April 23, 2026
David Banks/Imagn Images
Rob Thomson has the Phillies stuck in one of their worst losing streaks ever.
The last time the Phillies went 25 games into a season without winning 10 games, Ben Revere led off, Ryan Howard hit cleanup after Chase Utley (aged 35 and 36, respectively) and Cole Hamels surrendered 10 hits in six innings in a loss to drop the team to 8-17.
In 2015, the Phillies were still, for some reason, clinging to the core that won them a World Series seven years earlier. Aaron Nola was on that team, the only current Phillie who remembers an April that bad.
Entering their series finale in Chicago on Thursday the Phillies possessed the worst run differential and worst active losing streak in the majors. The streak extended to nine games after a comeback effort fell short in a gut-wrenching 8-7 loss. The game saw the Phillies score runs in multiple innings for the first time during the losing streak.
"I can't remember something like this in my career," Bryce Harper told reporters before the matinee on the North Side (h/t ESPN). "We got to get through it. Obviously, we don't want to be where we are right now. ... I know teams that have been through this and been through the mud a little bit and still climbed out of it. Yeah, we got to do it."
The Phillies know well what they need to do. But can they do it? Baseball is the ultimate individual team sport — and it's been a collective failure. But who deserves the most blame for this brutally bad start?
The Phillies President of Baseball Operations had a gameplan this offseason — keep the core together. And he had a firm roadmap for his decision: the 1990s and early 2000s Atlanta Braves. From 1991-2005, the Braves won 14 NL East titles (they only missed the postseason once, when there was no postseason in 1994). They won exactly one World Series in that span. Dombrowski feels similarly about these Phillies, that if they keep getting into the tournament, they are talented enough to break through once.
In his defiant belief of this method of competing, he's committed a handful of baseball sins:
• Punting on bringing in a true cleanup hitter behind Harper and Schwarber
• Making minor changes to a bullpen that wasn't very good to begin with
• Letting proven talent walk, like Ranger Suárez
• Deciding against making splashy trade deadline acquisitions repeatedly, and instead making mostly marginal moves
• Giving monster nine-figure deals to Jesús Luzardo, Trea Turner, Aaron Nola, Nick Castellanos (and giving $72 million to Taijuan Walker, who was cut Thursday)
Maybe the problem begins at the top.
The next man down on the totem pole is Thomson, who has been hampered by the players he's been given but has clearly been unable to get the best out of a group of players with a track record of success. He's also made some pretty questionable decisions, like using struggling Walker in the second inning Wednesday after having Kyle Backhus "open" the game. His combination of Alec Bohm, Brandon March, Adolis García and now Felix Reyes are hitting .198 with two home runs (25th) and 12 RBI (18th). It's his job to pull the right levers and through four seasons at the helm he's been one of the best regular season managers in the game. So what's different now?
Bohm was the cleanup hitter on Opening Day. On Thursday in Chicago he hit 7th, went 1-for-4, and actually upped his season batting average to .151. The subject of trade rumors for a few seasons now Bohm is going to be a free agent after 2026 and the thought was he might rise to the occasion and prove it in his first prove it season. Instead he's basically an automatic out.
We singled out Bohm, but the entire stable of hitters has been terrible. They've made almost no adjustments whatsoever. And if the team isn't going to move on from Thomson, the sacrificial (and perhaps appropriate) lamb could be the Phillies' hitting coach. Here's a brief look at some numbers through 24 games:
| Category | Stat | NL Rank |
| Batting average | .220 | 29th |
| Runs scored | 82 | 28th |
| Walks drawn | 74 | 25th |
| Pull rate | 28% | 29th |
| Offensive WAR | 0.9 | 27th |
Pull rate suggests the Phillies are late at the plate, and they're doing exactly what the defense typically sets up for — explaining partially their terrible BABIP. Marsh and maybe rookie Justin Crawford are the only two hitters having good starts to their seasons.
The Phillies signed Luzardo to a five-year, $135 million extension this offseason after one season in Philly. He's the 14th highest paid starting pitcher by AAV in the majors this season, which would imply he should pitch like an ace. Like Zack Wheeler or Cris Sánchez (or how Sánchez usually pitches, his 12 hit, six runs allowed performance Thursday not withstanding). Luzardo has been awful, with a 1-3 record and 6.91 ERA. Save for Walker, who was released, Luzardo has been the most devastating rotation arm and he's worth singling out through five starts.
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