Kyle Schwarber drops defiant take on Phillies’ quiet offseason

The Philadelphia Phillies are off to a 7-2 start and are one of the reasonable picks to challenge the Los Angeles Dodgers atop the National League.

They won 95 games last year and, rather than go big during the offseason, decided to mostly run it back in hopes that this time they can break back through to the World Series.

Phillies designated hitter Kyle Schwarber didn’t seem worried about the quiet winter in a recent conversation with ESPN.

“When you look at our team on paper, you’re still going to put us up there with some of the best teams in baseball,” he said. “We’ve got the talent. We’re in the position every year, we just haven’t got there. It’s not for lack of talent. It’s just the way the game works sometimes.”

Schwarber, for his part, is also off to a great start, hitting .265 and clubbing a team-high four home runs entering play on Tuesday.

That same story for ESPN pointed out the mammoth moves that the Dodgers and division rival New York Mets made, including Roki Sasaki heading to Los Angeles and Juan Soto moving across town to Queens. The Phillies, meanwhile, stuck with smaller moves, adding Max Kepler, Jesus Luzardo and Jordan Romano.

The Phillies are coming off of four straight winning seasons and three straight postseason appearances. Last year, they captured their first NL East crown since 2011. Despite the recent success, the team is still searching for its first championship since 2008, and the stacked National League isn’t making the task any easier.

“I talked to a GM in the American League, and I told him, ‘You have a good club,'” Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski told ESPN. “But he recognized that there were four to five teams in the National League better than his.”

“You can’t take anything for granted,” he added. “If you do, you won’t make it. It’s tough but if you get through it all — and then October — you’ll deserve it.”