Phillies are nearing a losing season after a half-billion-dollar offseason | Extra Innings

The Phillies were greeted Wednesday afternoon in their clubhouse with a countdown to spring training, but they might want to remember that this season isn’t quite over yet. The Phillies have lost seven of their last eight games and have a .500 record for the first time this season.

The Phils were the only team in baseball to not have a losing record for all of 2019 until they lost again Wednesday night at Nationals Park. They won’t make the playoffs, but they can at least secure the franchise’s first winning record since 2011 by winning three of their final four games. The Phillies certainly want to avoid following their half-billion-dollar offseason with a losing season. Come Sunday, they’ll have plenty of time to worry about spring training.

“Absolutely a desire to have a winning season,” manager Gabe Kapler said. “It’s important to me. It’s important to this ball club. We’re going to keep doing everything in our power to make that happen by preparing hard. By grinding every day.”

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— Matt Breen (extrainnings@inquirer.com)

The Phillies, Kapler said earlier this month, would fight, scratch, and claw throughout the season’s final month. The manager never guaranteed that they would overcome their slim playoff chances and reach October, but he did say they would “fight all the way through the finish line.”

Well, the race will wrap up Sunday afternoon and the Phillies seem to be crawling toward the finish line. They have lost 14 of their 24 games this month to all but secure themselves a fourth-place finish in the National League East. They have been outscored, 22-10, in the first four games against the Nationals and will look to avoid a five-game sweep Thursday against Stephen Strasburg.

But Kapler said he is “certainly” seeing fight from his players.

“Sometimes it’s a little bit too much fight,” Kapler said this week. “Sometimes it’s a little bit too much. There’s a lot of pressure. Our guys want to perform so badly. And I appreciate and respect that about them. And sometimes they put a little additional pressure on themselves. I think that’s what we’re seeing right now.”

Kapler illustrated his team’s fight after Wednesday night’s loss by pointing to the way Jean Segura turned on an inside fastball for a ninth-inning single and the inspired play of Bryce Harper. Segura caught up with Sean Doolittle’s 95-mph fastball, but he’s still batting .232 this month.

Harper has a 10-game hitting streak, but it’s the way that he ran the bases Wednesday night that showed his fight. Harper turned a bloop hit to left field into a fourth-inning double by sprinting out of the box, and he reached second in the eighth after dropping a single into center and pressuring the fielder to make an error by making a hard turn around first.

Harper and Brad Miller, who on Wednesday night hit his fifth homer in five days, have provided most of the pulse for the last week. The rest of lineup has struggled and looked flat, while the fight of Harper and Miller has been easy to see. And if the Phillies want to finish with a winning record, the rest of the team will have to channel some of their energy for the final four days.

“We’re here. We’ve got to play, myself included,” Harper said after Wednesday’s loss. “I want to go out there every single day and play hard. I think these fans deserve that and this team deserves that and I’m going to do that.

"That’s the way I’ve always been. I want to do the best I can and I think a lot of the guys in here do as well, and we have to play to the best of our ability for the next four days and the next four games. We have to kind of show what we’re made of and do what we can for the next four.”

Bryce Harper was not happy after he said hecklers at Nationals Park crossed the line late in Wednesday night’s game, Scott Lauber writes. Harper has dealt with jeers at almost every ballpark this season, but he said this was different. “It’s just not right,” Harper said.

There are a lot of reasons to believe that things will be better in 2020, but Bob Brookover writes that it would be foolish to make a guarantee. Brookover writes from Washington about the reasons Phillies fans should be optimistic — but also leery — about the team’s future.

J.T. Realmuto’s season is over, and the catcher will likely have minor knee surgery Friday, Lauber writes. The Phillies do not have long-term concerns about Realmuto, and he’s expected to be ready for spring training. “There’s actually some reason for optimism for J.T. to get even better,” Kapler said.

Today: Jason Vargas tries for his 100th career victory when he faces right-hander Stephen Strasburg, 4:05 p.m.

Tomorrow: Phillies return home for three against the Marlins in the final series of the season, 7:05 p.m.

Saturday: The Phillies face Marlins left-hander Caleb Smith, 6:05 p.m.

Sunday: The Phillies end the season against Marlins right-hander Sandy Alcantara, 3:05 p.m.

Monday: The offseason begins.

It’s easy to compare the 2019 Phillies to the 1979 Phillies, who also fell short of making the playoffs after making a huge splash in free agency. But Pete Rose and the ‘79 Phillies won 84 games and would have needed to win 98 to reach the playoffs.

Their disappointment was much different from that of Harper and the 2019 Phillies, who are on pace to win just 81 games in a season in which 90 victories might have been enough for October.

But we did find a comparison to 1979 that fits. The ‘79 Phillies, as we wrote earlier this season, wore all-maroon uniforms for one game in May of that season. They lost, the players hated them, and the team sold them. The Phillies were then in first place, but they had just a .472 winning percentage the rest of the way and finished fourth.

The 2019 Phillies brought the jerseys back in July and suffered a similar fate. The Phillies lost that night to the Braves and have a .454 winning percentage since. They were a game out of the wild-card race that night, but they’ll likely finish in fourth place in the division, just as the ‘79 Phillies did.

Maybe it wasn’t the bullpen injuries or starting-pitching troubles or the lack of home runs. Maybe it was those ugly uniforms that sank their season.

Send questions by email or on Twitter @matt_breen.

Question: What a disappointing conclusion to what looked to be such a promising season. Those first couple weeks with Harper and Hoskins jumping around high-fiving so happy and so filled with enthusiasm ended Tuesday night with a team of minor leaguers and bench players giving it all they had, but just so over-matched.

Moving toward my 72nd year as a Phillies fan next year I am sadly filled with pessimism. Do the Phillies have the courage to make major leadership changes as needed, can their top rated minor leaguers play at the MLB level, can they sign or trade for a couple top rated starters, and can they keep players like J.T. Realmuto?

No matter what, it promises to be a very interesting off season. What do you and your fellow Inquirer writers see in your crystal ball? — Everett S. via email

Answer: Thanks, Everett. I don’t have a crystal ball, but I wish I did because I’m just as curious as you are to see what the Phillies do this offseason.

They will have to decide this weekend if Gabe Kapler is their manager for 2020. Kapler is under contract for next season, but it’s not 100% certain that he will return. Even if Kapler is back, his coaching staff will be altered.

You’ll see Spencer Howard and Alec Bohm reach the majors sometime early next season, and both should be able to contribute right away at the major-league level. It’s a safe bet that J.T. Realmuto will sign a long-term contract this winter. The only question is how much it will be worth.

I expect the Phillies to be active in free agency, especially after Anthony Rendon and Gerrit Cole. They have plenty of money to spend, and they’ll try to land the offseason’s biggest prizes. John Middleton will push the envelope again, especially after the way this season finished.