Having a top two seed is cool.
The Phillies clinched a top-two seed because Edmundo Sosa hit three home runs in a game. Kyle Schwarber is now at 56 dingers, potentially closing in on the Phillies single-season record. Taijuan Walker threw 94 mph. The vibes are great with this team at the moment.
But none of it beats the Big Dumper hitting his sixtieth homer with that Seattle crowd behind him.
Ok, back to the Phillies.
David Robertson
Since September 1, Robertson has appeared in 9 games, pitched 8.0 innings, and is carrying a 7.88 ERA. All of his runs have come either on a back-to-back or with a week off between outings.
It’s easy to handwave some of that. There is an extra off day between games 1 and 2 in the NLDS. He may only need to pitch one back-to-back, maybe two, or maybe none at all.
The last scenario is a bit harder to envision, however. The bullpen features a shutdown closer in Jhoan Duran (who cares about his last few outings. He’ll be fine.) and a very good setup man in Matt Strahm, but since the trade deadline, the overall group has been average. That’s mostly because of their lack of depth.
For the Phillies bullpen to push through October, Robertson will need to be a key contributor, especially if Orion Kerkering can’t be trusted.
Robertson has also been highly regarded as a reverse splits guy for his career but left-handed hitters have crushed him lately. In September, lefties are hitting .333 and have a slugging of .733.
One of the few, but key questions remaining in October is if Robertson still has enough juice for October. It’s going to be a wait and see with him.
Extended Minor League check-in.
I talked about Andrew Painter and Aidan Miller last week but others certainly deserved mentions for their minor league seasons.
Justin Crawford has been sidelined with a concussion since mid-September but there are still plenty of things to talk about with his season. The counting stats were still there, hitting .313 with a 131 wRC+. He still rocked a BABIP that likely won’t sustain in the majors and the swing is the swing right now.
One key stat that hasn’t been talked about enough with Crawford is his walk rate. In 2023, across A-ball and high A, Crawford walked 8.2% of the time in 390 plate appearances. In 2024, between high A and AA, his walk rate was 6.4% in 497 plate appearances.
In 2025, across 506 plate appearances in AAA, he walked 11.5% of the time. While his chase rate was low, it was all still enough to battle back and work deep counts.
For Crawford to become the speedy outfielder the Phillies envision, a jump in walk rate is required unless he starts hitting for way more power.
Griff McGarry was put back into the rotation in AA this year and looked more comfortable. He still struggles with walks but struck out plenty of hitters in 72 innings. It was enough for him to earn a late-season promotion in AAA where he struck out eight in five innings of work.
McGarry’s future is a more interesting conversation than a year ago. He is once again rule-five eligible and would probably be taken if left unprotected. The Phillies don’t have much starting pitching depth after Andrew Painter, either, which benefits McGarry.
Dante Nori is probably the most improved Phillies prospect as the season went on. He is a small, light-hitting outfielder with very good plate discipline. He walked 13.0% of the time in 577 plate appearances this year and only struck out 14.7% of the time.
After spending most of the season in A ball, Nori earned a promotion to Jersey Shore where he thrived, hitting .279 with a .396 on-base percentage. It was all enough for him to earn a second promotion to AA.
There are still clear questions about Nori’s ceiling and he only slugged .372 for the year but his high floor pushed him to AA and might continue to do so next year. Nori is a good story for an otherwise mostly disappointing draft class.
Category: General Sports
