{"id":125904,"date":"2026-07-15T12:04:46","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T16:04:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=125904"},"modified":"2026-07-15T12:04:46","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T16:04:46","slug":"phillies-second-half","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2026\/07\/15\/phillies-second-half\/","title":{"rendered":"A Plan For Phillies Second Half Success"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Philadelphia Phillies second half of the season is technically already underway, but the team returns from the All-Star break on July 16 at home against the New York Mets. This comes after Philadelphia hosted the 2026 MLB All-Star Game<\/a> on July 14. Currently the Phillies sit at 54-43 in second in the NL East two games behind the Atlanta Braves. As Matt Vasgersian noted in a recent interview<\/a> do not count out the Phillies overtaking the Braves. The Phillies hold a two game advantage for a Wild Card spot at the moment as well. To add to that the Phillies trail the Chicago Cubs by a 1\/2 game for the top Wild Card position.<\/p>\n

The Phillies second half of the season opens up with a nine game homes stand. In addition to the Mets, the Phillies will also welcome the Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Yankees. These games will be a good measuring point ahead of the trade deadline. A road series against the Miami Marlins follows this home stand as well.<\/p>\n

Phillies Second Half Path Forward<\/h2>\n

Leaders In Starting Rotation Need To Continue First Half Successes<\/h3>\n

The starting rotation led by Cristopher S\u00e1nchez, Zack Wheeler and Jes\u00fas Luzardo needs to continue to excel in the Phillies second half. Wheeler is coming off of an All-Star snub<\/a> and it motivate him down the stretch. Since being left off the NL All-Star team Wheeler has a 0.69 ERA and a 0.62 WHIP in two starts. Meanwhile S\u00e1nchez needs to get back on track. S\u00e1nchez has an abysmal 9.58 ERA and a 2.32 WHIP across two July starts. Prior to July, S\u00e1nchez recorded a 2.00 ERA and a 1.09 WHIP in his first 18 starts. Luzardo has turned a corner since a shaky start with a 2.28 ERA and a 1.08 WHIP in seven starts since June 1.<\/p>\n

Trade Deadline Questions<\/h3>\n

The Phillies will be looking for the ideal right-handed hitting outfielder<\/a> at the August 3 trade deadline. Despite constant fan speculation a trade for Mike Trout is not the answer here. However, fellow Los Angeles Angels outfielder Jo Adell could be a trade option for the Phillies. Adell has a .245\/.291\/.395 line with 13 home runs and 53 RBI in 96 games this season. Meanwhile this year Adell has a 89 wRC+ along with a .285 BABIP and a 0.14 BB\/K rate. Adell is under team control through the 2027 season and the two teams have made multiple deadline deals the past few seasons.<\/p>\n

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Potential Change To The Lineup<\/h3>\n

Trea Turner could be in line for a position change either this season or this offseason. The Phillies shortstop is underperforming<\/a> this season and something needs to change. Defensively this season Turner has -9 DRS\/-5 OAA\/-6 FRV at shortstop. Turner has committed 13 errors at the position this season. At the plate it is a similar story as Turner has a .236\/.284\/.355 line with 10 home runs and 33 RBI in 94 games. Turner has a 74 wRC+ and a .283 BABIP with a 0.27 BB\/K rate. It is time to move Turner out of the top three in the lineup into a lower spot in the order. This is the change that needs to be made the most.<\/p>\n

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Need For Postseason Success<\/h3>\n

The Phillies came into the season with high expectations and made a mid-season managerial change. Don Mattingly taking over for Rob Thomson has given the team new hope for a postseason run. With an aging core and uncertainty surrounding a potential lockout after this season this could very well be the last chance of this era of Phillies baseball to win a World Series. The Phillies second half performance needs to get the team to the postseason at a minimum. What happens at the trade deadline will play an important role in dictating what happens down the stretch for the Phillies.<\/p>\n

Mandatory Credit: John E. Sokolowski-USA TODAY Sports<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Philadelphia Phillies second half of the season is technically already underway, but the team returns from the All-Star break on July 16 at home against the New York Mets. This comes after Philadelphia hosted the 2026 MLB All-Star Game on July 14. Currently the Phillies sit at 54-43 in second in the NL East […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4566,"featured_media":125905,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1071,23],"tags":[315,28573,3425,248,300,683],"class_list":["post-125904","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mlb","category-phillies","tag-bryce-harper","tag-cristopher-sanchez","tag-jesus-luzardo","tag-mike-trout","tag-trea-turner","tag-zack-wheeler"],"modified_by":"Ben Rosen, Staff Writer","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125904","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4566"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=125904"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125904\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":125911,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125904\/revisions\/125911"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/125905"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=125904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=125904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=125904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}