolutions Philadelphia should look to keep in 2025.
No. 1: Strikeout Less
In 2024, it felt as if the Phillies struck out at every bad moment possible. Many two-out rallies were for naught due to an untimely strikeout. Individually, Kyle Schwarber was third across the Major Leagues with 197 strikeouts.
But then, if you look back at the greater picture, you see that the Phillies were as average as you could get in the strikeouts department. Philadelphia struck out 1,370 times in 2024, while the league average was 1,373. Why does it feel then like they are striking out more than ever? Simply because they are, and so is everyone else. 1,370 strikeouts is the seventh-most in franchise history for the Phillies, with all of the top ten occurring in the past 11 seasons. The only one of those seasons not represented on that list is the shortened 2020 season.
For comparison, the Phillies’ 1,370 strikeouts would be just one more than the 2008 Florida Marlins, whose 1,371 strikeouts were the most in the League that season. The game of baseball has changed. With an over-emphasis on home runs has come an increase in strikeouts league-wide. This also creates an opportunity for the Phillies. If they are able to improve by just one strikeout per game, they will be in the top six in the Major Leagues in 2025. Less strikeouts also means more balls in play which will eventually lead to more run production.
No. 2: Continue to Pitch Deeper Into Games
One area in which the Phillies were not average in 2024 was the innings pitched per start amongst their starting pitchers. Philadelphia’s starting pitchers pitched an average of 5.6 innings per start, second behind the Seattle Mariners. They did so while hurling 80 quality starts, second again to the Mariners, and were effective in doing so, throwing 89 pitches per start.
These numbers are not only a testament to the quality of starting pitchers the Phillies have in Zack Wheeler, Aaron Nola, Cristopher Sanchez, and Ranger Suarez, but they also show the amount of trust manager Rob Thomson has in his staff. Going deeper into starts also allows the bullpen to be more well-rested, preventing any unnecessary burnout there in the dog days of the summer.
With the addition of Jesus Luzardo and the expected arrival of Andrew Painter later in the summer, it is imperative that the Phillies continue to improve upon this trend in 2025. Barring a resurgence from newly-acquired reliever Jordan Romano, the Phillies are in lack of a true closer in their bullpen and will likely continue with the bullpen-by-committee philosophy that has served the team well in recent years.
That philosophy is best executed when the entirety of the bullpen is ready on any given day, allowing Thomson to play out the matchup game to the best of his ability. That game begins with the starting pitchers going three rounds deep into the opposition’s lineup on a consistent basis.
No. 3: Bring John Middleton Back His Trophy
The Phillies have gone on a run for the past few years, and there is no denying that. Unfortunately, all of that success and money spent to put together their roster will be fruitless if the Phillies do not close the deal.
2025 marks 17 years since the Phillies have won the World Series. Despite the final out call from Harry Kalas and Chase Utley’s “World f***ing Champions” speech still sitting in the minds of the Phillies faithful as if it were yesterday, it was not yesterday. There are Phillies fans who were born after the World Series victory and are now applying to college.
It is about time for the Philadelphia Phillies to change that and give John Middleton back his trophy.
