The Philadelphia Phillies finished 14 games behind the National League East winning Atlanta Braves in 2023. While that didn’t turn into success for the Braves in the postseason, a 14-win division gap isn’t typical. Atlanta was the best team in the regular season and with some of the Phillies injuries, they weren’t able to close the gap. With the teams meeting in the NLDS and Philadelphia winning the series, it proved that winning the division isn’t the biggest concern. What you do in the postseason will always matter more than the regular season, but that doesn’t mean the regular season is pointless. Considering the Phillies arguably have the best stadium environment in Major League Baseball, more home games in a series are important. Despite the team having home-field advantage in the NLCS and losing, that doesn’t take away from the fact that having more home games will typically benefit this team. If they want that moving forward, they’ll need to eventually close the gap in the NL East. Todd Zolecki of MLB.com predicts that in 2024, Philadelphia will close the game in the division and compete for a top seed in the National League. Due to the injuries that the team faced in 2023, it’s not a crazy idea to think that they can shorten that gap. It won’t be an easy task with the Braves being the team they are, but it’s certainly a possibility. As Zolecki noted, the 25-32 start for the club was the reason for the club falling out of the race early in the season. They can’t do the same thing in ’24 or they can expect similar results.
