2025 Team Previews - Philadelphia Phillies
As part of my 2025 team previews series, I go through all fantasy-relevant players on the Philadelphia Phillies ahead of the 2025 season.
Check out the intro and team links page here.
Intro
The Phillies are the penultimate team I’m publishing in this long series. That means they had the second-best wins in the league last year. They are in the midst of a very nice run for their franchise. They have made the playoffs in each of the last three seasons and won their first division title since 2011 last season. The core is solid, albeit getting a bit old! There would not seem to be a ton of chances left for them to take down a World Series. And I have to say, I find myself rooting for them.
I really like the Liberty Bell logo. Philadelphia is a cool place, or at least it was historically. I can’t say it looks all that appealing when I drive through it every June on my family’s way to the beach. But that’s probably just because I have come to be grossed out by cities in my old age.
Roster
You’ll see the age here. Six of their seven best hitters are over 31, but none of them are older than 34 (yet!). Since these guys are all the same age, I bet they get along great.
The pitching staff is not much younger, but it’s a pretty nice rotation.
They also have one of the game’s top pitching prospects. This team should be very good again this year. With the Braves getting healthy and the Mets adding Soto, that division is easily the most interesting and fun division in baseball.
Hitters
Bryce Harper
Age: 32
Pos: 1B
Harper had Tommy John surgery on the elbow in November of 2022. He returned early in 2023, a very impressive feat. That moved him from the outfield to first base, and he’s not going back. He has had some massive years in his career, but last year wasn’t quite one of them:
631 PA, .284/.371/.524, 30 HR, 7 SB, 21.9% K%, 12.0% BB%
He knocked in 87 runs and scored 85 more. It was a very good fantasy season, don’t get me wrong, but he’s not really a first-round guy at this point. Some of the other numbers:
Brl%: 10.6%
Cont%: 73.3%
xwOBA: .361
xBA: .268
GB%: 39%
EV90: 107.0
That was the first time under an 11% Brl% since 2016 for Harper. With the lack of strikeouts and high fly ball rate, he still turned in a 30-homer season.
For fantasy purposes, he just looks a little bit more like Manny Machado than Aaron Judge these days. He will cost you a later second-round pick, and I can’t say there’s anything wrong with that. He has 40+ homer and 110+ RBI upside with 10-15 steals and a good batting average. I think what we saw last year is probably closer to the floor than the ceiling.
He is right there with Freddie Freeman in my first base rankings, making him the #3 guy at the position, and I’ll have him inside my top 20 hitters in all likelihood. Here’s an ugly view of what the ADP looks like at the top of the 1B position.
I don’t find myself using an early pick on a first baseman very often, but that doesn’t mean I’m completely opposed to it. Harper’s floor is nice, and he does have the ceiling that would make you pretty pumped about him getting him with your second or third pick.
Rank
Projection
662 PA, 89 R, 27 HR, 95 RBI, 10 SB, .266/.371/.476, $12.40 roto value
Trea Turner
Age: 31
Pos: SS
Turner suffered an injury last year that kept him out of the lineup for more than a month, from early May to mid-June. Although his total production was reduced, he still performed very well on the field.
539 PA, .295/.338/.469, 21 HR, 19 SB, 18.2% K%, 5.0% BB%
Turner has been a 20-20 guy for all of his career, and he came up just one steal shy of it last year despite those seven missed weeks. His slugging was ten points above the previous year, and he got the strikeout rate back under 20%. He looked really good.
He does not hit the ball super hard and relies a lot on pulling a fly ball with backspin every once in a while to get to his 20+ homers. I don’t see much of a chance at 30 homers, and I think we’ll have him as a 15-20 homer guy before long.
The speed is still there; he posted a 96th-percentile sprint speed last year.
He is priced this year like he’s on the decline, but you don’t see that when you’re looking into the numbers. You get Turner at pick 25 in the average draft, which is in the third round in a 12-team league! I like that a lot, and he’s a very strong target if your first hitter is someone who doesn’t steal a ton of bags.
Rank
Projection
677 PA, 99 R, 23 HR, 85 RBI, 23 SB, .265/.316/.434, $12.76 roto value
Kyle Schwarber
Age: 32
Pos: DH
I have no idea how you drive in 100+ runs as a lead-off hitter, but Schwarber has done that in back-to-back years. Last year:
692 PA, .248/.366/.485, 38 HR, 5 SB, 28.5% K%, 15.3% BB%
The batting average was nice for Schwarber, and it was one of the best marks of his career.
It’s not very smart to expect that to happen again. In the past, he’s been a killer on your team’s batting average and steal counts. He’s a top-ten player in terms of counting stats, so he makes up for a lot of that.
That combination does make him tough to rank. He gets even tougher to rank since he doesn’t have eligibility at any position. He’s another guy that you cannot pair with a Shohei Ohtani pick in certain leagues (you might only have one utility spot), and he isn’t really someone you want to pair with another play of his same type.
It’s all about strategy and pairing with Schwarber. For more on that, see this piece. He goes very well with a Luis Arraez or Xavier Edwards type. Those guys can get you what Schwarber doesn’t.
Rank
Projection
693 PA, 99 R, 36 HR, 81 RBI, 4 SB, .230/.354/.467, $12.06 roto value
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