The Phillies are already looking ahead after a Wild Card Round exit at the hands of the Atlanta Braves, and before the front office turns fully to the offseason, there’s still room to look back on what 2026 produced.
It was a season full of swings in every direction, the kind that left the organization with more questions than answers once the dust settled. Dave Dombrowski now faces the task of upgrading the roster, and the manager situation also looms. But first, a few team honors for the year that just ended.
Bryce Harper gets the nod as Phillies MVP, and the case starts with more than just the numbers. He made the move back to the outfield after four years at first base, a defensive adjustment that helped the club and made room for Luis Arraez. That willingness to shift for the good of the team mattered, and so did the production that came with it.
Harper played in all 162 games for the first time in his career and led the NL with 107 walks. At the plate, he stayed as dangerous as ever, finishing with a .269/.380/.485 line, 29 home runs, 32 doubles and 87 RBI. At age 33, he still looked every bit like one of the game’s elite hitters.
The Cy Young choice is Jesus Luzardo, and that one came together in a much different way. His season opened rough, with a 5.77 ERA through his first eight starts, but the underlying numbers suggested better days were coming.
They did. Luzardo finished with a 2.86 ERA, better than both Cristopher Sanchez and Zack Wheeler, and over his final 22 appearances the Phillies went 19-3.
In that stretch, he went 11-2 with 136 innings, a 1.92 ERA, 164 strikeouts and just 40 walks. The only real interruption came after the first complete-game shutout of his career on Sept. 7 against the Braves, when shoulder stiffness slowed him down.
For Most Improved, the Phillies had to bend the usual definition a bit. This wasn’t a clean year-over-year breakout case, so the pick went to the player who battled through a slow start and finished strong.
Alec Bohm gets that honor. His 2026 began in ugly fashion, and he was dealing with off-field issues tied to a lawsuit with his parents, but he turned things around and became arguably the team’s best hitter in the second half.
He also delivered in the playoffs, going 4-for-12 with a double, a home run and an RBI in each of the three games. He didn’t strike out once and drew one walk.
That finish could matter a lot. With legitimate defense at first base and the kind of right-handed power teams chase, Bohm suddenly looks like someone who could have a strong free-agent market, which would have seemed impossible not long ago. He ended the year with 88 RBI, 15 home runs and 29 doubles, the kind of production clubs pay for.
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Alec Bohm, Jorge Arraez, Matt Vierling and Adolis Garcia are all part of the conversation, and each brings a different kind of fit and risk to the table. The problem for Philadelphia is that the payroll picture is already crowded by existing long-term commitments, which makes even a productive offseason feel like a balancing act rather than a simple spending spree. How the Phillies sort through those calls may say a lot about what kind of team they expect to be in 2027. [Read more 🡒]