Phillies early postseason exit stings even more when compared to other teams with a bye

Usually, standing out from a group is good. Being different is cool! But when the difference between you and everyone else is that they all won and you lost, then being different stops being as cool. That's the situation Philadelphia is dealing with right now, as it was the only MLB team that got a bye in the playoffs to not advance beyond the Divisional Series.

While the Cleveland Guardians, New York Yankees and Los Angeles Dodgers all advanced to either the ALCS or NLCS, the Phillies failed to win a series, falling to the Mets in five games. The Phillies looked uninspired for most of the series, especially Games 4 and 5, when the team scored three runs combined over 18 innings.

After looking like the best team in baseball for the first few months of the season, Philly now heads home while the three other top seeds in the playoffs continue to the next round.

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The "too much time off" excuse doesn't work anymore for Phillies

There has been much discussion regarding whether the new MLB playoff format is a disadvantage to teams that earn a first-round bye, as it gives teams more time off than they're used to, thus (in theory) taking that team out of its rhythm. But after three of four teams with a bye advanced this year, that argument is dead. Philadelphia simply didn't get the job done in the NLDS this year, and there's no excuse the team can lean on anymore.

Philadelphia now heads into the offseason with nothing to show for a successful regular season. Instead, there are plenty of questions about whether Philly's roster still has the depth to make a deep playoff run. This team is still loaded with talent and offensive pop, but that didn't appear for long stretches during the NLDS.