Philadelphia Phillies Have New Buzzword Following Their Sweep Against New York Mets

Not even a full month's worth of baseball games have been completed yet in the 2025 Major League Baseball season, but that's not stopping the panic from surrounding this Philadelphia Phillies team.

Yes, it's April, and yes, it's still early, but this group has lost getting the benefit of the doubt.

Perhaps that's unfair, but that's also the territory that comes from having World Series expectations since superstar players are littered throughout this roster to make up one of the game's most expensive payrolls.

At 13-12, the Phillies don't look like a contender.

Their offense has been alarmingly poor and the bullpen has been nothing short of awful, the same two criticisms levied against this team the past year-and-a-half.

All of that was on full display against the New York Mets.

With an opportunity to make a statement against one of the hottest teams in baseball and get revenge for their elimination in the 2024 NLDS, Philadelphia was swept, failing to capitalize when they had runners in scoring position and close out games in a strong manner.

Those three straight losses have created an unthinkable thought about this team; they aren't good.

Literally speaking, that would be accurate since they are just one game above .500 and have only been victorious in one out of their last five series.

But don't tell that to the Phillies.

Their new buzzword is saying they are "a good team," something that was repeated on three separate occasions after the loss in extra innings to the Mets on Wednesday.

"You're going to go through ups and downs and you try to stay as even keel as you can. But we're a good team in here and we expect to win. Winning takes care of it all. Winning takes care of mindset and everything else. We've just got to be better," Bryce Harper said, per Todd Zolecki of MLB.com.

Manager Rob Thomson was a little more direct.

Asked if he believes there is a gap between Philadelphia and New York after the domination their rivals have had over them as of late, he simply stated, "No. Because we're a good team."

And for good measure, Zack Wheeler jumped in on that, as well, with his comments.

"We know what type of team we are, we know how good we are. We've just got to play better, play more consistently -- all around, everybody, including us starters. It's just a matter of doing it," he stated.

Why does he believe they can do that?

"Because we're a good team," he finished.

OK, there's clearly a new buzzword going on in the clubhouse, and whether they are repeating it to convince themselves or others, they better hope it works.

The Phillies are a good team, but they aren't playing like it right now.

They have 137 regular season games left to prove to everyone they are in fact a good team. And hopefully that results in them becoming championship contenders to live up to the expectations that were placed on them coming into the year.