Phillies

The Brewers Showed the Phillies That the Key to Success is Pretty Simple

By Nick Piccone

Published: Oct 31st, 2026 · 11:11 AM EDT

---

While the 2026 World Series wasn’t the exciting spectacle a lot of baseball diehards – including myself – were hoping for, it’s still fun to see a franchise win their first championship if our team’s not on the other side. The Brewers had that feeling of a team about to do something special after sweeping the Dodgers in the NLCS. And just watching them dominate made the Phillies ending another season with a whimper a little less annoying, because who knows how much of a bloodbath it would have been if those teams met in this year’s postseason.

The Phillies’ starting rotation is a huge strength that keeps them in most games through the course of a season, so it’s hard to criticize them harshly. But the lineup is fair game and has been fair game for years. The calls to fire Kevin Long fell on deaf ears for multiple seasons before the Phillies finally decided to move on from him and hire Peter Fatse. With Long, it was not necessarily about approach when it came to coaching. The big hitters never changed theirs. They stuck with what got them to The Show. Aside from Bizzaro World Bryce Harper in August 2026, it actually felt like the hitting coach did not do much of anything on the surface. Of course, we’re not privy to behind-the-scenes discussions, and that’s why coaches usually are the first domino to fall when it comes to change. I think a lot of us reached our tipping point when we found out the Phillies didn’t have a lefty to hit batting practice off of during games until a month into the season. Whether it was Long who noticed, “Oh, we might need this,” well after the season started or the Phillies’ front office dragging their feet because they didn’t prioritize a K-Long replacement lefty for BP in games, it was a bit embarrassing to be a fan of an organization finding themselves in that position – something they could have controlled.

For years, this Phillies lineup has been guessing at what pitch is coming next instead of reacting to where the baseball is thrown. Understandably, hitting Major League pitching is hard. Pitchers are throwing “alien stuff” as one Twitter user said to me earlier this season, but that doesn’t mean hitters can’t adjust to what adjustments are being done to them, either. And it just never felt like Phillies hitters adjusted to anything. When we got a glimpse of that in August, we thought there was a very real chance the 2026 Phillies could finally get over the hump.

Not only did they not get over the hump, but their Wild Card series loss to the Braves (who barely gave the Dodgers a sweat in the NLDS, who then got dominated by the Brewers in the NLCS) showed the same problems that have plagued this offense for years.

When you watch the Brewers hit, it’s like they’re playing a different game. They hit the baseball where it’s thrown. They’re not assuming what pitch is being thrown and flailing at it when they tail 12 inches or further out of the strike zone. They don’t self-destruct with two strikes. They’re not afraid to not hit home runs. They used to be the team that self-destructed under the bright lights, but not this year. They showed what lineups in this league can do to sustain success for a long period of time – even without the long ball. I’m not saying the home runs aren’t good for the Phillies, and that’s a big reason why guys like Schwarber and Harper give this lineup the juice it has, but the rest of the lineup just doesn’t cut it. The rest of the lineup chases that home run high they see from Schwarber and Harper and can’t escape the mindset. They do for a couple games at a time here and there, but nobody can sustain it. Then the pressure mounts on Schwarber and Harper to make up for it, and then they get into terrible slumps that just bring the entire lineup down even more. And, not to mention, Schwarber and Harper are always chasing that home run high, too. That doesn’t help. But that’s what this lineup is built on, and neither of them are going to start becoming contact hitters. I don’t know how Dave Dombrowski and John Middleton looked at this lineup in 2024 and thought it was good enough to try for two more seasons.

Even with the lockout looming, it feels like this Phillies team could look different on offense in 2027. Again, it might not look great in the regular season, but what we need are guys not afraid of the bright lights in the postseason. Guys not afraid to swing the bat where the ball is thrown. I don’t know if Fatse can fix those things per se, but the first step has been taken. Will the Phillies eventually try to sell off their high-priced players if a new hitting coach can’t fix the lineup flaws? It’s possible. We’re one step closer to the end of an incredible Phillies era that could go down as one of the most disappointing despite this franchise’s less-than-stellar history. And that’s something I didn’t think I’d write a couple years ago.