7 Phillies Who Won't Be Back in 2025 After Major Postseason Letdown

The NL East champion, Philadelphia Phillies, who had the second-best record in baseball in the 2024 regular season (95-67), had their Red October journey come to an abrupt end on Wednesday night.

The Phillies suffered the same fate as the Milwaukee Brewers, losing in four games to their NL East rival, the New York Mets in the NLDS. 

Despite having the first-round bye, the Phillies could not flip that switch against the Mets, who outplayed and outperformed them throughout this series. 

For a team that was picked to make it to the World Series before the 2024 season began, the Phillies squandered their opportunity. They failed to string together competitive at-bats and had no one step up in the bullpen.

It was the classic case of a baseball team with a colossal payroll that failed to live up to the massive expectations after just being in the World Series in 2022.

With the 2024 season officially done, the Phillies’ front office and fans will start looking ahead to the 2025 season. 

After disappointing endings over the last two years in the playoffs, Philadelphia fans want to see some changes to the roster. As the regular season showed, there was a lot to love about this team.

At the same time, the postseason highlighted some of the issues that this team must address if they want to be considered contenders in 2025. The Phillies’ fan base isn’t worried about the regular season anymore, it’s all about what you do in October.

Therefore, we’ll discuss several players from this season’s team who might not be playing at Citizens Bank Park in 2025.

1. Carlos Estevez

The Phillies don’t have a ton of free agents as their core is locked in for the next few years. But they have a couple of relievers, who might not stay with the team next season.

One of those relief pitchers is Carlos Estevez, who the Phillies acquired ahead of the trade deadline in July. Philadelphia sent two minor league pitchers (George Klassen and Samuel Aldegheri) to the Los Angeles Angels in exchange for Estevez.

Estevez was viewed as one of the better relievers at the trade deadline, along with Tanner Scott, who ended up with the San Diego Padres. 

The 31-year-old reliever pitched well in the second half of the season for the Phillies, recording a 3-2 record, 2.57 ERA, and 18 strikeouts in 21 innings pitched (20 games). Estevez also had six saves, 1.19 WHIP, and opponents only hit .225.

When the postseason rolled around, Estevez pitched a clean inning in the Phillies’ Game 2 at Citizens Bank Park. However, when the series switched to New York, Thomson used him in Game 3, where Estevez allowed one run, two walks, and struck two batters in one inning. But he threw 26 pitches in a meaningless game for the Phils.

Then in Game 4, Estevez was thrown into a tight spot in the sixth inning, where he gave up the game-winning grand slam to Francisco Lindor. With the Phillies also having Jeff Hoffman as a pending free agent, the team would ideally like to re-sign both guys.

However, a reliever like Estevez could get a substantial deal from another team in free agency despite the home run allowed to Lindor. Spotrac projects Estevez’s calculated market value at a three-year, $42 million contract with an average annual salary of $14 million.