The Philadelphia Phillies have finally done the unthinkable. They went over the vaunted Luxury Tax! I have been a loud voice in terms of not believing owner John Middleton wanting to spend money to go over the tax like reports said about this past free agency period. With that being said I believe a halfway apology is in order for Mr. John Middleton. I apologize for thinking that you, Mr. John Middleton, wouldn’t go over the Luxury Tax. It’s only a half apology because of where the Phillies could wind up if the team makes the correct moves to upgrade during the season and if those moves could add more onto the payroll for the ballclub. As well as the subpar moves made by the Phillies the last 2 years at the trade deadline.

It just kind of felt like a thing associated with the Phillies and a Twitter joke that it would never happen. Never say never right. I guess that’s what came out of it. I do want to commend Middleton for the fact that when these upgrades presented themselves he made the upgrades. I commend you for learning from your mistakes of sitting idly, so it seemed, and relying on the Phillies talent development team. As we all know, the Phillies are not a hub for young talent. 

For Phillies fans, it didn’t feel like the team was doing enough financially. Routinely, the Phillies have been one of the big spenders since money was injected into baseball despite the whole steroid scandal in the mid-2000s. 

This was the Phillies prime. I’m sure most of you remember this. Howard, Rollins, Utley, Werth, Hamels, Chooch, Victorino, Doc, Lee, Lidge and so many others. You can probably still feel the energy of the Phillies being good. Being contenders. Red October every October. Rally towels waving. A team and an offense that always made you feel like you had a shot to see a win. The competitiveness, persistence and support was special to see. 

What Will This New Era of Phillies Bashers Do?

Now the 2022 Phillies profile is similar to the prime 2000’s Phillies that this city recently saw. A potentially good rotation, surprising bullpen, and an offense that can mash in Kyle Schwarber, Bryce Harper, Nick Castellanos, JT Realmuto, and Rhys Hoskins among others. There are some question marks and concerns. I mean it’s the Phillies right? A friendly reminder that the team made moves in the previous 3 seasons that were only for show. To appease casuals the Phillies made a move and made deals for weaknesses by taking chances on a player that shows that a team is trying to make the playoffs. It shows belief in these improvements. Also that’s just how sports work, adversity is needed. That adversity being dealing with an entire rotation and bullpen building their arm strength on short notice like the rest of the league. Yet the biggest problem with this team is that it had two (TWO!!) historically bad bullpens in consecutive seasons of 2020 and 2021. At least the team has life, excitement, strengths to hide their weaknesses, an owner and a president of baseball operations that seem to be on the same page. It isn’t all going to happen this season but phinally the Phillies are back on the rise to being one of the MLB’s elite teams.