Phillies raise the 2022 pennant, and the grind that awaits in 2023 is unavoidable

Publish date: 2024-05-17

This was not how they imagined it, but no one ever imagined a flag flying forever to commemorate the 2022 Phillies, so maybe it was appropriate. When the team’s decision-makers — John Middleton, Dave Dombrowski and Rob Thomson — considered how to honor last season’s National League pennant-winning team, they settled on a not-so-subtle reminder of how hard this damn thing is to accomplish.

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So Rhys Hoskins, one week removed from surgery to repair his torn left anterior cruciate ligament, handed one of his crutches to Kelly Davis, the team’s security supervisor. Bryce Harper, with his reconstructed elbow, joined Hoskins. The two injured Phillies pulled on ropes to raise the pennant that hovered over the batter’s eye during Friday’s 5-2 win over Cincinnati.

This was a secret to the rest of the team. Aaron Nola was on the first-base line when he realized. “Where’s Harp?” he said. Nick Castellanos thought it was an appropriate gesture. To some, the moment hit hard because it won’t ever be like 2022 again.

“That was … yeah,” Alec Bohm said. “I had no idea that was coming. That was cool. I’m glad they did that. For Rhys, too, especially.”

It is easier now to remember the highest moments from 2022. But the Phillies used 56 players to survive six months. There was a day in Pittsburgh when Yairo Muñoz and Johan Camargo were the double-play tandem. Bradley Zimmer started five games in center field. Didi Gregorius batted cleanup. Nick Nelson saved a game — in September.

So, the Phillies returned to Citizens Bank Park with Kody Clemens at first base and Jake Cave in left field. Maybe they’ll be around in September. Maybe not. But this is what the Phillies have right now, and it is clear a week into this season that it will be an absolute grind.

The party is over.

“I think,” Bohm said, “it’s like, ‘Hey, back to it. No excuses. Nobody feels sorry for you. Nobody really cares.’ Some tough injuries to important players pretty quickly. You keep going.”

Nola saw the reminders Friday afternoon — and it all came rushing back.

“It makes me think,” Nola said. “You never know, no matter how the game is going. You never know what can happen. Because what we did last year, bringing that into the regular season, you never know. Things can turn around in a second. Just like we saw last year.

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No one will mistake April baseball for the tense postseason innings the Phillies experienced a year ago. But now they know. This is what Nola thinks now.

“I’ve always thought that way,” Nola said. “But it’s a different feeling now that we’ve gotten to the World Series. It’s bringing that into the regular season. That’s how I think about that a little bit more now.”

At 2:47 p.m. ET, with Harper and Hoskins doing the work, the blue 2022 flag reached the top of the pole. “It looks beautiful,” said Dan Baker, the ballpark public address announcer. “Doesn’t it?”

Bryce Harper and Rhys Hoskins raise the 2022 NL Champs flag at the Phillies home opener

(via @JClarkNBCS)pic.twitter.com/uSBlJn8BdC

— FOX Sports: MLB (@MLBONFOX) April 7, 2023

Almost four hours before the first pitch, Clemens stood alone at the far end of the Phillies’ dugout. He was on the top step. The ballpark was quiet. He tossed a ball into his glove. He looked around. He was in Triple-A Lehigh Valley a day earlier. Now, for all intents and purposes, he is the starting first baseman for the defending NL champions.

To reach the dugout, Clemens passed something new in the hallway between the Phillies clubhouse and the dugout. There are five photos from seconds after clinching moments in Phillies history. Four of them are black and white. One of them, Ranger Suárez holding out his arms to embrace J.T. Realmuto, is in color.

“MAKE MORE HISTORY,” appears in red lettering atop all of the images.

Clemens, the son of an all-time great pitcher, knows a little about history. He is not Hoskins and he is not Darick Hall, who was supposed to replace Hoskins until he took an awkward dive into second base at Yankee Stadium and tore a ligament in his right thumb. He will need surgery to repair it. He could miss two months.

Hoskins’ misfortune was going to be Hall’s opportunity. He grinded for years for this chance. He jogged onto the field during pregame introductions Friday with a splint on his right hand.

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“Yeah, it’s sad,” Hall said. “You know, it’s sad. But we do play sports. Things like that happen. So, it’s just kind of what you have to live with. Right? I don’t regret going to second base on that play.”

Darick Hall could miss two months after suffering a thumb injury against the Yankees. (Gregory Fisher / USA Today)

So Clemens is the first baseman when a right-hander opposes the Phillies. For now. Before last season, many of Dombrowski’s teams were filled with stars and never had the best depth behind them. The Phillies, even before Dombrowski came aboard to run the operation, faced the same shortcomings. But the depth is what helped the 2022 Phillies overcome a decade-long postseason drought.

“It’s testing us early,” Zack Wheeler said. “That’s for sure. A few big guys went down and it’s always tough to kind of keep the momentum going, so to speak. But that’s what the good teams do. They fill that spot. It’s like the guys never left.”

That’s what the 2022 Phillies did. Usually, but not always. They had two months with a losing record and another with a .500 mark. It was easier to process later in the season when things were not as fresh. A few injuries in spring training and another in the season’s first week make this uphill climb look daunting.

The roster is incomplete. But it’s not permanent. Bohm, for now, will see time at first base only against left-handed pitchers. That could change. There are some concerns within the organization that sliding Bohm over to first base on a permanent basis could damage the progress he has made at third base. It’s possible that Bohm, beginning in 2024, calls first base his home.

Bohm takes grounders at first base only on the days he’s playing there. Can he achieve a balance between the two positions?

“We’ll find out,” Bohm said. “I don’t see it making me take a step backward over there.”

If Bohm played more first base, it would provide more chances for Edmundo Sosa at third base. The Phillies like the idea of being able to plug him into any spot on the field, but that luxury might have expired. For now. They have Scott Kingery, who has hit the ball hard at Triple A to begin the season, and it’s looking more and more like he will have opportunities to help the Phillies win games in 2023.

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Until then, Clemens, who went 0-for-2 with a walk Friday, will have his shot.

“I mean, he had a great spring training,” Thomson said. “He would have made our club except it just didn’t fit. He had that type of spring training. So, we’ll take a look at him. But I have complete confidence in him, for sure.”

J.T. Realmuto and his teammates high-five manager Rob Thomson after the win. (Bill Streicher / USA Today)

The Phillies will look for external upgrades, but it’s April and teams do not trade from their big-league rosters in April. Maybe the Phillies find a better platoon fit on someone’s Triple-A roster and they make a deal. Dombrowski had his scouts and analysts scour through rosters when Hoskins went down, and there was no immediate fit that made sense.

This roster has to stay afloat for a few months. By then, Harper and Hall should become options again. Suárez could return later this month or in May. The Phillies believe Andrew Painter will pitch for them this summer.

But there will be more injuries because there are always injuries. This year is not last year, and it is dangerous to assume everything will be fine because it was fine by the end of last year. The Phillies didn’t have Trea Turner last year, and he started the rest of his life with hits in seven consecutive games this season. The Phillies didn’t have confidence last year, and now they know the feeling.

That thing was amazing, and it was freakin’ hard. They can glance at that blue 2022 flag and remember the most beautiful moments. But, in 2023, it’s important to also remember the struggle that earned that pennant.

“It stinks to see guys go down,” Wheeler said. “But that’s what good teams do. We’re just tested a little bit earlier this year.”

(Top photo of Bryce Harper and Rhys Hoskins on the scoreboard before raising the pennant: Steve Boyle / MLB Photos via Getty Images)

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