Philadelphia Phillies: Team preview and prediction for 2020 season
By Sean Basile
Philadelphia Phillies: 2020 Preview and Prediction
Regarding the Philadelphia Phillies offense, we’re still waiting for these guys to breakthrough. They brought on Bryce Harper and JT Realmuto last year to beef up the lineup and Bryce was a big disappointment. We know what this group of hitters can do when they’re right.
Realmuto is a consistent .280 hitter and one of the better hitting catchers you can ask for in baseball. Harper has the crazy power with one of the best eyes in the game and he can also put up those MVP numbers.
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Rhys Hoskins is another power hitter in his own respect. And Jean Segura was a .300+ hitter three seasons in-a-row before last season.
If the Phillies want to get back in playoff contention, these guys are all going to need to step up and be the players we know they can be.
What’s really going to help is the extra support in the Phillies’ lineup. This is a very deep team right now that can go all kinds of different ways in filling out their active roster.
They have Andrew McCutchen who’s looking like he can get ready for a delayed Opening Day after he was nursing an injury in Spring Training that would’ve kept him off the original Opening Day roster. And if you remember how good Cutch was for the Phils last year in the leadoff role until he went down with his injury, it’ll be exciting to see him back to full health.
They have Scott Kingery who has come on as a super-utility player who can do damage in a leadoff role as well. They have Jay Bruce who brings a power bat from the left side of the plate. And they brought on Didi Gregorius to lock down the shortstop position and play under his old manager Joe Girardi. Didi under-performed a year ago, but a change in environment with a familiar face at the helm is going to help him bring his numbers back up.
After that, this team has a lot of utility guys vying for active roster spots like Ronald Torreyes, Josh Harrison, Phil Gosselin, Neil Walker, and Logan Forsythe, as well as a slew of outfielders like Adam Haseley, Roman Quinn, Nick Williams, Mikie Mahtook, Kyle Garlick, and Nick Martini.
The Phillies have a boatload of options in terms of guy to fill out their active roster, which isn’t exactly a bad place to be considering this has infamously been a team these past few seasons that has lacked such depth.
Is this a Phillies team that can get to the postseason?
I think it absolutely is. But, unfortunately, I just think they’ll be outgunned by a few other teams in the National League and their back-end starting rotation won’t quite be ready to take that next step. I have the Phillies finishing in fourth place in the NL East, but not as a bad team per se.
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Before the delayed opening, I had the Phils finishing 83-79, which signifies just how highly I think of the NL East with the Mets, Nats, and Braves all finishing along the same lines. The Philadelphia Phillies are going to take strides forward this season and Joe Girardi is going to turn this ship around in no time. I just happen to think they’ll have to wait until 2021.