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Gaslighting Rob Thomson Thinks Phillies are Better “Than We Were on the Same Day a Year Ago”
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Topper did a Zoom call with the scribes on Tuesday morning:
“We can’t forget that we won 96 games last year, and we got a really good club. We’re gonna turn over probably 20 to 25% of our roster. That’s not including having (Jhoan) Duran for the entire year. But I like the improvements we’ve made to our bullpen. We’ve got a new right fielder. We’re gonna inject hopefully some youth into our team with the (Justin) Crawfords of the world, the (Andrew) Painters of the world, Otto Kemp. (Aidan) Miller’s not far away. I’m really excited about it. I’m more excited about it this year than I was last year because I think we’re better this year, on this day, this year, than we were on the same day a year ago.”
Well that’s just like, your opinion man. The Phillies lost Ranger Suarez and 35-year-old Zack Wheeler is coming back from venous thoracic outlet syndrome. Adolis Garcia is not a guaranteed upgrade over Nick Castellanos and Brandon Marsh is going to platoon in left field, we think. Nobody has any clue what Crawford, Painter, or Miller are going to be as pros. They swapped Matt Strahm for Brad Keller, got rid of Jordan Romano (addition by subtraction), and they have a not-suspended Jose Alvarado and Duran for the full season, as Thomson points out, so the bullpen is at least in better shape now than it was. But who knows what Orion Kerkering looks like after the way 2025 ended. What kind of head space is he in? Also note that Aaron Nola is playing in the WBC and coming off a bad season and we don’t know if we’re getting Taijuan Walker or Cy-Juan walker in 2026. There are so many question marks on paper.
When we say “run it back,” we’re talking about the expensive core, and it’s the same core as last year. It’s a great core, a core that won 96 games, but every member of said core is a year older and they haven’t done squat in the playoffs in two full years now. To say this team is better now than it was a year ago is preposterous, and I guess the guy is just excited about this camp, but Topper is kind of gaslighting us. Obviously the dude cannot come out and say some shit like “I think dopey Dombrowski had a terrible offseason,” and he’s gonna toe the company line, but if anything, the year-to-year changes are flat. This team is probably not worse than it was, but it’s not demonstrably better AT THIS VERY MOMENT.
I guess we will have to just play the baseball games and see what happens.
Kevin has been writing about Philadelphia sports since 2009. He spent seven years in the CBS 3 sports department and started with the Union during the team's 2010 inaugural season. He went to the academic powerhouses of Boyertown High School and West Virginia University. email - k.kinkead@sportradar.com