Phillies

Why I’m Not Poo-Pooing the 2026 Phillies Season in January

By Nick Piccone

Published: Jan 17th, 2026 · 2:32 PM EST

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In November, I wrote that the most important free agent the Phillies needed to bring back was J.T. Realmuto.

My basis for that:

It was clear the Phillies didn’t have any sort of plan at catcher for the post-Realmuto era. So kicking the can down the road a few years made sense in that Realmuto was still a very good catcher that could probably still get the best out of this pitching staff. But having to pay him $45 million over three years feels like it was rewarding his past seasons. He’ll be 35 when this year begins, and there will be minimal expectations on offense.

Meanwhile, the Dodgers once again are landing pretty much anyone they want. They signed former Mets closer Edwin Diaz, who they probably didn’t even need, to a three-year, $69 million deal in December. Then, Thursday night, they signed another prized free agent in Kyle Tucker to a ridiculous four-year, $240 million deal, with opt-outs after the second and third seasons.

Honestly, who in their right mind would opt out of $60 million ($57.1 million with $30 million deferred)?

Obviously, there were takes flying. Of course, my first reaction was like many – what the? The rich get richer in baseball terms while the rich (owners) get richer in everyday real life terms. There are owners who obviously can pay that amount to Tucker if they want to. But there are also owners who don’t have the track record of making big splashes and aren’t about to now. Almost everybody is convinced that this will be the last season before a lockout and possible salary floor and salary cap. I think a salary floor would be a good start, but I don’t think a cap would pass right now. I think the other MLB owners are loving what the Dodgers are doing because the optics are becoming increasingly less about the owners crying poor and more about the Dodgers’ revenue streams that allow them to orchestrate these moves.

And, hey, hats off to them. They’ve got the revenue streams and are using them and paying the associated tax penalties. They’re now the team to hate because of the star power. And as great as Shohei Ohtani is while deservedly getting praise every which way, it’s becoming exhausting for fans to hear everyone gushing over him. Phillies pitching dominated him in the NLDS, but it barely was discussed on a national level because the Phils couldn’t win those games.

Before Bo Bichette signed with the Mets, I wrote a draft column basically stating this Phillies team is still worth getting invested in during the regular season, if not only because they and the Union are the only teams that will play games throughout the spring and summer. Sure, it’d be nice if we could have some playoff hockey and basketball to get excited about, but that’s not exactly a given to happen this year. I wound up getting rid of the column because four minutes after applying the finishing touches, Bichette was a Met.

It feels like the Phillies are now on borrowed time because of the recent playoff failures. They’ve now graduated from “Oh, this is fun,” in 2022 to “Wake me up in October” in 2026. And I think a lot of it is based on what happened during the last great Phillies era of 2007-2011. The better the team and roster got in the regular season, the worse they did in the playoffs. It really feels similar to this era. Some fans have already declared the window closed. I’m not one of them, but it’s hard to feel optimistic about their championship chances as we sit right now.

The pitching is still a strength. Keeping Realmuto maintains consistency that might be more important than ever this season. In addition to that, the Justin Crawford experiment will begin, and who knows if we get to see Andrew Painter or Aidan Miller in the big leagues. So while it’s not as flashy as a lineup featuring Bichette would have been, it feels like this season will be more about finding ways to include the future of the club.

The regular season is long enough, so we don’t need to fast forward to October to see what this team does. Watching baseball for eight months while being simultaneously scared of the Dodgers in the playoffs doesn’t make much sense. The Phillies were in as good a spot as any to put themselves in position to win the best-of-five series, the Brewers were a joke, but the Blue Jays had the title won before choking themselves. Of course, the Dodgers being built the way they are helped them overcome their own adversity, but it could just as much be the team in the other dugout focused too much on “beating the Dodgers” instead of winning the game.

As bad as the “Phillies can do no wrong” fans are, the same can be said for the “doomers.” A win in May can be fun. You can still go the ballpark in the summer and have a good time. Well, you can if you’re a baseball fan. You can also hold the team accountable for not doing enough to improve their chances to win a championship. It really doesn’t matter what other teams do or don’t do; what matters is how this clubhouse can work towards the ultimate goal. Will Rob Thomson make universally liked decisions? Will Don Mattingly change anything? The Dodgers went through multiple seasons of failure before finally winning their World Series. And while the hill to climb in 2026 is obviously tougher, baseball’s a weird game. A game that some of us love, some of us like, and some of us hate. Sometimes all at the same time.