“It was so much fun playing these last three weeks,” Realmuto said, adding: “This is probably the closest group of guys I’ve ever played with. And I think it shows when we’re out there.”
His comments echoed around the clubhouse.
“In the beginning of the year if you asked a bunch of people, or baseball specialists, if they thought we would be in the World Series, they probably would have said no,” Castellanos said. “So the fact that we were able to do this collectively as a group and get this close, we were two wins away from being the best team in North America. It’s just a building block. And now you look at all the young kids here and also veterans, too, that now have this postseason experience and it’s only a good thing moving forward.”
All of the Phillies’ key pieces will return in 2022. The team holds a club option on right-handed ace Aaron Nola, who threw 205 innings this season. It is a given that the team will pick that up. Less certain is the club option on second baseman Jean Segura. The team could move this year’s shortstop, Bryson Stott, over to second base and take a run at one of the marquee free agent shortstops expected to be on the market such as Xander Bogaerts (Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski was in Boston with Bogaerts when they won the 2018 World Series together) or Trea Turner.
Harper noted now “it’s going to be the same team next year with a couple of pieces added, I’d imagine. Dave Dombrowski is our guy.” He also added that owner John Middleton, who has said a couple of times this autumn that Harper at $330 million is underpaid, “understands that we want to win and he wants to win right now, too. So I imagine we’re going to be the same team with some pieces added to make us better.”
Until then, the bitterness of losing the World Series will be assuaged by the warm memories of a singular team that went further than anybody would have imagined.
Hoskins, for one, said he will remember “how much fun we had with each other, man. I don’t know. There’s a lot of talent in this room, but I don’t know that this is necessarily the most talented team anybody’s ever seen. But I think we found ways to come together as a team when we needed to the most throughout the season, and in the postseason, time and time again. I think that’s what all of us should be most proud if, just figuring out what an actual team feels like and how powerful that can be in some of these big moments.”
“And it’s only the beginning, right?” Castellanos added. “I know all of us are really excited. I can stand here today and say I’m really excited for spring training.”