The Phillies are close to locking up their fifth straight playoff trip, and once that’s official, the attention shifts to the Wild Card Series and the little roster edges that can matter in a three-game sprint. With so few games on the calendar, clubs can get creative at the margins. For Philadelphia, that means a few surprise names could still work their way onto the postseason roster.
Nestor Cortes Jr. is one of the more intriguing possibilities. The former All-Star has had a tough two years, with multiple surgeries wiping out most of his 2025 season and keeping him from pitching in the majors this year.
Philadelphia signed him in late August after he put on a strong showcase in front of a crowd of teams, and he has since logged three Triple-A relief appearances. In 5 ⅔ innings, he has struck out seven.
The Phillies do not need him to start a game, but a lefty with a funky look out of the bullpen could still be useful late.
That same idea applies to Kyle Backhus, another southpaw the Phillies brought in this offseason because they believed he could give them something different. The lanky Texan pitched in 32 games for Arizona the year before, though the results were only so-so.
In Philadelphia, the big-league numbers have been rough - a 4.95 ERA in 20 innings - but he has been much sharper at Triple-A, where he owns a 2.73 ERA with 31 strikeouts over 26 ⅓ innings. With the Phillies’ left-handed relief depth looking shaky, Backhus could be a logical matchup play in the Wild Card round.
The outfield picture is crowded enough that Kameron Misner would not be in line for regular starts, but he could still have a role. Philadelphia already has Bryce Harper, Brandon Marsh, Justin Crawford, Derek Hill and Bryan De La Cruz available there, along with superutilityman Edmundo Sosa, so a call-up would be more about specialized value than playing time.
Misner, acquired from the Kansas City Royals in July, has spent his Phillies tenure at Triple-A apart from a one-day promotion for the Field of Dreams Game, when he did not get into the game. In 38 games with the IronPigs, he has posted a .776 OPS.
What makes him stand out is the speed: Baseball Savant has him in the 94th percentile in sprint speed, and he has swiped 151 bases in the minors against just 25 caught stealing. If the Phillies need a stolen base late, he brings a skill set the roster otherwise lacks.
Then there’s Gage Wood, the name Phillies fans will not stop pushing toward the majors. The 2025 first-rounder is the organization’s top prospect and has climbed into the top 50 overall this season.
Most of his year has come at Double-A Reading, where he has a 4.72 ERA in 17 starts. The Phillies have been developing him as a starter, and that process has been deliberately slow; he has thrown just 68 ⅔ innings, and the workload appears to be catching up to him.
A playoff debut this year is essentially off the table, especially since the team would have likely used him earlier in the month when rosters expanded if that were the plan. Even so, there is a case that he could already be the third-best arm in a bullpen that has leaned heavily on Jhoan Duran and Alex McFarlane.
Whether it would be wise to push him there is another matter entirely.
In Other News...
Phillies Prospect Trio Turned A Lost Summer Into A Statement Finish
For a Phillies farm system that spent much of the summer dealing with absences, the finish in Reading gave the organization something to point to beyond individual development. Dante Nori, Aidan Miller and Carson DeMartini all came back from injuries and helped the Fightin Phils push through the Eastern League playoffs, turning what had been a lost stretch for each of them into a meaningful part of Readings first championship in 31 years.
Nori missed two months with a broken hip, DeMartini sat nearly three months with a hamstring injury and Miller spent the year sidelined by a back issue before returning for the final week of the regular season. Once the postseason arrived, the trios bats became part of the title run, and for the Phillies that matters because it offered a reminder that the organizations next wave can still show up when the stakes rise, even after a summer that did not go as planned. [Read more 🡒]
Phillies Got The Exact Offensive Sign They Needed Right Now
A night that began with an early lift from Brandon Marsh ended with the kind of timely offense the Phillies have been searching for as the stretch run tightens. Marshs two-run homer gave Philadelphia a jolt against the Brewers, and Bryson Stott kept the pressure on with the sort of production that can change a game when every win matters.
The bigger payoff came late, when both players came through again in the eighth inning to help seal the victory and keep the Phillies right in the thick of the National League Wild Card race. In a crowded chase for the top seed, these are the kinds of at-bats that can make a team feel a little more settled at exactly the right time. [Read more 🡒]
Phillies Lineup Suddenly Has A Playoff Problem Fans Can't Ignore
September has brought a different kind of pressure to the Phillies offense, and it is showing up in the places that matter most. After looking dangerous in August, the lineup has cooled off as the month has gone on, with Kyle Schwarber, Bryce Harper, Trea Turner and J.T. Realmuto all scuffling at the plate and the overall run production slipping at the wrong time.
Alec Bohm and Derek Hill have been among the few bright spots, which only sharpens the concern around the rest of the order as the postseason gets closer. For a team built around veteran impact bats, the timing is unsettling, because October tends to expose any lineup that is still searching for rhythm when the games start to mean the most. [Read more 🡒]