Three lessons the Blue Jays should learn from the Philadelphia Phillies

Despite Philadelphia’s ambition, the team lost at the NLCS in 2023 and was unable to advance beyond the NLDS in 2024 and 2025. To ensure the Blue Jays don’t follow in the Phillies’ footsteps, here are three lessons they should keep in mind as they plan their comeback.

Prevent the team’s core of players from aging

The biggest problem that has plagued the Phillies is the team’s older core players. As Philadelphia rose to the top, the core of Nick Castellanos, Bryce Harper, JT Realmuto, Kyle Schwarber and Trea Turner became the strength of the team with their high-powered approach.

This core was the reason behind the Phillies’ success in the 2022 season, as players at key positions at the plate lived up to their expectations. Even after their World Series loss, the key players in the Phillies’ lineup changed little over time. As a result, the team became increasingly dependent on star hitters to maintain their output each year, regardless of their aging curve or potential injuries.

This approach ultimately left the Phillies vulnerable in the playoffs, as their star players were unable to perform offensively in key moments. Castellanos, Harper, Schwarber and Turner all collapsed near the end of the 2023 NLCS, giving the Arizona Diamondbacks a chance to strike back.

Although the Phillies failed to reach the World Series podium in recent years, the team’s front office continued to rely on the former all-stars, who began to show their age and limits as the team entered the 2024 and 2025 seasons. The 2025 season was particularly egregious as Harper, Schwarber and Turner recorded more strikeouts than hits in the NLDS against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Philadelphia is running it again for the 2026 season with a similar core of position players, which seems risky if the star players fail to keep up with their expected performances again. The average age of the Phillies’ hitters was 30.3 for the 2025 season. There will be some young players like Justin Crawford emerging, but those small changes won’t change the fact that the team is very dependent on their older star players.

The Blue Jays core is on the older side, but still has younger hitters like Addison Barger, Joey Loperfido, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Davis Schneider, who can contribute alongside veterans like Anthony Satander and George Springer. Toronto must find ways to maintain its offensive strength while identifying the right young players to develop and trade for if it wants to avoid the offensive situation the Phillies currently find themselves in.

Having a good bullpen is important

The Phillies featured a strong rotation with Jesús Luzardo, Aaron Nola, Cristopher Sanchez, Ranger Suárez, and Zack Wheeler at various points in their seasons between 2022 and 2025. Unfortunately, the Phillies’ bullpen was an unpredictable whirlwind at best, which was one of the bigger reasons why the team struggled in the playoffs.

The Phillies’ 2023 bullpen of Jose Alvarado, Seranthony Dominguez, Jeff Hoffman, Craig Kimbrel, Matt Strahm and Gregory Soto was the least of his worries; in fact, the team ranked seventh in bullpen strength among all 30 teams. However, when Kimbrel struggled to stifle the Diamondbacks’ offense during the NLCS, Philadelphia eventually crumbled to Arizona.

During the 2024 playoffs, the Phillies had a deep bullpen with Hoffman, Strahm, Tanner Banks, Carlos Estévez and Orion Kerkering, except this core was responsible for 16 earned runs in 12 2/3 innings in the postseason. This was a tough pill to swallow for Philadelphia, as the relievers posted excellent results during the regular season. Unfortunately, the 2024 playoffs demonstrated the inherent volatility of relievers and the rationale for adding and developing more effective relief pitching.

The 2025 Phillies bullpen also struggled in the NLDS, with Kerkering, Strahm and David Robertson each having their own meltdowns. Jhoan Duran was the diamond of the bullpen, but did not make any saves in that series.

The Phillies have added Jonathan Bowlan and Brad Keller as the primary relievers in the bullpen for the 2026 season, but whether their bullpen will rebound remains to be seen. What the Blue Jays can learn from the Phillies is that having enough relievers won’t be enough.

Avoid building a monolithic roster

The Phillies’ larger roster strategy revolved around building a powerful team at all costs. This strategy was the driving force behind signing hitters like Kyle Schwarber and Trea Turner, creating a home run-heavy but defensively exposed team. This flawed approach did not initially hurt as the team’s powerful lineup helped them reach the World Series podium.

Yet this monolithic core of players began to show its cracks when the team was eliminated from the playoffs before reaching the World Series. As much as Philadelphia’s offense depended on selective aggression, à la Harper and Schwarber, it fell victim to his hyper-aggressive approach, which meant the team’s lineup didn’t strike out many pitchers and that was noticeable during the 2024 playoffs when the Phillies faced the New York Mets in the NLCS.

The Phillies weren’t as powerful if their star players couldn’t be themselves. Ultimately, the failure to create a diverse roster with versatile hitters was the weakness that held the team back. Unlike the Phillies, the Blue Jays’ roster relied on power and contact-based hitting, which paid off during the 2025 season as the team secured a spot in the World Series.