Philadelphia Phillies: The rest of the NL East is getting way better

The NL East is leaving the Philadelphia Phillies behind.

Since the 2020 MLB season came to a conclusion, the Philadelphia Phillies have made a point of telling the fans how “difficult” the looming offseason would be. Ownership cried poor due to COVID-19 revenue losses, front office candidates wouldn’t want to “uproot during a pandemic”, free agent signings would be hard to come by, etc.

Well, if this was truly the case, clearly nobody informed the rest of the NL East.

As a whole, the NL East has collectively gotten way better this offseason (outside of the Phillies of course). Three of the five teams have been quick and decisive in making early offseason moves, and the fourth team has been increasingly linked to big name free agents and trade candidates.

Starting first with the Atlanta Braves, fresh off a trip to the NLCS, their front office has already addressed their biggest 2020 weakness: the starting rotation. They threw $11 million at LHP Drew Smyly, and $15 million at former Phillie Charlie Morton. With Mike Soroka expected to return from injury for the 2021 season, Atlanta projects to have one of the deepest rotations in all of baseball.

The New York Mets, obviously, have made a pretty sizable splash themselves. They were just recently bought out by Steve Cohen, who is now the richest owner in MLB history. They’ve already started interviewing front office candidates, and they’re projected to land two of the following players: JT Realmuto, Trevor Bauer, George Springer, and Francisco Lindor.

The Miami Marlins, fresh off their own respective playoff run, went out and hired Kim Ng as their newest general manager. Ng is a widely respected front office executive, with experience working for the Dodgers, Yankees, and commissioner’s office. With guys like Sixto Sanchez spearheading their future, expect them to only get better and better.

Lastly, the 2019 World Champion Washington Nationals have been busy themselves. While they’re yet to pull the trigger on any sort of big time move, they’ve been increasingly linked to both Kris Bryant and DJ LeMahieu. With Stephen Strasburg expected to return to action next year, and Juan Soto moving closer to that MVP conversation, I would expect them to creep back towards the postseason in 2021.

Each of the Phillies’ NL East rivals are actively pursuing improvement, while the Phils continue to sit back from afar. They’ve thankfully started poking around some potential GM/President candidates, but they’re still a ways away from finalizing anything. With each passing day where there’s no one in charge in Philadelphia, the likelihood of someone like Realmuto returning grows ever slimmer.

Without being too “doom or gloom” about the whole situation, the Philadelphia Phillies are in a bit of a rough spot. They have no clear leader running the ship, and they have a plethora of roster holes that need filling, starting with their league-worst bullpen. Hopefully, the action around their rivals in the NL East ends up being enough to jolt the Phillies into action, because they’re clearly not finding that motivation internally.