3 Phillies playing their final postseason in Philadelphia
By Josh Wilson
The Philadelphia Phillies have flipped things on their head in the National League Divisional Series, snatching home-field advantage from the Atlanta Braves and making fans so upset they threw trash on their home field.
Plenty of work is yet to be done, but Philly now has equal odds to the Braves as the most likely NL team to win the World Series. After going to the title series and losing to the Houston Astros last season, this would be a great redemption for the now perenially-feared Wild Card team.
Though there are plenty of games yet to be played, these three players -- notably, all pitchers -- may not return for the years ahead in Philly. It could be their last chance of hoisting a trophy with the franchise.
Craig Kimbrel
Craig Kimbrel was added as a savvy one-year add to the bullpen this winter. Kimbrel's performance with Philly has been frankly up and down, with the first two months and last two months featuring some dud performances short of the dominant, reliable arm the Phillies thought they were getting when they added him to the pen.
Kimbrel, in June and July, showed he still can be the strong reliever he's expected to be, and some team will use that as evidence for reasoning around giving him a sizable contract to gamble on him returning completely to form in 2024.
Philly can't be as risky with its offseason signings and should look elsewhere to backfill his role -- perhaps even internally -- in the relief category. If Kimbrel takes a discount, maybe this is a different story, but he can likely still command a sizable paycheck after years of consistent play preceding this one.
After three straight years of two or fewer games in which Kimbrel gave up three earned runs or fewer, this year featured three such performances from Kimbrel, as well as a near-career low in strikeouts per nine innings.
One short stop for Kimbrel in Philly is my prediction.