February 14, 2026
Rob Schumacher/The Republic / USA TODAY NETWORK
The Phillies have kept running out the same core group, and have kept hitting the same October wall.
Pitchers and catchers are already down in Clearwater, and the rest of the players aren't far behind, if they're not down there already.
Spring training is here, and a new Phillies season is around the corner. But the feeling, the excitement, it's different now.
They're following up on another October run that quickly fell flat in the NLDS, they lost out to the rival Mets on the Bo Bichette sweepstakes at the 11th hour this winter, and as a result, they're pretty much set to run back nearly the same lineup that has gotten them back to the postseason again and again, sure, but only went colder than the early fall weather ever did once they got there.
Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski said the organization is "content with where we are at this point," after they whiffed on Bichette and quickly moved to re-up veteran catcher J.T. Realmuto last month.
Manager Rob Thomson, when speaking soon after in the Phillies' clubhouse at Citizens Bank Park, insisted to the press that the Phillies weren't simply running it back again.
He was right....to an extent.
Thomson cited new relievers coming in, headlined by the free-agent signing of right-hander Brad Keller, and the Phillies' new right fielder Adolis García. He brought up prospect Justin Crawford, who has been put in a spot to come in and take the starting center-field job this spring. He mentioned Otto Kemp, who is looking at his first full season in the majors, and then got to Andrew Painter, who the club seems to be hoping will be ready to take the leap as a young starting pitcher.
"We're turning over 20-25 percent of our roster," Thomson said (via NBC Sports Philadelphia). "So if you think that's turning it back, or running back, whatever the saying is...Yeah, I can't help you."
But the root of the thought that has grown among fans all winter that it's just same old, same old with the Phillies isn't in those changes at the margins, it's in the core of the lineup.
Bryce Harper and the Phillies' core are only getting older.
García will be new, for sure, and Crawford, if he makes it, represents some sorely needed youth, but otherwise, seven of the nine bats the Phillies have been starting almost every day since 2023 are projected to keep on doing so in 2026.
Nick Castellanos is out after the Phillies absorbed the last year and $20 million of his deal to finally complete their breakup, but Trea Turner is back and isn't going anywhere, and neither is Kyle Schwarber after he signed on for another five years and $150 million. Bryce Harper will be entering Year 8 of his 13-year pact, Alec Bohm remains at third even after another offseason of rumors, Realmuto is starting the clock on a new three-year deal, Stott is still holding down second base, and Brandon Marsh is still hanging in there as one of the Phillies' better outfielders - even though, at this point, it seems pretty clear that he's not going to suddenly learn how to hit lefties.
For the most part, about 78 percent of the lineup, it's the same group that crumbled in Game 7 of the 2023 NLCS against Arizona, and has only yielded diminishing returns in the postseason since, despite back-to-back 96-win seasons with resulting NL East crowns.
They're not getting any younger either.
Turner, Schwarber, Harper, and Realmuto are all well into their 30s, and the bunch that was formerly known as the Phillies' Daycare in Bohm, Marsh, and Stott, they're not kids anymore. They're in their late 20s, with their service times bringing free agency closer and closer on the horizon.
Oh, and García, as one of the key bats to change things up, he was signed to a one-year deal on a gamble that he could recapture his form with the Rangers during their World Series run...from 2023.
It's going on more than four years since the Phillies broke out into that 2022 miracle run to the World Series. They haven't gotten any closer since.
They kept the group mostly together trying to, first minus Rhys Hoskins and now Castellanos, yet kept hitting the same wall.
And now they're going to do it again, with some, for now, minor changes, all while baseball rapidly moves forward as they get older.
The feeling, the excitement and hope in the air that spring training always manages to bring around, it's different now for the Phillies.
It's not 2023 anymore, and it's tough to get optimistic about a lineup that is largely still stuck there.
The Phillies' lineup from Game 7 of the 2023 NLCS, Game 4 of the 2024 NLDS, Game 4 of the 2025 NLDS, and the projected list for 2026 all next to each other to wrap (with returning players all bolded):
| 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | 2026* |
| 1) Schwarber, DH | 1) Schwarber, DH | 1) Turner, SS | 1) Turner, SS |
| 2) Turner, SS | 2) Turner, SS | 2) Schwarber, DH | 2) Schwarber, DH |
| 3) Harper, 1B | 3) Harper, 1B | 3) Harper, 1B | 3) Harper, 1B |
| 4) Bohm, 3B | 4) Castellanos, RF | 4) Bohm, 3B | 4) Bohm, 3B |
| 5) Stott, 2B | 5) Bohm, 3B | 5) Marsh, CF | 5) Stott, 2B |
| 6) Realmuto, C | 6) Realmuto, C | 6) Realmuto, CF | 6) García, RF |
| 7) Castellanos, RF | 7) Stott, 2B | 7) Kepler, LF | 7) Marsh, LF |
| 8) Marsh, LF | 8) Wilson, LF | 8) Castellanos, RF | 8) Realmuto, C |
| 9) Rojas, CF | 9) Marsh, CF | 9) Stott, 2B | 9) Crawford, CF |
*Projected
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