Can the Phillies end up with a dominant rotation in ’23

This offseason was about the offense and shoring up the bullpen. We added Trey Turner at shortstop and a couple of relief pitchers that will hopefully bring the Phillies one of the better bullpens in 2023. We added Craig Kimbrel to the relief pitcher’s role on January 4th, and Taijuan Walker to the starting pitching rotation on December 16th. Can Ranger Suarez get more wins than last last year? He was 10-7 with a 3.65 ERA last season.

Looking at the NY Mets though, it seems they went straight after a 5-star pitching rotation for 2023. The Mets starting 5 will be; Max Scherzer, Justin Verlander, Jose Quintana, Kodai Senga, and Carlos Carrasco . Can the Phillies starting staff keep up with the NY Mets?

Let’s take a look at the Phillies starting rotation; Zack Wheeler, Aaron Nola, Ranger Suarez, Taijuan Walker, and possibly Bailey Falter, or Andrew Painter. So the contrast between rotations at this point looks a little lopsided, but the games have to be played to find out for sure. If the Phillies rotation can fire on all cylinders, we should see a good comparison between the two clubs, but the Mets seem to have an edge name-wise at this point. If Painter makes the team, it could be very interesting, especially the way he has been playing in the minors.

The Phillies bullpen should be much improved, but what about the starting rotation? Looking at the recently released ZIPS and PECOTA 2023 projections are updated for the upcoming season, for the National League:

So as you see, the PECOTA projections aren’t all that kind to the Phillies. Though they did project the team to have 89 wins but finish in third place. How could this be? The team has seemingly improved itself a whole lot, and the Phillies also made it to the World Series in 2022. Yes, the team did have the opportunity to get to the World Series via the Wild Card, but they still made it and played quite well. Take these PECOTA projections with a grain of salt, they are not always right, and sometimes they are downright wrong. The good news though is that the top 3 picks in the NL East are only a few games away from one another.

This blog will break down each Phillies starter and what they are expected to do in 2023. So bookmark this blog and make it a regular stop on your quest for Phillies information. Also check out the Phillies Talk Podcast we do with Rich Baxter (@FightinPhillies on Twitter), your humble blog owner, and Matt Veasey, a great longtime Phillies fan, blogger, and Twitter personality over at @PhilliesBell on Twitter.

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