PHILADELPHIA — The Phillies on Sunday sealed a few historical individual accolades, but manager Rob Thomson’s focus was on the collective.
Trea Turner returned from a hamstring injury to finish off the National League batting title. Kyle Schwarber’s 56 home runs and 132 RBIs led the NL, the latter figure tops in MLB.
The through line, in those individuals and in a team that hit 96 wins for just the sixth time in franchise history, is consistency. And more than individual statistics, it’s that approach that Thomson hopes carries into the quest for 11 postseason wins and a world title.
“I think probably since I’ve been here, the most consistent over the course of a season,” Thomson said before capping the regular season with a 2-1 win over the Minnesota Twins. “We had the little down swing in July. But other than that, I felt we were consistent all year long. Starting pitching was outstanding all year long. So I think it’s just the consistency in the ball club.
“The other years it was cold start/hot finish, hot start/cold finish. This kind of stayed the same throughout.”
The team Triple Crown is a surprising rarity, achieved only three times in the National League since World War II.
The 2016 Colorado Rockies did it, Nolan Arenado tying for the home run crown and leading in RBIs while DJ LeMahieu won the batting title. Before that, the 1941 Brooklyn Dodgers (Dolph Camilli home runs and RBIs; Pete Reiser batting average) won the team Triple Crown.
It’s happened more in the American League, with individual Triple Crowns from Detroit’s Miguel Cabrera in 2012, Carl Yastrzemski in 1967, Frank Robinson in 1966 and Mickey Mantle in 1956. The 1983 Boston Red Sox (Jim Rice, Wade Boggs); 1969 Minnesota Twins (Harmon Killebrew, Rod Carey); and 1954 Cleveland Indians (Larry Doby, Bobby Avila) also did it.
Turner’s .304 is the lowest to win a league batting title since Yastrzemski hit .301 in 1968 and the lowest ever for the senior circuit. That was the only other season in either league in which only one qualified hitter topped .300, Nico Hoerner of the Cubs hitting .297 this year. Turner is the first Phille to win a batting title since Richie Ashburn in 1958.
“I think it’s cool,” Turner said of his second batting title, the first in 2021 split between Washington and the Dodgers. “I think only one guy gets it in each league, which makes it tough. Can’t vote on it, stuff like that. I think it makes it cool. I think the ERA title and the batting title are cool awards, and I think it just means you had a consistent year, a good year. It’s hard, hard to compete with 150 hitters or however many there are. It’s rewarding.”
While hardly experiencing the injury tumult of others in the division, the Phillies haven’t had it all their way. Three starting pitchers spent time on the injured list, Aaron Nola missing three months and Zack Wheeler lost for the season. Regulars Brandon Marsh, Bryce Harper, Alec Bohm (twice) and Turner all had IL stints, plus they lost one-time closers Jose Alvarado and Jordan Romano to a doping suspension and general ineffectiveness, respectively, before September injuries.
They persevered, thanks to well-crafted depth. J.T. Realmuto, in a contract year at age 34, managed 134 games behind the plate, solidifying Thomson’s determination of “freak of nature” status. Schwarber played all 162, 154 as a designated hitter. It’s still remarkable durability for a guy who two years ago hit .197 and appeared to be in irreversible physical decline.
“Well, I didn’t want to take him out of the lineup. That’s the biggest thing,” Thomson said. “I think everybody aspires to play every single day. He’s never done it before. Nick (Castellanos) did it last year, which for an outfielder, is really impressive. But even as a DH, I think it’s still impressive to be able to answer the bell every single day.”
Thomson’s focus tended toward a wider aperture. Much as the guys at the top excelled, his pride rests in the aggregate.
So 10 players hitting 10 or more home runs each, something the team had done only once before (2019) was impressive. As is becoming one of only nine Phillies squads to hit 200 homers with 212. As was tallying 84 quality starts (plus Cristopher Sanchez being stopped one out shy of one Sunday despite just 60 pitches in the name of workload management), 12 more than any other staff in the bigs.
“You get some guys that have more than others, but you have 10 guys that have 10 home runs, that’s pretty special,” Thomson said. “And our rotation led in quality starts by a bunch. So really, a lot of fun things to watch.”
The Phillies tied for second in batting average at .258 and were second in hits at 1,426.
Their starting pitchers logged 41 innings more than any other staff, finishing second in ERA at 3.53 and more than five wins clear in WAR at 21.5. It’s the highest WAR for a starting rotation, per FanGraphs, since Cleveland in 2018 (22.0).
Along the way, Thomson found balance between the wide swings characterizing his tenure. The variance seems unavoidable for a manager who inherited a 22-29 team in 2022 and rode it to a 65-46 finish and a pennant.
The 2023 Phillies started 25-32, then hit the afterburners, finishing 65-40. A year later was the opposite: A 62-33 start, then sub-.500 baseball the rest of the way (33-34) before bowing out to the Mets in a dispiriting Division Series.
This year, the Phillies neither blasted away nor wallowed. They were middling in the summer, 25-25 over June and July. But that was bookended by a great May and a better September. The first team to clinch a playoff berth, they are 35-19 since Aug. 1, perhaps peaking at the right time.
From viewpoints more privileged than Thomson’s, this year’s team will only be defined by what it does in October. Fans will have seen making the postseason as a formality — something Thomson in the day-to-day grind would have vehemently argued against — with arresting the backslide of postseason progress the only worthwhile measure.
But Thomson took time Sunday to take pride in what has occurred already, relating it to the challenge ahead.
“I think that they stayed locked in and focused and really focused on the goals at hand,” he said. “One was obviously getting to the playoffs, winning the division, getting home field. I think they’ve stayed focused on that.”
Contact Matthew De George at mdegeorge@delcotimes.com.
Originally Published: September 29, 2025 at 4:33 PM EDT