Will new balanced schedule help the Phillies?

This story was excerpted from Todd Zolecki’s Phillies Beat e-newsletter. To learn the total e-newsletter, click on right here. And subscribe to get it usually in your inbox.

By all accounts, the Phillies have had a remarkably profitable offseason.

But no one is about at hand the Phillies the NL East crown simply but.

After all, the Mets offset the lack of Jacob deGrom by signing reigning AL Cy Young winner Justin Verlander. They additionally added Kodai Senga and José Quintana to the rotation, and handed out big contracts to Brandon Nimmo (eight years, $162 million) and Edwin Díaz (5 years, $102 million) to maintain them from signing elsewhere.

The Braves, in the meantime, acquired one of many high catchers within the recreation in Sean Murphy — then promptly signed him to a six-year, $73 million extension. They additionally added some bullpen depth and are hoping to get again Mike Soroka, who appeared like a budding ace earlier than twice tearing his Achilles and lacking the previous two seasons.

Oh, and the Marlins nonetheless have the reigning NL Cy Young winner (Sandy Alcantara) and so they’ve additionally added Johnny Cueto, Jean Segura and reigning AL batting champion Luis Arraez.

Seems like good timing for the Phillies, proper?

“Yeah, I would say,” Phillies supervisor Rob Thomson mentioned. “I’ve always liked the balanced schedule. I just think it’s fair for everybody. Especially when there are all these Wild Card teams, I just think it’s the right way to do it.”

But … the brand new schedule format won’t be as huge of a profit for the Phils because it appears.

Sure, they get to play 12 fewer video games in opposition to the Mets and Braves — however additionally they lose six in opposition to the rebuilding Nationals, a crew the Phillies went 16-3 in opposition to final season. And whereas they might keep away from going through Alcantara an additional time or two, lacking out on six video games in opposition to the Marlins isn’t essentially a great factor — particularly when you think about who Philadelphia will play as a substitute.

Instead of taking part in their total Interleague schedule in opposition to the AL Central — a division that includes the Tigers, Royals, White Sox, Guardians and Twins — the Phillies as a substitute added the stacked AL East and deep AL West to their slate.

So, avoiding the Mets and Braves a dozen occasions might be canceled out by going through the Yankees, Astros, Mariners and Rangers 3 times apiece. Toss in three video games every in opposition to the up-and-coming Orioles and the always-pesky Rays, plus a possible matchup in opposition to Shohei Ohtani when the Phils face Mike Trout and the Angels in late August — and out of the blue, the brand new format might not appear so favorable.

Still, Phillies third baseman Alec Bohm welcomes the prospect to face some new golf equipment on the expense of seeing those self same divisional foes an additional couple occasions apiece.

“Just the competition that we see all year — the NL East is tough,” Bohm mentioned. “We beat up on one another all 12 months. So I’m curious to see what it appears to be like like taking part in each crew within the league and getting a pair much less collection in opposition to these groups. I believe it may be new to all of us, so we’ll see the way it goes.”