Jeff Passan: ‘I Think the Best Team Is the Phillies’

It can sometimes be difficult to take a step back when you follow one MLB team on a daily basis and see the bigger picture. The Phillies were unquestionably the best team in baseball during the first half of the season, going 62-34. They will enter Tuesday night's game against the Chicago Cubs — the final home game of the regular season — with a 31-31 record since the All-Star Break. There have been some ugly moments, without a doubt. If the Phillies looked like a nearly perfect team in May and June, July, August and September have made clear that they aren't. 

With all that acknowledged, the Phillies clinched the NL East title Monday, and with a win Wednesday and Milwaukee Brewers loss against the Pittsburgh Pirates, they will secure a first-round bye in the postseason. They are a half game back of the Los Angeles Dodgers — whom they own the tiebreaker over — for the best record in NL, and all of baseball, for that matter. Things are hardly disastrous as the postseason approaches. 

In fact, ESPN's Jeff Passan told Pat McAfee — admittedly, a casual observer of baseball — that he believes the Phillies are the best team in the sport ahead of the start of the playoffs. 

"I think the best team, Pat, is the Philadelphia Phillies. You look at that roster, and they have got stars. It's Bryce Harper ... and it's Trea Turner ... and it's Kyle Schwarber ... and it's J.T. Realmuto ... and Alec Bohm has taken a step forward. Zack Wheeler is at the front of the rotation with Aaron Nola and Cristopher Sánchez."

"I think the best team in baseball is the Philadelphia Phillies.” @JeffPassan on the 2024 Phillies

Video: @PatMcAfeeShow

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— On Pattison (@OnPattison) September 25, 2024

There still are some questions surrounding the Phillies, the most notable being whether the team will be able to win enough games in the playoffs where they have to manufacture runs because Harper, Turner and Schwarber aren't homering. Obviously, that didn't happen in Games 6 and 7 of the NLCS a year ago, which is why the Arizona Diamondbacks — not the Phillies — won the pennant. 

With that said, this is a unique year in the sense that there doesn't seem to be one team that's going to be the overwhelming favorite heading into the postseason. No one is going to win 100 games. Do the Phillies have some issues? Sure. But the Los Angeles Dodgers have almost no certainty in their starting rotation after Jack Flaherty. The Milwaukee Brewers are playing without former NL MVP Christian Yelich, and it's still unclear if they have enough starting pitching to win a seven-game playoff series. The New York Mets have similar concerns in terms of their starting pitching rotation. The Diamondbacks and Atlanta Braves are locked in a battle for the final playoff spot in the NL. The Padres have been baseball's best team since the All-Star Break, but will that translate to the postseason for a franchise without a ton of prior playoff success? 

So can you reasonably have reservations about the Phillies entering the postseason? Yes. Can you also make the case that they are the most likely team to win the World Series? Yes.