The 3 Phillies Most Responsible for the Braves’ Death at the Worst Time

The Philadelphia Phillies and Atlanta Braves are likely to find themselves in a pretty entertaining battle for the National League East this season. Both teams have World Series potential. But only one of them can come out on top in the division and only one can come out of the National League with the pennant.

The Phillies had control of the division for most of the season, and they still do today, but after losing two straight games to the Braves, they gave Atlanta a new lease on life at the worst possible time. Right before the All-Star break and right before the trade deadline.

The Phillies have plenty to blame themselves for, too.

The Phillies have been looking for an outfielder since the start of the season, and they’ve recently brought in names like Luis Robert and Cody Bellinger. While that didn’t work out, the Phillies are left with a somewhat lackluster outfield, with 23-year-old Johan Rojas leading their struggling outfield.

Rojas has been a horrible strikeout this season. The Phillies’ young outfielder is hitting .232/.267/.290 this season, giving him an OPS+ near 50. According to Baseball Savant, he’s worth -7 points at bat and is in the bottom 10 percent of key stats like xSLG, average exit velocity and barrel percentage.

Despite his offensive issues, he has been good on defense, which is the main reason he has remained in the lineup. He is one of the fastest players in all of baseball, recording sprint speeds over 30 MPH. His defensive run value sits in the 86th percentile in the league thanks to his 4 OAA and elite arm strength.

But the Phillies need to take a step forward to find a slugger who can fill in until Rojas can get going. It’s tough to win a World Series with a weak offensive player in the lineup. But Rojas is only 23 and has tremendous potential. He’ll be fine in the long run, but he could be blamed for Philadelphia’s failure to win the division.

Ranger Suarez started the season pitching like one of the best pitchers in the entire league. He started the season with a 10-1 record and a 1.75 ERA. But, over his last three starts, Suarez has been bad. I’m not just saying he’s struggled, I’m saying he’s been downright bad for the Phillies.

In those three starts, Suarez is 0-2 with no decisions. He has pitched 15.2 innings over those three starts, allowing 24 hits and 15 runs, including 13 earned runs. He has seen his ERA jump from 1.75 to 2.58 over that span.

To put that in perspective, Suarez has allowed just 21 runs in his first 90 innings of the season. That’s nearly as many runs as he’s allowed in the last two weeks. Rob Thomson needs his former Cy Young candidate to start pitching like he once did, or the Phillies are going to keep losing games they should have won.

With the Phillies currently without JT Realmuto, Bryce Harper and Kyle Schwarber on the injured list, they need their dominant pitching staff to be dominant. Suarez hasn’t been as dominant recently and it’s shown. There’s no reason to worry about him right now, but it’s certainly something to keep an eye on.

The Phillies have a lot of holes in their talented roster that need to be filled. Their rotation and lineup as a whole have been so talented and have performed so well that those holes are hard to find, but they are still there.

It’s worth noting that the holes in center field, even right field, in the starting rotation and in the back of the bullpen are areas the Phillies need to address.

Their top four starters have been so good for their pitching staff this year that many haven’t noticed how disappointing the fifth spot has been. While that’s usually to be expected from the fifth starter, it’s still a position the Phillies could look to acquire a cheap rental pitcher to fill that void. They haven’t.

Philadelphia could also use another outfielder to replace the struggling Johan Rojas. They haven’t done that either. Rojas has been incredible defensively, but their offense has been so bad that it almost doesn’t matter.

With all the injuries Philadelphia has suffered this season, they need to add all the talent they can to have the quality depth needed to win the World Series. It’s up to management to not be aggressive right now. They still have time to get after those trade pieces, but they’ve found themselves losing some games they should have won because of those holes.