In early June, as his struggles at the plate dragged on, Trea Turner had a conversation with Josh Studnitzer, the Phillies’ manager of hitting strategy.
It was illuminating.
“Just the way I was getting pitched was unbelievable in the sense that everything was on the edge of the plate, just nothing to hit really, and trying to do a little too much,” Turner said. “And sometimes it felt like I wanted to walk, but I couldn’t walk, because they were strikes.”
According to StatCast data, 42.9% of the pitches to Turner this year have been on the edge of the strike zone. Out of all major league hitters, that ranks 21st highest.
But learning that those numbers supported what he was feeling at the plate didn’t help him much. He was still going to have to find a way to turn things around, and get back to what helped him win the National League batting title in 2025.
“Doesn’t matter, because it’s all about production, right?” Turner said. “I’m not the prettiest player or whatever you want to call it. I don’t do everything perfect, and I just find a way to help the team. … When I try to be perfect, it just sets me backwards. And I just have to be who I am.
“Everyone likes to tell you all the things, that they even out, or this can’t happen the whole year. But after a while, it gets so old. How do you get better? How do you find more production?”
Trea Turner was chasing at a 37.1% clip in June. He has cut that to 29% in July.Yong Kim / Staff Photographer
One of the major keys is cutting down on chasing pitches outside the strike zone, which has been a major issue for Turner this season. Back in June, when he had that conversation with Studnitzer, Turner was chasing at a 37.1% clip. In July so far, he has cut that to 29%.
In turn, that forces pitchers to attack him differently, and makes it more likely he gets pitches to hit, like the fastball he sent 414 feet on Saturday for his second homer in as many games after the All-Star break.
“You’re definitely going to get pitched differently when you quit chasing. You keep chasing and swinging, they’re going to keep throwing it until you stop,” said interim manager Don Mattingly. “So he’s getting pitched differently. He’s creating the pitches. It’s like we talk about with [Bryce Harper]. He has to protect himself. If they’re not pitching to him, he needs to walk. Things like that. And I think that’s what you see with Trea, is that you’re not chasing as much, you’re getting better pitches.”
Ahead of the All-Star break, Mattingly gave Turner an extra day off during the Phillies’ road series in Cincinnati because he was a “little banged up in the lower half.” Turner has been in the lineup all three games since the break.
“I don’t know if we’re 100%, but I think we’re a lot better than we were before the break. Let’s put it that way,” Mattingly said.
Turner still has the green light on the bases to steal whenever he feels he is able to, Mattingly said. Turner swiped his 17th base of the season on Saturday, which ties Bryson Stott for the team lead.
Turner said that he doesn’t feel limited physically on defense. Where he feels the room for improvement lies in reading hops better.
“Physically, there’s nothing to change,” he said. “Just keep doing the things that I’ve been doing the last two years with [infield coach] Bobby [Dickerson] and working on those fundamentals. But just reading the ball a little bit better.”
Looking ahead to Dodgers series
When Los Angeles comes to town on Monday, the Phillies will avoid facing Shohei Ohtani — on the mound, at least.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts told reporters Sunday that Ohtani will not make his next scheduled pitching start on Wednesday against the Phillies, due to lingering left knee soreness. Ohtani, who has a 1.79 ERA and 0.95 WHIP in 14 starts this year, opted out of the All-Star Game for the same reason. He has never pitched at Citizens Bank Park during the regular season, but was on the mound last year for Game 1 of the 2025 National League Division Series, when he held the Phillies to three hits and three runs over six innings.
Shohei Ohtani has a .943 OPS and 22 homers in 93 games.Kyusung Gong
The two-way star is, however, able to hit as normal, and is expected to be in the lineup as a designated hitter during the upcoming series. In 93 games, Ohtani has a .943 OPS and 22 homers.
Extra bases
Cristopher Sánchez (11-4, 2.62 ERA) is scheduled to start opposite Dodgers right-hander Emmet Sheehan (4-6, 4.81) in Monday’s series opener.
On his way home for the All-Star break last Sunday, Trea Turner spent some time pondering his season so far.
It has been a disappointment for the Phillies shortstop overall, on both sides of the ball. He was especially frustrated with his performance on the team’s last road trip before the break, where he felt like he was making the contact he wanted but the results weren’t following.
“Looking up expected numbers, and have the guys tell me what it looks like, and I’m getting half the production that I should be getting,” Turner said. “That’s just frustrating.”
After winning the National League batting title in 2025, Turner entered the break with a subpar .236 average. He spent the plane ride mulling it over, and then tried to turn his brain off for the next three days he spent with his family.
Perhaps the reset did him some good at the plate. Turner’s 414-foot homer in the fifth inning of Saturday’s 6-1 win over the Mets was his second home run in as many games after the break. He also picked up two singles for a three-hit, three-run day.
“Obviously, he’s hit a couple balls out of the ballpark, but he’s kind of controlled the zone a little better, where he’s getting the ball in the strike zone,” said interim manager Don Mattingly.
There is room for improvement defensively, though. In the second inning, Turner botched a routine ground ball for his 14th error of the season. It also happened to be his second error in as many games after the break, after a misplay during Thursday’s series opener.
Turner committed just eight errors last season. He did extra drills with infield coach Bobby Dickerson ahead of Saturday’s game as he tries to recapture the improvements he made in the field last year.
“I just want to, I think, read the ball a little better,” Turner said. “I feel like physically, I feel good. I feel like I’m making moves that I want to make. It’s the last few mistakes I’ve made has just been judgment on a hop I think I’m going to get, and then the second or third hop’s not exactly what I envision, and I just put myself in a bad spot.”
Saturday’s error did not wind up biting the Phillies much, as starter Jesús Luzardo struck out the next two batters to end the inning. Along with the back-to-back walks he issued in the first inning, though, it did cost Luzardo some pitches and he was lifted at 90 after the fifth.
A solo homer from Tyrone Taylor was just one of two hits the Mets managed against Luzardo, as he struck out seven. Juan Soto, one of the most disciplined hitters in the game with just a 12.7% strikeout rate, accounted for two of those.
The first time, Luzardo got Soto to chase his signature sweeper low and away in the third inning. The second time, in the fifth, he stunned Soto with a left-on-left changeup. Luzardo and Soto, who briefly coincided earlier in their careers in the Nationals minor league system, both smiled as they walked off the field.
Jesús Luzardo allowed just two hits and one run in five innings on Saturday.Elizabeth Robertson / Staff Photographer
“Hadn’t struck him out in a couple years, I think, so that was nice,” Luzardo said. “But finding any way to get him out is always a pleasant surprise.”
The Phillies capitalized on a sloppy Mets team that committed three errors on Saturday, but the win was a positive sign for their bats overall. They racked up 12 hits in a game that was delayed for just over 45 minutes due to heavy rain during the bottom of the seventh.
Kyle Schwarber gave the Phillies some breathing room with a towering 399-foot two-run blast in the first inning. And after Turner’s homer in the fifth, they continued to tack on. Schwarber drew a walk and advanced from first to third when catcher Francisco Alvarez’s pickoff attempt sailed high and wide. He then scored easily when Alec Bohm punched a single to left field.
A single from Edmundo Sosa and a J.T. Realmuto walk kept the line moving, but the rally ended when Derek Hill struck out to strand the bases loaded.
“Had a couple innings there that type of innings that make you nervous,“ Mattingly said. ”Leadoff double, we don’t score. First and third, we don’t score. You look at those and you feel like sometimes they’re going to come back to haunt you. Today it didn’t. Obviously, we were able to keep pushing.”
The Phillies loaded the bases again in the sixth inning, and this time they capitalized. Bryson Stott tripled and Turner and Schwarber drew back-to-back walks against Mets right-hander Kodai Senga to put three on for Bryce Harper.
He got hold of Senga’s signature forkball for a two-run single that gave the Phillies’ bullpen a comfortable cushion.
Not that they needed much. Orion Kerkering had pitched a 1-2-3 sixth, striking out Carson Benge with a 97.8 mph fastball. José Alvarado sidestepped an infield single for a scoreless seventh, and Chase Shugart retired six consecutive Mets in the eighth and ninth to seal it.
Bryce Harper (right) delivered a two-run single in the sixth inning.Elizabeth Robertson / Staff Photographer
Following the rain delay in the bottom of the seventh, Turner picked up his third hit of the day on an infield single against Mets reliever Xzavion Curry.
“Once you get some of those infield singles and hits to fall, you start having stuff to build on,” Turner said. “I feel like early on, I didn’t have anything to build on. I feel like in the last 30, 40 games if I have something wrong, I can fix it real quick, and hit the ball the other way or whatever it may be, and make the adjustments faster. And that’s the way I am.”
After being the Phillies’ most consistent hitter for the first three months, Brandon Marsh has hit his first real slump of the season in July. In a small sample size of 12 games in the month, Marsh has a .163 batting average and .483 OPS, compared to his .297 average and .819 OPS over the whole season.
He entered Saturday hitless in his last 12 plate appearances.
“Obviously, everybody’s not going to just keep rolling the whole year. You’re always going to have spots,” he said. “I mean, the last trip in general, we had a few guys that struggled on the road and hit a stretch like that as a team, and it obviously didn’t look as good, but in general, Marsh is fine.”
Mattingly added that he believes Marsh might be adjusting to the higher workload that comes with the everyday role. Now that Marsh has worked his way into starting against lefties — with a .242 average — he is not getting as many days off. Mattingly said he tries to give Marsh a day off his feet whenever he can.
Brandon Marsh played in his first All-Star Game on Tuesday.Yong Kim / Staff Photographer
In the first half of 2025, a platooning Marsh started 56 games, though he also missed two weeks in that stretch with a hamstring strain. This year, he started 87 games before the All-Star break.
“For the most part, I think he’s doing fine,” Mattingly said.
Marsh said earlier this season that going through the slump he had in April 2025 — when his batting average dropped as low as .095 to start the year before he turned things around — gives him the confidence that he can navigate another skid.
“I’ve never been hitting .090 in my life since I picked up a bat,” Marsh said earlier this year. “So seeing that was very humbling, and just seeing where I ended last year, I have that confidence and belief in myself if I go through it again, or go through a bad little stretch, that I can come out of it. And thankfully, last year was at the beginning, not the end, but definitely I learned a lot about myself in that time and leaned a lot on the guys around me.”
But Mattingly is not viewing things as anywhere near that dire.
“I don’t necessarily look at just the numbers,” he said. “I look at it, kind of see the quality of it. I can tell when guys are having good at-bats or bad at-bats or looking like they’re a little bit tired. But you’re basically looking at if they’re controlling the zone.
“In my mind, it’s like you swing at bad stuff, bad results are coming, right? It’s like you keep eating bad food, you’re going to end up in trouble. So it’s kind of that with me. It’s getting good pitches to hit, guys having good game plans, so that’s not really a number. But you can see when guys are having quality at-bats or not.”
The Phillies’ game against the Mets started one hour earlier due to anticipated inclement weather.Elizabeth Robertson / Staff Photographer
Phillies start time pushed forward
Due to anticipated inclement weather in the area, Saturday’s Phillies game against the Mets was moved up an hour to a 3:05 p.m. first pitch.
This marked the second consecutive Phillies game to be moved earlier following the All-Star break. Thursday’s series opener against the Mets was moved up an hour due to poor air quality, and the Phillies ultimately dropped the game, 4-1, to New York.
Extra bases
Alan Rangel (0-2, 4.19 ERA) is scheduled to start Sunday’s series finale against Mets right-hander Nolan McLean (6-6, 3.52).
Philadelphia fans did more than fill the seats during Major League Baseball’s All-Star Week. They also helped turn the event into one of the strongest retail performances in the history of the Midsummer Classic.
Major League Baseball does not disclose dollar figures for merchandise sales. But the MLB said fans bought a record number of souvenirs and collectibles, including jerseys, caps, and especially collectible pins — more than 12,000 sold over three days at Citizens Bank Park alone.
The biggest draw was the All-Star Village at the Convention Center, where 111,616 people attended the four-day fan festival, according to Jamie Leece, MLB’s senior vice president of global consumer products. That made it the most-attended All-Star fan event since Los Angeles in 2022, the year MLB shortened the festival from five days to four. Leece noted that the Los Angeles event also included a free outdoor component that Philadelphia did not have.
The crowds translated directly into sales.
Pins, on display at the retail store at Citizens Bank Park, were a hot seller during All-Star Week.Tyger Williams / Staff Photographer
Through Tuesday, merchandise sales at the official MLB shop inside All-Star Village, operated by Fanatics, exceeded the previous sales record set at the 2022 fan festival by double-digit percentages. Sales also were up 45% from the 2025 All-Star celebration.
Across every retail channel — including All-Star Village, Citizens Bank Park, and MLBShop.com — total merchandise sales matched the record-setting performance from the 2022 All-Star Week in Los Angeles.
At Citizens Bank Park, merchandise sales during All-Star Week rose 25% from 2025. MLB, working with the Phillies and Aramark, operated retail outlets during the HBCU Swingman Classic, the Futures Game, MLB’s 3-on-3 event, the Home Run Derby, and Tuesday night’s All-Star Game.
Online demand also surged, with sales up 34% over the previous year’s All-Star Week, producing the second-best online All-Star retail performance since MLB launched its e-commerce business in 1998.
Headgear accounted for 25% of merchandise sales, according to MLB.Jose F. Moreno / Staff Photographer
Leece credited Philadelphia’s fan base for helping drive the record performance.
“Philadelphia fans are deeply passionate and loyal,” he said. “They showed up hours before our events to celebrate, they deeply supported their team and favorite players, and that came through in the retail experience.”
MLB would not identify its top-selling items, although headwear accounted for a quarter of all sales. Leece said demand was broad across the merchandise lineup, which consisted entirely of Phillies- and All-Star-branded products sold at All-Star Village.
As for any unsold merchandise, Leece said some will be offered online, while the rest will be donated to a local charity that has yet to be determined.
Mike Harkins collects old ticket stubs. Harkins estimates he has over 500 physical tickets from events he’s attended in the past, kept in journals, scrapbooks, and in storage.
One of his favorites as a kid was from the 1996 All-Star Game, held at Veterans Stadium. Harkins, who was 11 years old and grew up in South Jersey, attended both the game and the Home Run Derby with his father. It was one of his most special childhood memories, and every time he looks at that stub, it takes him back to that moment.
The physical tickets from the 1996 MLB All-Star Game were already keepsake items. They even handed out plastic ticket holders at the game.Matt Mullin / Staff
So, for the 2026 All-Star Game, Harkins decided to print out a physical ticket stub for himself, to remember the moment. He then printed out 250 more, to hand out to fans at the ballpark hoping for that same experience.
“I had the thought, that kids that are going to this game, like when I was 11 in 1996, they’re not going to have that souvenir ticket to bring home,” Harkins said. “Truthfully, kids didn’t really seem that excited about them, but all of their parents were gung-ho when I handed them the ticket stubs.”
Everyone received the same section, row, and seat number, each of which carried a special meaning. Harkins picked Section 126 because “Chase Utley is No. 1 in my book.” The row (20) and seat (08) numbers combine to make 2008, honoring the Phillies’ 2008 World Series title, the first Philly championship Harkins experienced.
On the back of each ticket, he included a message:
“I hope the newer generations of baseball fans can appreciate having a physical memento to remember this night with,” he wrote. “Maybe, thirty years from now, you’ll still have this ticket. I hope you look back on this night as fondly as that 11-year-old from 1996 still does.”
He got the idea after attending a concert in Mexico last month. Harkins met a couple from Denver, who printed out individual tickets of their own to celebrate their trip, and gave him one. As an avid ticket stub collector, he immediately started brainstorming.
Over the last decade-and-a-half, sports teams, concerts, and events have largely turned away from issuing physical tickets, instead relying on mobile tickets and QR codes. The Phillies started the process of turning their season ticket holders toward digital tickets in 2014, eliminating physical tickets entirely in 2020 during the pandemic. Mobile tickets can be more convenient, but don’t make for the same kind of keepsake.
“I’ll see an Eagles game from 2008, where it was blistery, and I can just remember being freezing cold that night against the Carolina Panthers on a Monday,” Harkins said. “It makes me think of the people that I was able to share that experience with and sometimes the result, sometimes good, sometimes bad.”
One of those people at Tuesday’s All-Star Game was Cheryl Spielvogel, the longtime peanut vendor whose call of “Peeeeeanuts!” is a familiar refrain for Citizens Bank Park regulars. Harkins happily told Spielvogel, who has been slinging the ballpark snack for over 50 years, that she helped provide “the soundtrack to my childhood.”
A look at some of the tickets in Harkins’ collection, including Michael Jordan’s last game (left), the 1976 NLCS, kept in his phone case (center), and Phillies tickets from their 10,00th loss and their playoff clinching win in 2007 (right).Courtesy of Mike Harkins
Harkins, who was a member of the famed Wolf Pack (in honor of former Phillies pitcher Randy Wolf) a quarter century ago, said the best ticket in his collection is from the Phillies’ regular season finale in 2007, when they clinched a playoff berth with some help from the Mets. He and his friends listened from the parking lot as Tom Glavine gave up seven runs in the first inning for New York against the Marlins, and were “floating” the rest of the day at Citizens Bank Park.
He even got to meet Dontrelle Willis, who started that game for the Marlins and now works for Fox Sports, at the All-Star red carpet at Independence Mall, and hear the story of that game from his side. Later, at the ballpark, Harkins got to meet the fan known as Marlins Man, a regular behind home plate at big-ticket events around the country. Laurence Leavy, the lawyer behind the orange Miami Marlins jersey, was confused when Harkins first handed him the stub, but was thankful once he realized what he had received.
Harkins considers himself a baseball history fanatic, and said the people who loved physical tickets the most were the ushers at the Bank, many of whom share that same passion for Phillies history.
He hopes the All-Star weekend and the ticket can help spark that in someone else.
Less than three weeks before baseball’s trade deadline, one thing stands out to Phillies owner John Middleton.
“There’s very few teams,” he said, “who are out of it.”
Indeed, when the dust cleared from the All-Star break (replaced by smoke from the Canada wildfires), 23 of 30 teams were either in playoff position or within four games of a wild card. The conditions may shift before Aug. 3, but the forecast is calling for a seller’s market, with demand far outpacing supply.
(How’s that for punching a hole in commissioner Rob Manfred’s assertion that MLB is rife with competitive imbalance that only a salary cap can solve? But we digress.)
A group of teams are poised to buy (Dodgers, Brewers, Braves, Yankees, Rays, Cubs, Phillies) and a handful should sell (Rockies, Angels, Royals, Mets, Giants). But most are in the middle. The Red Sox, for instance, looked a few weeks ago like they’d be open for business. Then, they won 14 of 16 games, including nine in a row before the break.
“It’s really hard to trade away players if you’re one of those teams and say, ‘I’m going to give up and try to get some younger players,’” Middleton said on The Inquirer’s Phillies Extra podcast. “Those teams are going to be pushing to add players to bridge that gap and get into the playoffs.”
There’s another wrinkle to this deadline: Nobody knows what the rules will be beyond 2026.
With the collective bargaining agreement set to expire on Dec. 1, and the owners and players at odds over the fundamental structure of the sport’s economic system, club executives must operate at the deadline without knowing if a cap on salaries is coming.
Under owner John Middleton (right) and president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski (left), the Phillies have been among the highest-spending teams in baseball since 2022.David Maialetti / Staff Photographer
The Phillies have nine players under contract in 2027 for roughly $218 million, as calculated for the luxury tax. Middleton isn’t among the owners on MLB’s labor policy committee and said he hasn’t been informed if the proposed cap would take effect next season.
“That’s all going to be a matter of negotiation,“ he said.
In that case, doesn’t president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski have to account for the possibility before he trades for a player who is under contract beyond this year?
“I think you have to be aware of it, you have to ask questions about it,” Middleton said. “But at the end of the day, because the range of outcomes is so wide, I think you have to just do what, in your judgment, is in your best interest.
“Philosophically, Dave and I approach these things as maximizing our ability to win today with maximizing our ability to win in the future. … That remains our philosophical construct, and we’re going to kind of move down that path.”
The Phillies continue to pursue an elusive World Series with a core of thirtysomethings who aren’t getting younger. They came out of the All-Star break with the fifth-best record in the National League (54-43) — and tied with the Brewers for the best mark in baseball since April 28, when Don Mattingly took over as manager.
But there’s also a Jenga quality to the roster. With a collection of stars at the top and little depth below them, it feels like the removal of one piece could leave the entire thing teetering on the brink of collapse.
“I think you know what we need, what we’re good at and what we’re not good at right now,” Bryce Harper said during the All-Star break. “John wants to win. He’s going to put all his chips in where he needs to, but he’s going to be smart about our future as well.
“Obviously I like the future of our organization and we need our future, but you’ve got to try to win as well. Whatever that looks like, I think Dave’s going to do a great job — or I hope he does — and get the things that we need.”
Let’s dive in, then, on the Phillies’ three biggest needs — and where they could look to fill them.
Padres lefty reliever Adrián Morejón is eligible for free agency after the season.David Zalubowski
Bullpen
Late-inning meltdowns torpedoed the Phillies in the 2023 and 2024 postseasons, so they traded two touted prospects at the deadline last year for Jhoan Duran.
And the Durantula has dominated.
But what’s the point of having one of the best closers in baseball if the bridge to him is rickety?
The bullpen vaulted to the top of the Phillies’ priority list this week after they lost Brad Keller for the season with a torn elbow ligament. Orion Kerkering and Jonathan Bowlan are the remaining righty setup options; lefty José Alvarado has pitched better than his ERA (6.82), but not nearly good enough.
Amid a calamitous season, New York’s bullpen has been an area of strength. Need a lefty? The Mets can offer A.J. Minter (1.42 ERA entering the weekend) or 38-year-old Brooks Raley (2.02), both on expiring contracts. They’re expected to listen on right-hander Huascar Brazobán (2.70), too, although he’s under club control through 2029.
Luke Weaver might bring back the best return for the Mets. He signed a two-year, $22 million contract — identical to Keller’s deal — last winter and has a 2.03 ERA.
The Phillies and Mets aren’t often trade partners. Juan Samuel-for-Lenny Dykstra (and Roger McDowell) in 1989 was a long time ago. But there are a few recent examples. In 2018 and 2019, the Phillies sent minor leaguers to the Mets for Asdrúbal Cabrera and Jason Vargas, respectively.
Another team to watch: the Padres. They lost 11 of 16 games before the break and slid to 3½ games out of a playoff spot. And they open the second half with 10 games on the road, seven of which are in Atlanta and Miami.
It isn’t general manager A.J. Preller’s style to sell. But if the Padres keep plummeting, walk-year lefty Adrián Morejón could be a logical chip. The hard-throwing 27-year-old has a 3.42 ERA and 58 strikeouts in 50 innings.
Orioles outfielder Taylor Ward went into the All-Star break with a .387 on-base percentage, seventh in the American League.Sue Ogrocki
Right-handed hitter
Stop us if this sounds familiar: The Phillies are looking for a righty-hitting outfielder.
At each of the last two deadlines, Dombrowski traded for an outfielder who bats from the right side: Austin Hays in 2024 and Harrison Bader in 2025. Then, last winter, the Phillies signed Adolis García.
García, like Keller, is out for the season. And like Keller, his absence left a void, even though he didn’t make the impact the Phillies hoped in the middle of the lineup.
Brandon Marsh is presently the only regular outfielder. Justin Crawford and Gabriel Rincones Jr., both rookies, start against right-handed pitchers; Derek Hill and infielder-turned-outfielder Edmundo Sosa face lefties.
It isn’t ideal.
Entering the weekend, the Phillies were tied for the majors’ worst on-base percentage (.302), including a .271 mark from the right side of the plate. It’s difficult to score runs consistently when so much of the offense depends on Kyle Schwarber and Harper going deep.
“You want to have a club that does everything — hits the ball out of the ballpark, gets on base, doesn’t strike out, puts the ball in play,” Mattingly said. “You’re never going to be perfect in who you are.”
But the Phillies can be better about reaching base at a higher clip.
One player who makes sense: Taylor Ward.
Ward, 32, entered the weekend with six homers for the Orioles after averaging 24 in the last four seasons for the Angels. But he has swapped power for on-base ability, reaching at a .387 clip, seventh in the American League.
The Orioles were 46-51, but only two games out of a wild card. Their first nine games out of the break are against the Astros, Red Sox, and Braves, a stretch that could determine whether they buy or sell.
Mets right-hander Clay Holmes has experience as both a starter and reliever.Colin Hubbard
Three starters is mostly sufficient for the postseason, but getting there requires at least five. Aaron Nola is pitching better with a curveball- and changeup-heavy gameplan. But Andrew Painter has gotten mixed results in triple A, leaving Alan Rangel as the No. 5 starter.
Here again, pay attention to the Mets.
Clay Holmes has been out since May with a fractured right fibula. But interim manager Andy Green told reporters Thursday that the 33-year-old righty is “inching closer” to a minor-league assignment.
Because Holmes had a 2.39 ERA in nine starts before the injury and a 3.53 mark in 31 starts last season. And in the three years before that, he was an excellent late-inning reliever, with a 2.85 ERA and 74 saves for the Yankees.
Holmes has a $12 million player option for next season. The Mets are open to discussing an extension, according to SNY.TV. But they could also trade Holmes, then try to sign him back in the offseason. Because there’s going to be substantial interest in a pitcher who can deepen a contender’s rotation down the stretch before shifting into the bullpen for the playoffs.
On July 18, 1923, this Phillies fan, real name Robert Cotter, caught a foul ball in the right-field bleachers during a day game against the Chicago Cubs at North Philly’s National League Park.
And the Phillies wanted the ball back.
The 11-year-old refused to cough it up to security guards, nicknamed “red caps.”
“I started running up the steps to get out,” Cotter later recalled. “I looked up and saw a red cap [guard] coming toward me. I turned around to run the other way, and there was another one standing behind me.”
Tough kid
It may be important to note that “Toughie Reds” did not pay for his ticket.
The kid and his brother, Raymond, ran out of their house on North 15th Street toward the ballpark, and climbed up a rain spout and into the ramshackle ballpark unofficially nicknamed (derisively by The Inquirer) “Baker Bowl.”
But not paying the price of admission seemed to pale in comparison to taking home the ball.
Baseball precedent
Since Cotter would not relinquish his grip on the ball, ownership saw an opportunity.
It was a chance to establish, once and for all, a legal precedent.
The Phillies’ policy in the 1920s said fans who caught foul balls had to give them back. They were team property, and not souvenirs. Mostly because kids like Cotter would try and sell the balls outside the park after outrunning the red caps.
On that July day in 1923, he couldn’t outrun them.
He was pulled into a nearby police station, where he was arrested for larceny, and spent the night in the House of Correction.
The next morning, Cotter and a Phillies rep went before a Municipal Court judge. The court sided with the kid, who was “following his natural instincts,” the judge noted, before adding: “It’s a thing I would do myself.”
Cotter walked, and the Phillies instituted a new policy of allowing fans to keep balls hit into the stands. And, eventually, every team in the major leagues would follow suit.
In 1998, to show there were no hard feelings, the team welcomed back Cotter and his family to Veterans Stadium, and he left with autographed baseballs from the team and Phillies Hall of Fame pitcher Robin Roberts.
It would certainly explain the vague but consistent discomfort that the Angels superstar projected throughout his All-Star weekend at Citizens Bank Park. From the obligatory arrival-day media free-for-all to a small postgame scrum that included some folks who’d covered him since high school, Trout politely but steadfastly declined to don the homecoming crown.
“It’s been great,” the Millville native said after Tuesday night’s All-Star Game. “Being out there with the guys, seeing my family, friends, it was a special night, special couple days.”
A questioner wanted to know where it ranked. He’d played at Citizens Bank Park in high school, after all. He routinely attends Eagles games across the street. He was applauded wildly during pregame introductions.
“It’s up there,” was all Trout would allow.
Philly loves nothing more than when someone loves it back. Trout surely knows this. Yet his responses were the ones you’d expect if somebody had asked if he enjoyed the meal.
Virtually every year since Trout’s MVP runner-up rookie season, the idea of him in a Phillies uniform has surfaced like a white whale. From the trade-deadline fan fiction to the free-agent fantasy, nobody ever bothered to consider a fundamental question.
Would Trout actually want to play here?
In a lot of ways, Millville is as far away from the insanity of Philadelphia as Anaheim itself is. Trout has seen that insanity close enough at Lincoln Financial Field. Surely, he can imagine all that would await him and his family were he suddenly to become the potential savior of the Phillies.
Mike Trout, a Millville native, went 0-for-3 in Tuesday’s All-Star Game at Citizens Bank Park.Yong Kim / Staff Photographer
“I hear this a lot,” Trout told reporters on Monday before the Home Run Derby. “I enjoy coming to Philly. I’m an Angel, obviously. I got a no-trade clause, so it’s ultimately my decision. But, like I said, I love Philly.”
Even if Trout wants to be here, which he has given no indication he does …
Even if the Angels are willing to accommodate it on the Phillies’ terms, which they have given no indication they do …
Even if the Phillies would dramatically increase their World Series odds by adding Trout’s stout right-handed bat to a lineup that leans further left than the DSA. Which is debatable at best …
Even if all that is true — which, again, it very likely isn’t — the Phillies would need to think long and hard about whether such a move makes sense for them.
The rest of us would need to ask ourselves if we really want to see it.
Instead of focusing on the fairy-tale beginning, let’s start with how the thing is most likely to end. That is, poorly. Very, very poorly.
Frankly, the strongest argument for Trout in a Phillies uniform is that the world as we know it may have ceased to exist by the time his contract is off the books in 2030. You only die once, right? Might as well have lived.
Other than that, let’s make sure we think about the likely reality of 2030.
Think about how Trout’s last days, maybe years, in a Phillies uniform would likely look. Think about how the Phillies would likely look as a whole.
Trout is one of the greatest athletes to ever play baseball. He is unquestionably the greatest to do it while holding Eagles season tickets (sorry, Kevin Mench). But Trout’s civic legacy has greatly benefited from the insulation of 2,700 miles. The injuries, the missed postseasons, the diminished production. Thus far, they’ve been the burden of Angels fans, whoever they are.
Mike Trout had a .739 OPS with a .326 OBP in his last 20 games before the All-Star break.Yong Kim / Staff Photographer
There will be no insulation when he is 38 years old and being paid $37 million to limp into the last year of his contract alongside a 37-year-old Bryce Harper and a 37-year-old Kyle Schwarber and a 37-year-old Aaron Nola and a 37-year-old Trea Turner and a Phillies team that needs to get its development house in order to be anything other than a soul-sucking disappointment when the year of our lord 2030 arrives.
Sure, maybe this time will be different. But there are very few scenarios where Trout in a Phillies uniform is sensible for the organization and something other than cringeworthy to watch at the end.
From the Phillies’ perspective, the depreciation calculus would be complex enough to jeopardize a deal even if both sides were open to one. Health is a significant variable. That’s true for most 34-year-old players. It is especially true for Trout, who has played 85+ games just twice in his previous six seasons and hasn’t played more than 140 since 2016, when he was 24. He is barely a week removed from returning from a hamstring strain that sidelined him for three weeks. He missed a month last season after reinjuring a knee that had previously cost him most of 2024. The 2021-23 seasons saw him deal with a calf strain, a back injury, and a fractured hamate bone. The actuarial work will require more than a cocktail napkin just to calculate Trout’s likely availability from now through October. Even more complicated is figuring out how to price the risk/reward of the rest of Trout’s contract, which will pay him about $150 million through 2030, when he will be 38 years old.
That would be true even if the short-term payoff were as decisive as many envision. It isn’t. Trout’s production has cooled off considerably since a sizzling start. He had a .739 OPS with a .326 OBP in his last 20 games before the All-Star break and a .750 OPS with a .349 OBP in his last 42. Those numbers are better than they may sound, particularly compared with what the Phillies’ overall numbers have been in the outfield alongside Brandon Marsh. But they are far from vintage Trout, which is what he was in his first 36 games, reaching base at a .436 clip with a 1.000 OPS and 11 home runs in 126 at-bats.
In the meantime, the Phillies are dealing with the reality that they have exactly one proven late-innings bullpen arm. Their trade deadline focus crystallized on Thursday with the news that setup man Brad Keller will miss the rest of the season — and presumably 2027 — with a torn UCL.
It’s pretty easy to envision how October will end if the Phillies sink resources into Trout instead of allocating them for the bullpen.
Each Friday, Inquirer photo editors pick the best sports images from the last seven days. And this week, there’s no question what the biggest show in town was: the MLB All-Star festivities. After a month of World Cup soccer dominating the Philly sports scene, it was time for baseball to take over. Here’s what our photographers saw …
Phillies first baseman Bryce Harper lives up to his “Showman” nickname by climbing up the ropes of a boxing ring on the field during his MLB Home Run Derby introduction.Yong Kim / Staff Photographer
Phillies designated hitter Kyle Schwarber reacts after his turn in the final round of the Home Run Derby. He lost to Cardinals outfielder Jordan Walker.Yong Kim / Staff Photographer
A fan reacts after catching a home run from Tampa Bay Rays third baseman Junior Caminero during the MLB Home Run Derby.Monica Herndon / Staff PhotographerSt. Louis Cardinals outfielder Jordan Walker celebrates after hitting the winning home run at the MLB Home Run Derby.Yong Kim / Staff Photographer
Phillies closer pitcher Jhoan Duran poses for photos with his family at the MLB All-Star Game Red Carpet on Independence Mall on Tuesday afternoon.Monica Herndon / Staff PhotographerKyle Schwarber walks the red carpet with his family.Monica Herndon / Staff Photographer
Philly’s Patti LaBelle performs the national anthem before the start of the All-Star Game.Yong Kim / Staff PhotographerPhillies pitcher Jesus Luzardo tossed a 1-2-3 inning, while teammate Cristopher Sànchez allowed the only three runs of the game.Yong Kim / Staff Photographer
Jimmy Rollins celebrates after hitting a home run during the MLBx: All-Star 3-on-3 event on Sunday at Citizens Bank Park, but his team ultimately lost to Shane Victorino’s squad.Yong Kim / Staff Photographer
Florida A&M University’s Jackson McKenzie, a member of the HBCU American League team, loses his bat in the seventh inning of the HBCU Swingman Classic, which featured baseball players from historically Black colleges and universities.Yong Kim / Staff Photographer
HBCU American League pitcher James Peterson, of Alabama State University, loses his hat during the second inning of the Swingman Classic.Yong Kim / Staff Photographer
Phillies prospect Wen-Hui Pan pitches in the sixth inning of the 2026 All-Star Futures Game. Fellow Phillies prospect Gage Wood started the game for the National League.David Maialetti / Staff Photographer
National League Futures manager Shane Victorino (center) takes a selfie with members of his team before the start of the game.David Maialetti / Staff PhotographerHBCU American League team members celebrate around Ken Griffey Jr. (center, in white shirt) after winning the HBCU Swingman Classic.Yong Kim / Staff Photographer
Phillies owner John Middleton spent months planning to host the city’s first All-Star Game in 30 years. Now that it’s over, he joined Phillies Extra, The Inquirer’s baseball podcast, to recap his most memorable moments from the week. He also discussed the upcoming trade deadline and Field of Dreams Game in Iowa, and the future of the top of the Phillies organizational masthead. Watch here.
