The Philadelphia Phillies enter the 2026 season with most of the same group that just won the NL East for the second straight year, which means expectations are high for the upcoming campaign.
An anonymous survey of three dozen MLB insiders conducted by Jayson Stark of The Athletic and released on Friday, February 20, voted Bryce Harper and the rest of the Phillies’ core players as having the most pressure heading into the new season. One executive made the soul-crushing comparison to president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski’s former team, the Detroit Tigers, in his final season before departing for the Boston Red Sox.
“You hate to say they’re trending like the Tigers in Dave’s last year there,” the executive told The Athletic. “But it feels more and more like it.”
Bryce Harper, Philadelphia Phillies Under Most Pressure, Per MLB Insiders
GettyBryce Harper will lead a Phillies team that has failed to advance past the NLDS in two straight years.
Stark asked 36 executives, former executives, managers, coaches, and scouts to identify the groups “feeling the heat” in 2026. The survey tallies were segmented by teams/front offices/managers, managers alone, and rosters/core groups. Harper and his teammates were the runaway winners for the latter category, earning 18 votes. Aaron Judge and the New York Yankees were a distant second, receiving 10 votes.
Philadelphia’s season has ended in similar fashion the past two years. The club has won the NL East, only to fall in the National League Divisional Series. The Phillies were knocked out in four games by the eventual World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers this past year. A throwing error by reliever Orion Kerkering in the 11th inning of Game 4 propelled the Dodgers to the National League Championship Series and sent the Phillies home.
The comparison to Dombrowski’s final season with Detroit is particularly troubling. The executive spent more than a dozen seasons with the Tigers, holding down the general manager gig from 2002 to 2015. The team went to the World Series twice in that span, but lost both times. The aforementioned last year under Dombrowski saw the team finish dead last in the AL Central. An aging roster led by Miguel Cabrera and Ian Kinsler couldn’t compete in the division.
Phillies Spend Big to Keep Aging Core
GettyThe Phillies have handed out several notable contracts to retain aging stars this offseason.
Dombrowski and company went out of their way to retain the group that won 96 games last season. Philadelphia handed soon-to-be 33-year-old Kyle Schwarber a five-year, $150 million deal. Catcher J.T. Realmuto, who will turn 35 in March, received a three-year, $45 million contract. FanGraphs’ RosterResource tool projects the Phillies’ estimated payroll at $284 million for 2026. The team’s 10 highest-paid players are all more than 30 years old.
The Phillies have seen their win total rise in four straight seasons. The club has won 90+ games in each of the past three years. The postseason results, however, have trended in the opposite direction. Philadelphia lost to the Houston Astros in the 2022 World Series. The team was knocked out by the Arizona Diamondbacks in the NLCS the following year. Now, the Phillies have lost in the NLDS in back-to-back campaigns.
“They’re getting older,” one rival executive told The Athletic. “They’ve run these guys out there. They’ve spent the money. And now it’s showtime.”
MLB Exec Makes Chilling Comparison to Bryce Harper, Phillies