Foolish Bailey does a series of three videos every year where he talks about five hitters he likes, five pitches he likes, and five players he does not want for the upcoming MLB season. So since this is a Phillies website, slapping that team onto this idea should make it original.

Given that I have only the Phillies organization to work with instead of all 30, there will only be one player for each.

The players chosen will be less about what projections or even last season said about a player and more about the potential hype or expectations. It’s not a perfect way of doing this but it’s the best way I could come up with it.

Phillie Hitter I Like: JT Realmuto

Picking a 34-year-old catcher who had knee surgery less than a calendar year ago is a choice, but Realmuto feels very different than the typical catcher of his age.

First off, Realmuto played better after coming off the IL last season. He had a 119 wRC+ in 190 plate appearances and his projected numbers tracked. His exit velocity and hard-hit rates matched the season total. His strikeout and walk rates were slightly better in this span as well.

There is also an idea that Realmuto might be declining but there is very little evidence. His xwOBACON has gone up over the last four seasons, his exit velocity has generally hovered in a similar place, and his hard-hit rate went up in 2024. His bat speed still held up well last year and his outlier athleticism makes me think it will again in 2025.

The one big concern for Realmuto last season was his defensive decline. He had 12 blocks above average in 2023 that dropped to -3 in 2024. However, this is probably where the knee injury that he played through in May and June hurt him the most. Now that it’s mostly moved past him, it’s safe to say Realmuto deserves another year to prove he’s a strong defensive backstop.

Realmuto has a lot to prove in 2025 between his contract expiring and questions about how much longer he can be a top-ten backstop. There is at least one more prime Realmuto season left in him and that comes in 2025.

Phillie Pitcher I Like: Jordan Romano

From 2020-2023, Romano was one of the most effective closers in a strong era of Blue Jays baseball. He saved 97 games in that span with a 2.29 ERA and 3.13 FIP. After a disastrous 2024 that saw IL stints, ineffective outings, and being non-tendered by Toronto, the Phillies are making the bet he can be 85% of what Jeff Hoffman was on a much cheaper rate.

Romano had a slight decline in stuff grades in 2024 but nothing super eye-opening which makes his decline confusing. Even with injuries, there would usually be more of a correlation to his stuff.

In camp, Romano has mostly looked like his old self, sitting roughly 96 mph and working with an elite slider. He’s missing bats which is something he really struggled to do last season.

Romano should have a strong bounce-back season with the Phillies that should reset his market. Instead of paying Jeff Hoffman three years and $11 million AAV, the Phillies chose Romano for one year at $8.5 million. It’s the type of bet smart organizations make that typically pays off.

Phillie Player I Dislike: Bryson Stott

Is Stott going to be better in 2025 than in 2024? It would be difficult for him not to because his defense should grade out much better. However, it’s hard for me to be sold on a bounce-back offensive season.

The Phillies have written off his 2024 because of an elbow injury in May, Stott himself even talked about it more in detail last month. None of this is to say Stott or the Phillies aren’t telling the truth but that there is more to this than just that elbow injury (that didn’t keep him off the field).

Stott’s approach has generally trended in the wrong direction. His walk rate was only 6.1% in 2023 and his SEAGER, a stat that is supposed to reflect how well a player balances attacking good pitches to hit with laying off unfavorable pitches, has ranked Stott poorly in each of his three seasons.

Stott’s SEAGER percentile rankings were:

2022: 11th percentile

2023: 4th percentile

2024: 12th percentile

Stott is also very reliant on being a good two-strike hitter which is just very hard to do consistently. He had 374 two-strike plate appearances in 2023 and hit .289 in those situations. In 2024, he ran into 319 and hit .195. The league hit closer to .170 in two-strike situations last season.

There is also very little evidence Stott can ever be a solid fastball hitter. He was solid against fastballs in 2023 with a .284 average and .426 slugging percentage, but it’s been sandwiched by two awful seasons against four-seam fastballs.

Maybe there is not enough of a conclusive sample to make a bet like this but it’s difficult to buy into a big season for Stott. He will be a solid player but probably won’t leap offensively people are expecting. He is probably a 90-95 wRC+ caliber hitter in 2025.