The World Series began last night between the American League champion Yankees and the National League champion Dodgers in Los Angeles, and Dodgers veteran Freddie Freeman had the last word — a walk-off grand slam in the 10th inning that gave LA a 6-3 win. Freeman is far from the biggest name in the series: Shohei Ohtani, Aaron Judge, Mookie Betts, and Juan Soto are all there too. Not to mention the celebrities in crisp new merch spotted in the box suites.
Of course, you are likely wondering the same thing as the rest of the country:
Where are the Phillies?
They are each sitting in a dark room, staring out the window at the haunting autumn mise en scène, their stares solemn and unblinking, their moods unflinchingly dour, in the hopes that something in the ghostly wails and dancing woodsmoke of the season will provide a meaning for their playoffless fate.
Actually … no, they’re probably at some rich-person resort with their families.
There’s a decent chance none of the Phillies will even watch the World Series this year. For many of us, that’s the healthy thing to do. But, since the Mets didn’t make it, Phillies fans can watch the October Classic free of bitterness and regret and sourness. We can enjoy it as pure baseball fans, without the burden of emotional investment! Isn’t that fun?
No? Well, it’s not like there’s anything else going on.
Isn’t it football season?
I mean, yeah, it is football season, but that also means that it’s Eagles season, which requires less of an emotional “investment” and more of a “toll.”
What about any of the other sports?
I’m pretty sure the Sixers have already been eliminated, the Flyers are trapped in a time loop in which they lose every night, and the WNBA refuses to award Philadelphia a franchise out of cowardice. If you’ve kept up with any of the other local sports teams, you could honestly reason that the safest place for the Phillies to be right now is off the field.
All right, well, is there any way to watch the Phillies right now?
Of course! You can replay highlights from the glorious, NL East-winning 2024 season in your mind anytime. But if you meant “watch them live,” well, the answer is also yes! Sort of!
First, former Indiana Hoosier Kyle Schwarber will be the guest picker on ESPN’s College Gameday this weekend! Just imagine being told in April that yes, you would still be watching the Phillies’ powerhouse leadoff hitter play ball in late October, only to find out his appearance would be only in a brief segment and mostly for sports gambling purposes. Isn’t it fun when fate has a sense of humor! Ha! Ha ha!
There are still a few Phillies playing baseball, however. They’re the seven Phillies minor league prospects out in the Arizona Fall League — and a couple of them are playing pretty well.
The Phillies might have the hottest hitter in the Arizona Fall League right now. Second baseman Otto Kemp has been annihilating pitching out in the desert, hitting two home runs in the Glendale Desert Dogs’ last game, including a grand slam. It was his second two-homer game of the fall, giving Kemp a total of four home runs so far this season, the second most of any AFL player right now.
Phillies prospects are playing on the Glendale Desert Dogs along with Reds, Cardinals, White Sox, and Dodgers prospects, who are leading the league in runs scored with 106 in 14 games for an average of 7.5 runs per game. The 25-year-old Kemp was referred to as “one of the least heralded” hitters in the Glendale Desert Dogs lineup by Baseball America, but he currently leads the team in home runs, SLG, and OPS. I think we can all conclude that this proves every projection is worthless.
But the hottest hand in the AFL may belong to top Phillies prospect Andrew Painter. In his third appearance of the season, the No. 32 ranked prospect in baseball threw 26 of 32 pitches for strikes in his best outing yet. As he works back from last year’s Tommy John surgery, Painter introduced a new slider while hitting 99 mph on the radar gun with his fastball. He struck out three batters and allowed one hit over three frames.
A swiftly recovering Andrew Painter slots into the 2025 version of this team in some capacity, so being able to more clearly project his role could play into a couple of the directions the Phillies could go. This has already been encouraging through three starts, and like Phillies catching prospect and Painter’s AFL teammate Jordan Dissin said, if the fall ends with us having seen Painter throw six innings of efficient work, there are going to be some happy people in the Phillies organization.
What will the Phillies do next?
Yeah, that’s the big question at the moment.
Unfortunately, all there will be for the time being are rumors, whispers, and straight-up lies. Until the end of the World Series, and likely not right after that, there will probably not be a lot to discuss in the way of the Phillies’ next moves.
The idea is that they have to do something, which is about all anybody can say right now. Will they sign an outfielder like Cody Bellinger or Teoscar Hernandez? Will they get aggressive about retaining free agent relievers Carlos Estevez and Jeff Hoffman? Will they sign a guy who doesn’t chase pitches out of the zone in the hope that he serves as an example for the others to follow?
It’s all wide open in front of them. President of Baseball Operations Dave Dombrowski has some adjustments to make. But first, there’s this World Series in the way.
So who does a Phillies fan root for if it’s the Yankees and Dodgers?
Great question. It’s got to be the Dodgers. They’ve been no threat to the Phillies in the postseason, Chase Utley, Jimmy Rollins, Shane Victorino, and Joe Blanton all played for them, and the Yankees are the Yankees. Their stadium is a 46,000-capacity holding area for people who think a World Series title is their birthright.
On the other hand, Mets fans really don’t want the Yankees to win.
So it’s a matter of choosing to root for one of the teams on the field or choosing to root against a team that’s already been eliminated. Wouldn’t it be easier to know who to root for if the Phillies just, you know, made it to the World Series again?
I hope that rich-person resort is giving them time to think.
