No team is ever the same year-to-year. It’s why each season for 29 teams ends in similar fashion: With handshakes, laughs and a couple drinks before heading home.
The clubhouse opens to the media about 10 minutes after every game, but emotions were raw after a devastating 4-2 loss in Game 7 of the National League Championship Series to the Arizona Diamondbacks.
This was supposed to be a joyous moment. The Phillies navigated the tricky three-game Wild Card series against the Miami Marlins and took down the best offense in baseball history, the Atlanta Braves, in four games in the Division Series.
They were destined for a second straight World Series appearance. They were destined for immortality. The heavily-favored Phillies boarded a plane to Phoenix with a 2-0 series lead following a 10-0 thrashing and only needed to win one game at Chase Field to come back home with a chance to clinch a pennant in front of their home fans. Two wins out of three and there would have been a party in the desert.
They got their one win, but they did not get to enjoy the ending to the series they envisioned.
The Diamondbacks thoroughly outplayed the Phillies in Games 6 and 7 while facing elimination. Arizona’s starting pitching was better, their hitters didn’t chase, they strung together timely hits and the bullpen made pitch after pitch to erode any hope the Phillies had late in the game.
As the Diamondbacks celebrated on the field and in the visiting clubhouse, many Phillies sat at their lockers with blank stares.
Brandon Marsh hugged an emotional Johan Rojas, who was deep in tears. Rojas came up to bat with the bases loaded and two out in the bottom of the fourth, but chased three pitches out of the zone.
It was the Phillies’ best chance to break open the game, but they couldn’t capitalize. Nick Castellanos struck out with runners on the corners with one out and the D-Backs pitched around Marsh to get to Rojas.
The 22-year-old started the year in Double A. Not many envisioned his rise from the minors to starting center fielder in the big leagues. His single against David Bednar in extra innings on Sept. 26 sent the Phillies to the postseason. He made the catch in center field that sealed the Division Series.
He’s here for his glove, not his bat, but baseball is a cruel sport and he had to feel the weight of failure.
Players gathered around the back of the Phillies clubhouse. Trea Turner, J.T. Realmuto, Bryce Harper, Kyle Schwarber and Nick Castellanos and others exchanged handshakes and hugs. The sound of hands slapping and backs being patted permeated the room.
All of those guys are under contract and will certainly be back next year, but Aaron Nola and Rhys Hoskins, two players that have spent a combined 16 seasons in the room, may have played their final games in a Phillies uniform.
Nola and Hoskins sat with each other in the dugout during the final innings of Game 7.
“One of the best guys, best teammates I’ve ever been around,” Nola said.
Teammates came one by one to greet them both. Oftentimes after Phillies wins, players gathered around Nola’s locker to chat and have a drink after wins. Realmuto, Garrett Stubbs, Taijuan Walker and others sat around his stall one last time as Nola took it all in.
Following Game 6 of the World Series last season, Nola chatted in the corner of the visiting clubhouse at Minute Maid Park with his best friend Zach Eflin.
Eflin professed his desire to remain in Philly, but the Phillies didn’t want him back. He signed with the Tampa Bay Rays and grew into the ace Nola knew he would always become.
Nola doesn’t want to experience the same fate. He wants to be back with the Phillies, but isn’t sure if the team feels the same way.
“It’s the hard part about the business, right?” Nola said. “You spend pretty much the whole year together. Battling through the ups and downs. The successes and struggles. That’s what makes the game so pretty.”
The man that will ultimately decide their fate in Philadelphia, Dave Dombrowski, greeted both Nola and Hoskins in his trip around the clubhouse. Hoskins thanked Dombrowski for the opportunity to pull off an incredible comeback from a torn ACL in spring training that robbed him of his final year under contract with the Phillies.
The Phillies were one win away from giving Hoskins a chance to be a small part of what could have been a run to a World Series championship. He flew down to Clearwater following Game 2 of the National League Wild Card series to take at-bats at the Phillies’ “stay-ready” camp.
He flew north for Game 7. He gave it all he had, but Hoskins — and the Phillies — ran out of time.
“Everybody just wants to be a part of something bigger than themselves, right?” Hoskins said. “This team was clearly that. It’s a group of guys that I think was destined to be great. We were, we just came up short tonight.”
There’s all the time in the world to put the failure of the 2023 Phillies into context. The 2022 Phillies vowed to use last season’s ending as motivation, a building block.
The 2023 Phillies were supposed to be better. The pitching was deeper, the lineup had more slug and the defense improved. There were bumps in the road and times where the 2023 Phillies looked like pretenders, but they entered the playoffs in an enviable position. Health was on their side and the Phillies had that same “Team of Destiny” aura that followed them into November last year.
That aura disappeared when they took off for Phoenix. Castellanos was living proof. Through Game 2 of the NLCS, Castellanos slugged .931 in the playoffs. He was locked in like he had never been before only to completely lose it out west. He finished the series 0-for-22 with nine strikeouts.
“I think that I felt great until going to Arizona,” Castellanos said. “Then once I went to Arizona, I was grinding to see the ball, to see the pitches. It’s terrible, man. It’s a terrible feeling. To just feel like you’re locked in and being in the zone like that and have it fade away at the wrong time.”
Moments after reporters scurried away from Castellanos’ locker, another circle developed. This one centered around Schwarber’s locker. Castellanos sat on the floor next to his son Liam and chatted with teammates about the t-shirts Liam designed to help raise money for childhood cancer.
The Phillies will go their separate ways in the coming days. The disappointment will linger for weeks, months and maybe years for some. October is only one month out of the grueling eight-month baseball calendar. The season will be defined by the failure to get five more wins and a victory parade down Broad Street, but to those who live it, it’s all about the little moments in between the grueling highs and lows.
Tuesday was unfortunately the last chance to savor it all one last time.
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