Apr 27, 2024; San Diego, California, USA; Philadelphia Phillies starting pitcher Ranger Suarez (55) and third baseman Alec Bohm (28) celebrate on the field after defeating the San Diego Padres at Petco Park. Mandatory Credit: Orlando Ramirez-USA TODAY Sports Orlando Ramirez
Every Tuesday, On Pattison's Tim Kelly and Anthony SanFilippo will answer your questions from social media pertaining to the Phillies. Let's get to it.
@ThirtyBallparks on Threads: What is the biggest storyline fans should be paying attention to at Spring Training? Alec Bohm? Ranger Suarez? Andrew Painter?
Tim Kelly: Last year was kind of a strange Spring Training to cover because there wasn't a ton of storylines with virtually the same team coming back.
There haven't been wholesale changes this offseason, but Jesús Luzardo is a pretty big move. Jordan Romano also was a notable move, whether he ends up panning out or not.
Still, the biggest storyline to me will unquestionably be Alec Bohm, assuming he is there as a Phillie. The Phillies have a very good PR staff, and I would guess Bohm will say all the right things when he meets with the media early in camp. So while Bohm will probably be the biggest storyline of the spring, I'm not sure there's going to be much of a resolution on it.
Bohm can say all the right things in Clearwater, but the real test will be if he gets off to a slow start and hears some boos at Citizens Bank Park in mid-April. Will he be able to just keep his head down and power through it, or will things snowball and get ugly?
Anthony SanFilippo: While I agree with Tim that Bohm is a huge storyline, and probably the biggest for the 2025 Phillies — assuming he stays with the team — I think it'll be a big first week of camp story, and then go on the shelf until the regular season where Bohm will be under the microscope for every facial expression. Where every utterance caught on camera will be dissected by self-proclaimed lip-reading experts. Where every pop out and subsequent helmet slam will result in two hours of each talk radio program dedicated to his poutiness. It could snowball, for sure, or he could rise above it and be even better than he was last year. It will be the Phillies biggest soap opera in 2025, for sure.
But he's not going to be the biggest story of the spring. Nope. It's also not going to be Painter, because they aren't going to let him pitch in games for all of us to see. Nor is it going to be Suárez, who will be part of the rotation.
Happy New Year!
Here's my first 2025 Phillies Opening Day lineup projection. Hint: It's not what you might expect. @OnPattison https://t.co/qNxPtzQNSC
The biggest storyline, guaranteed, is going to come toward the end of their time in Clearwater where the regulars are getting more plate appearances and the first glimpse of whatever the regular lineup might be comes to fruition.
Because baseball fans in Philadelphia won't let that go. The lineup is all they focus on. And until the Phillies show a propensity to be more consistent as an offense, whether they need to or not to win games, that is what is going to grab everyone's attention. Is Kyle Schwarber leading off, or someone else? Is Max Kepler the every day left fielder, or is there a platoon? Does Johan Rojas really still have a spot on the major league team as a regular platoon with Brandon Marsh? All of this molded together into one storyline — the lineup. It's all anyone will care about from around mid-March until October.
@LarryLove196069 on X: When will they allow Painter to be Painter?
Tim Kelly: Realistically, probably 2026 or 2027.
I would expect the Phillies are going to be very cautious with Painter in 2025. Dave Dombrowski has already suggested he probably won't be with the team until some time between June and August, and I would certainly anticipate some situations where he's pitching extremely well but is pulled after four or five innings, much to the chagrin of fans.
Painter is still only 21 years old, and this will be his first season since having Tommy John surgery. Granted, by the time he makes his MLB Debut, he'll be almost two years removed from the procedure, which he had in July of 2023. But the Phillies are going to have a big-picture view with him, even if much of their roster is in the back-half of their peaks.
Still, there's a way to manage this and make sure that Painter is available when the postseason comes around, whether that's as a starter or a reliever. If that means he isn't pitching for the Phillies until the summer, that seems like a logical plan.
It would have been understandable if Andrew Painter had shown some rust in the Fall League, where he was making his first competitive appearances since 2022.
Instead, he looked as dominant as ever.https://t.co/Nhcyt03GaL pic.twitter.com/SjumlyKvP5
Anthony SanFilippo: So, what exactly does it mean let Painter be Painter? Is it just be a regular part of the rotation? That's easy. July for sure, although I've maintained a sneaking suspicion that it will be late June. (I'm on the record with the series in Miami between June 16-19. He's from Florida ... can have a lot of people there for his big league debut ... good story.)
And with that, they'll let him throw about 100 innings for the season. And unless he struggles, Painter can be Painter for the rest of the run and into the playoffs.
If the question is, when is he a staple without an innings restriction? Then yeah, not this year. And honestly, probably not next year either. The Phillies have talked about how much workload they are willing to add for a pitcher from one season to the next before he becomes a workhorse, and the number is usually in the 30-40 inning range. So, lets say Painter throws 40 innings in the minors and 100 in the majors. In 2026, they'll try to keep him at 170, which is still about 27-30 starts. And if you see him becoming a top-of-the-rotation-ace who can be an innings eater like Zack Wheeler and Aaron Nola are — getting to or eclipsing 200 innings on the regular — then you are looking at 2027.
Point is, he's coming. This season at some point, and if he's healthy and effective, for many more to come.
@Mike.Ryan.2 on Threads: Why have Zach Wheeler and Aaron Nola seemingly been able to be healthier than what we see with the rest of the league? 25 plus starts in each of the last 7 and 8 seasons respectively. …….I counted 2020 as a full season of starts….. I know two of those years for Zach date to his Mets days but point still is that they keep them healthy.
Tim Kelly: This is an interesting question. I did a deep dive on this last April when I was writing for Phillies Nation, and spoke to both Zack Wheeler and Aaron Nola. Naturally, I was accused of jinxing things on X.
The conclusion from everyone involved is that there isn't one answer. There's a ton of respect throughout the organization for head athletic trainer Paul Buchheit. Given that the Phillies — relative to other teams — have done a great job at preventing long-term injuries to most of their MLB starters, it can't be a coincidence. Buchheit and his staff have tapped into something, and the Phillies probably aren't in a rush to reveal that given that it's turned into a competitive advantage for them.
But there's also the reality that the Phillies have rewarded pitchers who have proven durable, like Nola and Wheeler. They let Zach Eflin walk and signed Taijuan Walker instead, a move that's flopped but shows how much they value availability. They haven't gone after high-upside starters who struggle to stay on the mound like Tyler Glasnow. We'll see if they think Ranger Suárez is durable enough to warrant a long-term contract when he becomes a free agent next winter.
Again, there's not an exact answer. But it's also not a coincidence that the Phillies regularly have one of the best and healthiest starting pitching staffs in the sport.
Anthony SanFilippo: Tim basically nailed it. Since we're talking about old jobs, I sat down for an interview with Jeff Hoffman last year when I was at Crossing Broad and we talked at length about what was different here than in his previous stops in Toronto, Colorado and Cincinnati. He talked about the training staff and how detailed and individualized their programs were for pitchers, and he talked about how everybody gets treatment all the time — even young pitchers — just to keep the body strong.
But he also added that pitching coach Caleb Cotham's philosophy on just letting pitchers be themselves and not trying to always tinker with throwing mechanics if something isn't working, has been a big part of it as well. The belief is if you got to the big leagues throwing the ball a certain way, why try and change that? If something's not going right, there are other ways to tackle it without messing with the mechanics of a throw. It could be something in the delivery, sure, but that's usually visible on tape. Otherwise, there are other ways to identify what's causing a drop off, and they study it. Hoffman said that there was one meeting with Cotham where the Phillies pitching coach pulled out a six-year-old video of Hoffman pitching to show him an incredibly subtle difference that helped with his slider. Hoffman felt like other teams would always try to change things physically with pitchers at the first sign of trouble, and those changes have a higher propensity to lead to injury.
The Phillies are certainly ahead of the curve with how they manage their pitchers. It's one of the reasons they have one of the best staffs in the game. If talent is the No. 1 reason, availability is definitely No. 2.
@JudoLionBadger on X: Do we have any idea - any at all - that not only will Alec Bohm be back at 3B and in the lineup (where it seems he will be - which, by the way, I predicted and honestly hoped for) but that he is working on the mental part of his game, too? No pouting, okay with trade talk, etc.
Tim Kelly: At one point this offseason, I thought that Bohm would be traded. Perhaps he still will be, but I certainly wouldn't bet on it now. I don't know if there's a cost-effective way to replace him — whether through free agency or trade — before Opening Day.
As for the mental aspect, it's something that a lot of people have keyed in on this offseason. It was one thing for Bohm to struggle to control his emotions in his first or second year. This will be his sixth season. There's nothing wrong with occasionally getting frustrated and tossing your helmet or showing disgust. Clearly, though, Bohm has done that on far too frequent of a basis.
Players aren't usually inclined to say when they've spoken to a sports psychologist or tried different strategies to better manage their emotions. That's understandable, because even though he has a very public-facing job, each person's mental health is a private thing unless they choose otherwise.
Dave Dombrowski on Alec Bohm: ‘I Think He’s Going To Come Out and Have a Tremendous Season’ @OnPattison https://t.co/TxRSICRddw
Anthony SanFilippo: I still won't coalesce behind the notion that he will be back. There's still more than a month before Spring Training begins, so things can still happen — and I think the Phillies would be fine to go in another direction if they felt they could get the right return for Bohm.
That said, while I was at 80% in November that Bohm was going to be traded, I'm down to about 25% that it will happen now. So, yes, I think you are both right that he will be back. That said, as I mentioned at the top of this mailbag, there's going to be a harsh spotlight on him this season. It's going to be up to Bohm to decide how he deals with that. He's passed these tests before, but he's always reverted back to being a more emotional player.
Here's the thing. Those emotions would be deemed acceptable if he was putting up Bryce Harper numbers or Kyle Schwarber power. He has neither. He was an All Star last season based on a great first half. But he couldn't sustain it, and reverted back to being a contact-hitting corner infielder with limited power. That doesn't give him the money in the bank with the fanbase to let his emotions get the better of him on the regular.
Once in a while, it's fine. But if he starts slow and starts showing his frustration, the fans are going to be all over him. Bohm would be wise to go back and watch Nick Castellanos in April last year. He had the worst month of his career. Fans wanted him gone. He was being booed mercilessly. But Castellanos kept his cool. He was frustrated, but hardly ever showed it. He weathered the storm and was the Phillies most consistent offensive player from mid-May to the end of the season. There's a lesson there for Bohm. If he takes it, he can be a significant contributor to the Phillies offense in 2025. If he doesn't... well.. let's try not to think about how that could end up.
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