Phillies Mailbag: 2025 Club, Umpires, Trout Again

We are back once again with the 97.3 ESPN Phillies Mailbag.  We take your questions and answer them each week on The Sports Bash with Mike Gill.  Tune in Tuesday afternoons to hear your questions answered on the air.

We’re going to keep doing the same thing with this group, over and over and over again, aren’t we?
~Mike

The Phillies entered 2025 with just two major acquisitions: starting pitcher Jesus Luzardo and reliever Jordan Romano.  A lesser acquisition was outfielder Max Kepler.  Overall, this is the same Phillies team.

The way that I am seeing fans react to this 9-5 Phillies team makes me think that they are 2-12 and not four games over the .500 mark so far this season.   That is still pretty good.  And I think the best is to come for this group.

Because it's a small sample size, we are seeing some players at their worst.  (By the way, Brandon Marsh does not have a hit since a week ago listeners expressed concern about him).

We are also seeing some playing above their heads.  It's happening.  And that is OK; the Phillies are overall a very good team.

I think that the smoke we heard around Alec Bohm this offseason was real smoke.  I think they would have liked to mix up the team.  But if you're selling low on a player, you are not going to be offered much in return.

I would have liked to see them give Nolan Arenado a shot - someone the St. Louis Cardinals were actively listening to offers for.

But I think we need time to see who can turn things around (Bryson Stott seems to have improved from last year), and who cannot (how much longer can they give Marsh?).

I think the big story this season will be to see when the likes of Justin Crawford can rise to the major leagues and what the Phillies do at the MLB Trade Deadline.  That will tell you how much they are willing to mix up the group to win.

Do umpires have any accountability from the league or anyone after making a blatantly bad call like on J.T. Realmuto. Do any umpires actually try to be better by looking at film or whatever would be needed to improve?
~Tony

The Phillies likely lost on their own even without it, but the seventh inning J.T. Realmuto at bat was perhaps the most memorable part of the Phillies loss.  With the Phillies down two and gaining momentum, Realmuto struckout on a call that was not just questionable, but downright wrong.

The umpires do indeed face internal review and scoring.  To protect the umpires, they tend to discipline them quietly, and without the public knowing.  The decisions about who umpires postseason games is usually related to their performance on the field.

Angel Hernandez once sued MLB over his lack of inclusion in postseason games. But Hernandez lost the case as the league argued that it was a matter of performance that he was not given the opportunities.

You'll see overall it was not a terrible game.  But of course, two of the three worst misses were both to Realmuto in that same at bat.

But please know that they are indeed keeping an eye on their performance.  While I agree that Randazzo got those key pitches wrong, you should expect that human umpires will make mistakes time and time again.

Even an laser eye surgery company made fun of Randazzo after the game.

But let us remember that it is moments like these that the strike challenge system was designed to help.   This time next year a little pat on the head could have turned the call around completely and we would be talking about something else.

I realize this is one of those hypothetical questions, but here it is anyway. If Perry Minasian called Dave Dombrowski and offered up Mike Trout, what players would Phillies fans be willing to give up?
~Pat

This might be the latest we have gone into the season without a Mike Trout question.  Of course we love the Pride of Millville.  And of course the Phillies outfield looks like it could use some help.  But I just cannot see this happening.

I think any team who would take on that money would expect to have the Angels kick in money.  The Angels would expect an acquiring team to send some prospects.   I think if the Angels were going to get nothing back in return, they might as well simply keep him.

Trout has six years remaining on his contract including this one, at an even $37,166,666 per year.  That's a lot of money.  The Angels gave him the type of money that pretty much guarantees he never goes anywhere.

The Phillies have more than their fair share of high-priced, aging players.   I think that the Angels should have traded Trout a couple of years ago for baseball reasons - and Shohei Ohtani, too.  I think the Angels are stuck with him.

That is of course unless the Angels simply eat his entire contract.  I don't think that is going to happen.

So I cannot even get to the point where I think about the Phillies sending the Angels anything.

If I'm the Phillies looking for a right-handed outfield bat, I would rather they check in on Andrew McCutchen.