Dodgers Exposed the Phillies’ Biggest Flaw Ahead of the Trade Deadline

The Phillies welcomed the Los Angeles Dodgers this past week for a playoff litmus test, an opportunity to show clearly that the gap between them and the two-time champions is minute. While it began with a win, the Phillies dropped the next two games to lose the series. In both losses and the win, there was a common issue: the Phillies have not been playing fundamental baseball.

The Phillies are a talented team. There’s a reason they have multiple nine-figure contracts on their books and players that, in some way or another, are top talents; whether that’s Kyle Schwarber‘s power, the ace duo of Cristopher Sanchez and Zack Wheeler, or the defensive prowess of Bryson Stott and J.T. Realmuto. The team is talented. There’s a reason President of Baseball Operations Dave Dombrowski consistently believes they have a good club. And while that statement falls on deaf ears now, he’s not entirely wrong. The club is no doubt playoff contenders.

The problem is the team can’t simply be playoff contenders. Because of the Phillies’ inability at times to play sound fundamental baseball, they are not a World Series contender. That is the gap that separates them and the Dodgers. The Dodgers play phenomenal fundamental baseball, and that has allowed them to turn games over in favor of themselves.

For the Phillies, their path to success is simple: outslug your opponent. If they don’t do so, it is becoming apparent they aren’t good enough to pull out a win.

This past Dodgers series made that clear. The Phillies won the first game by outslugging the Dodgers, but when it came time to use sound fundamentals to pull out wins, which happens in Games 2 and 3, the Phillies faltered.

The examples of this issue were clear as well: the double play with Justin Crawford and Realmuto both got caught in a rundown in the second game of the series that ended the game. It’s not just the baserunning; defense is lackluster to say the least. The common defensive woes were most evident in the four misplays by Trea Turner in the first game.

Turner’s hard work has led him to have more errors this season, 15, than Bryson Stott has had in his whole career playing second base, 13.

Stott is not innocent, however. The baserunning error that got him caught at third base in the series rubber match capped off the team’s magnum opus of poor fundamental play.

Poor fundamental baseball cost the Phillies several times last postseason against the Dodgers, too — the bad sacrifice bunt attempt in Game 2 that got Nick Castellanos caught at third and ruined the momentum built that inning. The Phillies went on to lose that game, and a large part of it was that fundamental error.

All of these examples are to reiterate the point that the gap between the Phillies and Dodgers is not a talent-related one; it’s a fundamentals one. The Dodgers are talented and play fundamental baseball well, so they are able to find different ways to win. The Phillies are talented but don’t play fundamentals well, so when one way of winning fails, they fail.

The gap between the two must be a roadmap in determining how the Phillies go about the trade deadline. There is a caveat, however, because of these issues, rentals are not the solution. What is needed are major roster changes ahead of August 3’s trade deadline.

We have seen in past seasons the attempt to add a single bat or single arm to the team and expect the outslug style of play to work. Those rentals haven’t worked out, even when the player traded for has performed well for the Phillies, such as Harrison Bader at last year’s trade deadline.

Even with Bader being successful, the Phillies still didn’t win. The other eight bats in the lineup went cold; they didn’t outslug the Dodgers; the lone game the Phillies won last year was the only game they did outslug LA. The other three required sound fundamental baseball, and they failed.

If the Phillies want that not to happen again, instead of adding a single bat in hopes of the lineup catching fire, there needs to be multiple bats added, and some maybe even subtracted.

The Phillies are a playoff-caliber team, and we’ve seen them perform in the playoffs. However, the team is so stuck in a specific mold that they have created a gap that severely damages their ability to play championship-caliber baseball through all of October.

If the Phillies want to shrink that gap and make a run, they must make major changes to their roster that cause legitimate change to how the team can win. It can no longer be just add an arm or bat; of course they still should, they do need a fifth starter and bullpen arms.

Even with that being the case, games are won by scoring runs and not making mistakes. Sound fundamental baseball and being able to pull out wins in multiple fashions is what can make this Phillies team true World Series contenders.

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