Joy to the NY Mets, the Phillies offseason has been a bit of a circus

The end result of what the New York Mets and Philadelphia Phillies accomplished this offseason will look a lot different. The Mets were on a mission of change. The Phillies mustn’t have grown up with grandparents who told them to stay away from water in the backyard. Mosquitoes love stagnant water and will bite the bare legs of the chubby boys who get too close.

The Phillies are essentially the same team with a few changes. The Mets are almost entirely different except for the one thing we figured they would change, the rotation. In either case, the Phillies failed to do the one thing everyone knew they needed to, move on from Nick Castellanos. It would have been like the Mets having Jeff McNeil but 10x worse.

He has already been replaced in right field with Adolis Garcia. The team apparently has no interest in even having him join them in Clearwater, giving him the State of Emergency call to stay home.

The Mets have baseball questions, the Phillies feel like a bit of a mess right now

Castellanos was benched in 2025 and has had a contentious relationship with manager Rob Thomsom. An inappropriate comment in June seemed to be the straw to break the camel’s back. It’s still not public knowledge what Castellanos even said to the skipper. Was it something about the missing “P” in his last name?

Keeping Castellanos out of camp in hopes of still finding some kind of a conclusion to his Philadelphia story seems cheap on behalf of ownership. Just cut the guy. No one is going to take him or any of his contract at this point. Eat the mistake.

As if this wasn’t enough of a distraction, the team learned they definitely won’t have Zack Wheeler back by Opening Day. They’re seeking pitching depth in place of him which seems a bit late to the party. Anyone they would sign at this point probably comes without minor league options. They’d be signing a guy with a perfect blueprint of cutting him in a couple of months.

The ex-Mets starter who left after the 2019 season for the Phillies has become one of the league’s better starters. You don’t need to remind us of this. Thoracic outlet syndrome derailed his 2025 season and will carry over into the start of 2026. Wheeler revealed as a part of the surgery, he had a rib removed. Where is the rib? It’s in his closet.

Someone check the Gatorade cooler at Citizen’s Bank Ballpark. Wheeler isn’t the only Phillies player making strange choices. Bryce Harper underwent a procedure that removes one-third of your blood and passes it through a filtration system.

It’s probably a good thing for the Mets that their biggest negative storyline all offseason has been baseball related with questions about how the past locker room dynamics worked. The Phillies, meanwhile, are running amuck like cartoon characters making odd decisions from the front office on down.