Anatomy of a Choker: The Tragedy of the Philadelphia Phillies

The Phillies' continued playoff blunders have fans screaming for change, but how did it get this bad?

Oct 9, 2025; Los Angeles, California, USA; Philadelphia Phillies shortstop Trea Turner (7) reacts after losing the NLDS round for the 2025 MLB playoffs against the Los Angeles Dodgers at Dodger Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images | Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images

It's quite sad, really.

One of the most electric, storied teams in Major League Baseball history. A fanbase that's willing to die for their team each and every night, no matter the stakes or the opponent.

An entire franchise turnaround, from an 11-year playoff drought to annual World Series contenders, cruising to 90+ wins every year.

A roster that, on paper, few clubs can even come close to. 33 total All-Star appearances, numerous Silver Sluggers, universal recognition.

$1,413,489,733 in contracts handed out.

Zero World Series rings with the current core. Four playoff collapses. Heartbreak galore.

An Unbreakable Cycle

Time is a flat circle. Hope springs eternal every February when teams report to their facilities to gear up for another 162-game season with the goal of being the last team standing come October. Shiny new offseason acquisitions put on the red pinstripes for the first time, sparking social media hype and causing fans to wonder if this is the year the Phillies put it all together.

The season begins, and the stands are packed for every first pitch, filled with both Philadelphia natives and supporters of the team from every corner of the country, sometimes even the globe. The first few months might go as planned, or they might not. But the inevitable hot streak always comes. Before you can blink, the Phillies have won eight straight games. Or ten. Or fifteen.

The stars play like stars, the pitching looks unhittable, and role players come out of the woodwork to provide the big moments that turn them into fan favorites. The perennial summer slump arrives, but is quickly neutralized by an internal shakeup, whether it's a team meeting, swing adjustments, or a simple lineup change.

Late July rolls in, and with it, the trade deadline. President of Baseball Operations Dave Dombrowski keeps his cards to his chest, but fans know a move or two is always coming. And it always does. A new reliever, maybe a starter to aid the back end of the rotation, or a surprise bat that can be plugged in a few different spots at a moment's notice.

The division race tightens through August, whether it be against the New York Mets, Atlanta Braves, or both. The Phillies might win the division by a few games. They might get beaten out and have to settle for a Wild Card spot. Whatever the outcome, playoff baseball is inevitable.

The regular season comes to a close, postseason rosters are finalized, and carefully crafted hype videos are released across social media, lighting the fire inside of hundreds of thousands of Philadelphia faithful whose only desire is to see their team holding the Commissioner's Trophy at the end of the month.

The playoffs commence, maybe with a bang, maybe not. But no matter how they start, a moment arrives. An improbable comeback, a clutch long ball, a lights-out start. The fear that "Red October" instills in opposing teams and fanbases sets in, and the hope once again rises.

Then, before the Phillies fanbase can even celebrate the step forward, it all falls apart in an instant. The offense dies. The bullpen falters. Defensive woes ensue. Savvy baserunning begins to look like a foreign concept. Managerial decisions become increasingly confusing. Before changes can be made, it's all over. The season, the roster as constructed, and potentially even the coaching staff. A dozen or so spring training games, 162 regular season contests, all immediately rendered meaningless.

Fingers will be pointed; blame will be dished out to as many recipients as the box scores can justify. The Philadelphia faithful will watch another team's stars lift the trophy that they believe should rightfully be theirs.

On October 9th, 2025, with a 2-1 loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 11th inning of Game 4 of the NLDS, the end of the circle was reached for the fourth consecutive year.

The Usual Causes

A 2-1 series lead in the 2022 World Series, at home, against the Houston Astros, coming off a 7-0 onslaught the night before in Game 3.

Game 6 of the 2023 NLCS against the Arizona Diamondbacks, going back home after a comfortable 6-1 victory in Game 5, just needing to win one of the next two games to advance, both of which are set to occur at Citizens Bank Park.

Heading to New York to face the Mets in Game 3 of the 2024 NLDS, with all of the momentum following a 7-6 come-from-behind win in Game 2 that ended with a Nick Castellanos walkoff single.

A 1-0 lead entering the 7th inning of Game 4 of the 2025 NLDS against the Dodgers, looking to even the series after staving off elimination the night before with an 8-2 offensive explosion.

Four uber-important situations in four years, all of which could have resulted in wins, and maybe even the ultimate glory. What occurred next in each instance, painfully known by all Phillies fans who have suffered through them, is the same story in four different fonts. The first no-hitter in World Series history, losing the final two games at home to get eliminated by a far inferior team, a team-wide collapse in all facets to the franchise's biggest rival, and, most recently, offensive recession and one of the most mind-numbing plays in recent memory, leading to an early October exit.

The Phillies are broken. It can't get more cut-and-dry than that. In just four short years, an out-of-nowhere, gritty team that would outwork and out-hustle anyone has turned into a sluggish collective that knows nothing other than disappointment and pathetic breakdowns. History books rarely lie, and the chapter on this era of Philadelphia baseball will be short and disparaging.

The playbook hasn't changed, not in the slightest. Starting pitching has reigned supreme, and the three-or-four-headed monster that is the Phillies' rotation has efficiently dismantled opposing offenses to the tune of a postseason ERA below 2.90 in each of the last three years.

Beyond that, the positives have steadily diminished in quantity, and the struggles have increased exponentially. A bullpen that can't hold leads, with unfathomable issues when attempting to strand inherited runners.

Then, there's the offense. The unit that was once favorably coined the "Broad Street Bombers". A body of stars (and star-level contracts) expected to beat opposing pitchers into submission, with the top-to-bottom power that few can even hope to rival. A group that has, time and time again, proven that the moment is simply too big, the lights purely too bright.

Plate discipline suddenly disappears, power is seemingly sapped from their bodies like a storyline straight out of the 1996 film Space Jam, and a one-run deficit takes on the magnitude of a double-digit beatdown. The stars look like replacement-level players at best, and the supposed situational contributors appear as if they're fans who won a contest to play in an MLB game for a day.

Diving even deeper, the postgame comments all take the same shape. Some rendition of "we have to be better" is spewed from the mouth of any number of players in the clubhouse after every loss. The meaning behind these comments is deprecated, as every further showing that "being better" is nothing more than a vague plan that the franchise can seemingly never actually execute.

A Lightless Tunnel

The fight that the franchise once showed in 2022 and parts of 2023, the burning passion that gave Phillies fans every reason to believe that this core would find the promised land, is gone without a trace or viable way to revitalize it.

Change once again seems inevitable, although that narrative has been around since the 2023 collapse, and little actual alteration has been made, at least in examining the on-field results. There's no saying to where and how the Phillies go from this point, and the future looks as dim as it possibly could for a team that, by every projection, should win 90+ games per year for the foreseeable future.

Maybe the cycle will be broken soon. Maybe the stars figure out how to live up to expectations. Maybe the Commissioner's Trophy really does find a home in Philadelphia in the coming years.

But, as of October 10th, 2025, the Philadelphia Phillies are in the franchise's darkest place in a number of years, and the undying belief of the fanbase is showing its first signs of fracture. The future can never be fully predicted, but the past tells a story that the Phillies' brass needs to be doing everything in their power to avoid writing another sequel to.