Marcus Hayes: 'The writing's on the wall': Phillies face elimination after their billion-dollar bats go silent again

Marcus Hayes, The Philadelphia Inquirer on Oct 6, 2025

Published in Baseball

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PHILADELPHIA — When the epitaph of the latest, briefest Golden Era of the Phillies franchise is written, what will be writ most large is how, for four games in the postseason the nearly $1 billion investment in the offense returned pennies on the dollar.

This is that epitaph, writ now.

In the first two games of the National League Division Series, the Phillies’ $927 million Big Five — Bryce Harper, Trea Turner, J.T. Realmuto, Nick Castellanos and Kyle Schwarber, in order of contract value — are 5 for 35, hitting .143, with 13 strikeouts, no homers and four walks. That includes a furious, ninth-inning charge that fell just short Monday night in a 4-3 loss to the Dodgers.

Have the One Percent done enough?

“I know I haven’t,” Schwarber said.

He’s hitless in a series that seems a fait accompli.

“Obviously, the writing’s on the wall,” Schwarber said after he packed his bats for L.A. after what might be his last home game for the Phillies. “We’ve got one game, right? You go from there.”

Go where? History holds little hope for the Phillies’ near future.

There were glimpses of hope Monday when, with one out in the eighth and the Phillies trailing, 4-0, Turner roped an RBI single to center field. That glimpse vanished when Emmet Sheehan struck out Schwarber and coaxed Harper into a soft fly to center.

Even the boos were weak.

At that point, just ahead of a 4-3 loss and an 0-2 series deficit, thousands of the 45,654 at Citizens Bank Park, geeked for another Red October run, made what likely is their final exit of the season.

Hope sprang again in the ninth, when Alec Bohm, Realmuto and Castellanos put together three hits to start the inning and cut the lead to one, but Castellanos was thrown out at third on a failed sacrifice bunt from Bryson Stott — not sure about that strategy — and, after a Max Kepler groundout, Turner, the NL batting champion, grounded out, sharply, to second.

And with that, everyone went home one more — one last? — time.

Those fans weren’t the only ones who might not be back.

This impotence afflicted them this time last year, when, in Game 3 and 4 losses in New York, the Big Five took the big sleep and the Mets won the NLDS, three games to one.

In the last four games, all losses, the Big Five are 12 for 66, hitting .182, with no homers, 23 strikeouts and 10 walks.

Not much bang for the buck in four must-win games.

It’s become a theme.

Well, more like a dirge.

“We’ve been missing pitches over the plate,” Harper said, “and we haven’t done a very good job with guys one base.”

You’ve heard that before. A year before, to be exact. And, frankly, two years before that, when the bats went cold against the Diamondbacks in Games 6 and 7 of the NLCS

Which begs the question:

If the Phillies don’t return from Los Angeles, after three postseasons of gut-punch disappointment, will manager Rob Thomson return from L.A.?

Will his staff?

They’ve won 87, 90, 95, then 96 games the last four seasons, including the last two NL East titles, but they’ve also won nine, nine, one and then zero playoff games in the corresponding postseasons.

October matters much more than the six months that precede it. Just ask the Braves from 1991-2005 and 2018-25.

Schwarber is a free agent, and, having led the NL with 56 homers, he’ll be very expensive to re-sign, and, at 32, he might prefer playing for a team with a better chance to give him another World Series ring to go with the one he won with the Cubs. Folks will pine for more Schwarbs, and who can blame them; he’s a basher with character, a stand-up guy in love with a city that loves him back.

He’s also 0 for 13 with nine strikeouts in his last four playoff games.

Game 3 starter Ranger Suárez also is not under contract next season. Castellanos, a malcontented, $20 million, underproducing, horrid-fielding right fielder, probably will be traded. Realmuto will be a 35-year-old catcher next season, and while his defense has never been better, his offense continues to diminish. His free-agency will be ... interesting.

The Phillies on Monday gave the Dodgers home-field advantage in the best-of-five National League Division Series. The series resumes Wednesday in Los Angeles. Yes, there’s a chance the Phillies come back, but not only have just 10 of 90 teams in an 0-2 best-of-five hole come back to win, and not only have the Phillies have never come back from an 0-1 hole in a best-of-five series, they’ve never come back from an 0-1 deficit in any postseason series.

Further, the Dodgers have the best offense in the National League. And the Phillies are facing second-year phenom Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who’s 3-0 in five playoff starts for the Dodgers, all of which the Dodgers won.

Is it over?

The series: Almost assuredly.

The era, maybe, too.