The Philadelphia Phillies had to take a backseat to the Los Angeles Dodgers starting this fall.
The two previously went back and forth dominating the headlines when it came to offseason acquisitions, with each team adding the likes of Bryce Harper, Shohei Ohtani, Kyle Schwarber, Freddie Freeman, Zack Wheeler, Tyler Glasnow and others along the way.
However, when the Phillies faltered in the second half of the year and the Dodgers were able to win the World Series title, it was the reigning champions who decided to be aggressive by adding even more talent to their roster while the team eliminated in the NLDS round of the playoffs stood pat.
Philadelphia has enough in place to win a championship, though.
They have done an incredible job of stockpiling star players throughout their lineup and rotation that allows them to compete with anybody.
The only thing that’s missing for this group is getting over the final hurdle.
A lot of people are down on the Phillies heading into the 2025 season based on how things have ended the past two years, but president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski was quick to remind everyone about the domination they had over Los Angeles last year.
“I don’t hear anybody say, ‘Hey, the Phillies beat the Dodgers five out of six last year.’ We did. They’ve got a tremendous club, as do others in our league, but I think we match up against anybody. I hope we get that opportunity in October,” he said per Corey Seidman of NBC Sports Philadelphia.
That is true.
Philadelphia not only won five out of those six matchups, but the Phillies also outscored the Dodgers 37-16, overpowering whatever pitching was thrown at them while also handling that vaunted lineup with their own domination on the mound.
It should be noted that Mookie Betts and Max Muncy missed all six of those contests because they were out with injury, but the duo of Freeman and Ohtani played in all of them, and their star catcher Will Smith appeared in five of the six.
Star for star, Philadelphia matches up with Los Angeles.
“We just like our ballclub overall. Always a great place to start is starting pitching and I think we have tremendous starting pitching. We have good positional players. I don’t think we have a glaring weakness anywhere out there,” Dombrowski added.
After landing Jesus Luzardo in a trade, they solved their fifth rotation spot, and if Max Kepler can be on the positive side of his hitting variance with the Phillies, then their outfield is going to perform a whole lot better than it did in 2024.
Will that be enough to beat the Dodgers?
Time will tell.
But Philadelphia dominated Los Angeles last year, something that signals they’re not quite as far away from winning a championship as some might think.
