As the 2025 World Series begins Friday night, the Philadelphia Phillies will once again be spectators instead of participants. For the third straight year, a strong regular season ended short of the ultimate goal, this time with a National League Division Series loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers. With the World Series matchup between the Dodgers and Toronto Blue Jays serving as the final chapter of 2025, the Phillies now turn their attention to an important offseason filled with major free agent decisions and potential roster changes as they look ahead to 2026.
The day after a world champion is declared, the baseball calendar will change to 2026. For the Phillies, this means Kyle Schwarber, J.T. Realmuto, Ranger Suárez, Max Kepler, and five additional pitchers will officially become free agents. Harrison Bader will likely join the outbound crew if he believes he can earn more than his $10 million mutual option in free agency. While the Phillies have made it clear that they intend to try to re-sign the likes of Schwarber, Suárez, and Realmuto, those intentions are just that until such a time as a contract is signed.
The first five days of the free agent period are a dead period where teams can only negotiate with their just-departed free agents. While unlikely, it is possible the Phillies come to terms with one of their targets before free agency fully begins at 5 p.m. ET on the fifth day.
At such a point, all of Major League Baseball will begin jockeying for the top talent on the market. While the Phillies will try to bring back some of their top talent, they will no doubt be in the running for several free agents from other teams as well.
Today, let’s take a look at the reigning National League and American League champions to see if there are any free agents the Phillies may want to pursue.
Birds, like the Blue Jays, often migrate south for the winter. Should one of the six Blue Jays set for free agency not want to move that far come the Spring, they can simply drive south from Dunedin straight to Clearwater.
Should the Phillies not bring back Suárez, they could make a move for starting pitcher Chris Bassitt. Bassitt has started at least 30 games in each of his last four seasons while pitching for a 3.77 ERA. At age 36, Bassitt may not be the biggest needle-mover the Phillies could acquire, but he could fill a spot in the rotation, particularly if the Phillies believe Zack Wheeler or Andrew Painter will not be ready at the beginning of the season for differing reasons. In the current postseason run, Bassitt has made two relief appearances for the Blue Jays, keeping the Seattle Mariners scoreless in 2.2 innings.
With Max Scherzer entering free agency as well, there will likely be some opinions out there that, if anyone, the Phillies would target Scherzer. Given his longer and more successful career, Scherzer’s contract will likely be a reflection of that, even for his age 41 season. That is, of course, if he does not opt to retire.
There is one other player on the Blue Jays that could provide some depth for the Phillies in the bullpen. Having failed last year by signing Jordan Romano, some fans would likely vote against bringing in another relief pitcher from across the border. But what if it was someone they were already familiar with?
As my fellow writer Alec Kostival has detailed, the gallant tale of Seranthony Dominguez ended in Philadelphia when the Phillies traded him for Austin Hays in 2024. One year later, the Orioles traded him to the Blue Jays at the Trade Deadline. Now a free agent, the 30-year-old reliever could return to the city where it all started following a career-high 62.2 innings pitched in 2025.
If the New York Yankees are baseball’s old Empire, does that make the Los Angeles Dodgers the modern-day First Order?
Star Wars tangent aside, the Dodgers could have up to seven free agents hit the market this season. That number does quickly drop as Clayton Kershaw is set to retire and reliever Alex Vesia will likely see his club option be picked up. Of the five players remaining, there are two that stand out as potential fits with the Phillies, both on the offensive side of the ball.
The outfield has already been stated as the most likely area to see change in 2026. With Kepler a free agent, Bader likely to follow, and Nick Castellanos rumored to be on the trading block, it is extremely likely that there will be new faces in multiple spots in the outfield next season.
Perhaps one such new face would be a familiar foe in Michael Conforto. A former New York Met, Conforto spent a pair of seasons with the San Francisco Giants before signing a one-year deal worth $17 million with the Dodgers for 2025. Conforto, who had been left off each of the Dodgers’ postseason rosters thus far, will likely not return to Hollywood, and with good reason. In 2025, he batted a measly .199 batting average and a .637 OPS in 138 games.
While Conforto will certainly not be the first piece to go off the board this Winter, it would not be surprising if the Phillies signed Conforto on a one-year prove-it deal like they have in recent years with Whit Merrifield and Max Kepler. Kevin Long always needs a new project player, right?
The more interesting name from the Dodgers is also an outfielder, one with a relationship with a Phillies legend. When Chase Utley was shipped off to the Dodgers 10 years ago, the player once known as “The Man” and then “Silver Fox” developed a father-son-like relationship with a young Enrique (Kiké) Hernández.
Hernández has never been the biggest producer in his career, but his positional utility fits well into any roster. In the last three seasons, Hernández has played every position except catcher, including the occasional position player pitcher. What Hernández does bring to the plate, however, is postseason experience. Over his career, he has played in 96 postseason games to date, batting a strong .282 average and .864 OPS.
While Hernández would profile as a more well-seasoned replacement for Edmundo Sosa, he could be another option for a low-budget pickup the Phillies could pursue, one with the postseason experience needed to help get the Phillies over the postseason hump.
Whether it is the Dodgers or Blue Jays to hoist the hunk of metal at the end of the World Series, the Phillies will spend the rest of the offseason trying to figure out how to make the final push needed to make it them next year. They have mastered the art of October heartbreak. Now comes the harder part: building a team that can handle October expectations.
