3 Phillies who will make-or-break another World Series run

After last year's electric postseason run that saw them advance all the way to the World Series, the Philadelphia Phillies are once again in a position to do some damage in October. The club successfully clinched a postseason berth on Tuesday. While they were unable to win the National League East, they rather easily took home the top NL Wild Card spot.

Last year, practically the entire starting lineup easily carried the Phillies to a deep postseason run. JT Realmuto, Kyle Schwarber and Bryce Harper all posted a regular OPS+ of over 130 while the club's pitching staff was utterly dominant as well.

This year's crew is largely the same, adding and subtracting a few faces here and there. At the deadline, the biggest (and really, only) moves made were the one to bring Michael Lorenzen in from the Tigers and infielder Rodolfo Castro over from the Pirates. While the former threw a no-hitter in his first start in Philadelphia, his tenure has largely gone up in flames and is now not even close to a lock for the postseason starting rotation. The latter and his -27 OPS+ has been every bit as dreadful since the deadline, he may not make the postseason roster at all.

As always, there are a group of players on this star-studded roster that have the ability to singlehandedly alter the outcome of these high-stakes games that are coming up, for better or for worse. Let's check out the three most prominent examples.

Phillies who will make-or-break another World Series run: Trea Turner

This is a rather obvious one, but Trea Turner didn't come even close to the same level of production this year that he had shown throughout his previous eight years in the big leagues. He signed a gigantic 11-year contract with the Phillies this past offseason and was supposed to be "the next big thing" in town.

In April, the superstar hit just .260 and he followed that up with an even worse May, hitting .208 in 25 games. All of a sudden, he was beginning to lose the faith of the always-harsh Phillies fanbase. A strong month of June in which he posted an OPS+ over 100 started to turn things around, but he once again faltered in July.

Then, as if somebody flipped a switch, the speedy infielder caught fire, hitting nine home runs with 26 RBI in the month of August, posting a .333 average with a ridiculous 1.061 OPS. Since then, he has not looked back in the slightest and the Phillies have themselves the top-tier player they thought they'd be getting when they signed him in free agency.

Someone like Turner, who is such a huge presence both at the plate and in the field, has the ability to do great things on a baseball field. However, he also is capable of laying an egg and producing little to no offense, as evidenced by three months of the regular season.

To make matters worse, the two-time All-Star has a poor track record in his postseason career. He played on some strong Nationals and Dodgers teams (even winning a World Series ring with the Nats back in 2019), but has a combined .238 batting average in 43 career playoff games. In that time, he has struck out 50 times and walked just 10 times. It's going to be crucial for the Phillies to get the August and September version of him.