Rob Thomson still isn’t sure how to construct the Phillies lineup

The Philadelphia Phillies’ 2024 season started with the promise of a sustained postseason run and ended with a one-and-done NLDS defeat at the hands of the rival New York Mets earlier this month. With the Phillies front office facing some downtime at the moment with the World Series taking center stage, and the beginning of free agency still a week away, evaluations of the 2025 roster are ongoing.

With the 2025 roster mostly intact, save for two bullpen spots, president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski and his colleagues might have to get creative this offseason if they want to free up the space and salary in order to be players in the market for coveted free agent slugger Juan Soto. With recent reports that the Phillies have interest in the superstar outfielder making the rounds, this offseason is sure to be full of rumors regarding a handful of Phillies position players.

The Phillies will need more than Soto if they hope to improve upon a 2024 season in which they won the National League East but saw the offense drag at times from June until the end of the season. While injuries to Bryce Harper, Kyle Schwarber, J.T. Realmuto and Alec Bohm certainly didn’t help matters, a down season from Bryson Stott, the continued struggles of Brandon Marsh to hit left-handed pitching, and Johan Rojas’ failure to emerge as anything but a platoon player forced Phillies manager Rob Thomson’s hand at times over the course of the season.

With Thomson likely to inherit many of the same position players next season, it remains to be seen if there will be any major changes to the 1-4 hitters in the lineup. While Kyle Schwarber is far from a conventional leadoff hitter, his 15 home runs in the leadoff spot set a single-season record this year. When asked if the team needs to acquire a leadoff hitter this winter, the most likely candidate is already on the roster, according to Thomson.

“I think it [the team’s leadoff hitter] would be here now,” Thomson said during his end-of-season press conference. “Some people may have to change their approach a little bit, but again, I don’t know if that’s the best thing to do is to move Kyle out of the leadoff spot because he’s really good at it, but it may help protect other people.”

The concern for who bats in the fifth and sixth spots next season is understandable after Bryson Stott never got it going at the plate this season, and J.T. Realmuto’s production fell off quite a bit after undergoing a minor knee procedure in June. While Alec Bohm and Nick Castellanos spent the most time in the cleanup spot this season, Thomson might see better opportunities for the pair if they hit behind Schwarber in that spot since he tends to see a lot of pitches during his at-bats.

Thomson didn’t come out and say changes to the lineup were imminent, but he acknowledged during the press conference that the failures of this group of hitters at times in 2024 were enough to consider swapping a few hitters around when filling out the lineup card next season.

“We have a good ball club,” explained Thomson. “The roster is a championship roster, it really is. Dave and the front office have done a great job. Now, we haven’t gotten it done. I haven’t gotten it done. Do we make some tweaks for next year? We’ve already talked about do we turn the lineup around or move people around to possibly get a more consistent offense? I don’t know we got to talk about it.”

With the offseason still at least a week away, how the 26-man roster looks like on Opening Day next season is still unknown. Will the Phillies deal away one or two outfielders this winter to sign or trade for a player who is a better all-around fit for the ball club? It’s not out of the realm of possibility. Either way, radical changes to certain spots in the lineup are long overdue.