Skeptical that this is finally the year for the Phillies to make their overdue return to the postseason?
Andy MacPhail hears you.
"You don't have to believe anything you really don't want to believe," the team president said last month. "It's really kind of an elective choice. In my view, you should be analytic and as objective as you can and make your own determination."
So much for spring-training spin.
The Phillies spent half a billion dollars on the roster in the 2018-19 offseason but only 60 games _ less than 40% of the season _ in first place in 2019. They finished 81-81, one game better than the year before, and when October rolled around, they were right where they have been since 2011: watching from home.
Humbling, right? Enough, it seems, that most team officials are no longer raising expectations with rhetoric. Even those with the rosiest-colored glasses _ MacPhail wears wire frames, thank you very much _ aren't blind to this reality, either: The Phillies play in a division with the World Series champs (Washington Nationals), a team that has had consecutive 90-win seasons (Atlanta Braves), and the back-to-back Cy Young Award winner (Jacob deGrom of the New York Mets).
To borrow a popular phrase, winning ain't easy. In the National League East, though, the margin between a division crown and finishing fourth is as narrow as ever.
Health, as always, is the great equalizer. The deepest organization will be the one that rises to the top. But each of the four aspiring contenders that place on the 81- to 91-win spectrum will also revolve around two or three players with recent histories of success who didn't have it last year.
Here's the list of Phillies players, in order of importance, who could swing the season in one direction or the other:
