LOS ANGELES — After the fireworks exploded, after Orion Kerkering bent to his knees in despair, after the Los Angeles Dodgers mobbed the field and claimed the National League Division Series with a 2-1 walk-off win in Game 4, the Phillies processed it all in the Dodger Stadium visitors clubhouse.
The Phillies lined the room, sitting at their lockers and nursing beers. Some chatted softly. Others stared straight ahead. And there, navigating among bags overflowing with gear and laundry carts and the crushing silence, was Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski. He greeted Kyle Schwarber and chatted with him. Then he crossed the room and patted J.T. Realmuto on the shoulder.
Realmuto, the first person to embrace Kerkering after the reliever’s season-ending error, was emotional as he spoke to Dombrowski. The season, and potentially Realmuto’s and Schwarber’s time with the Phillies, was over.
“It felt like our group, even though we were down two games (before a win in Game 3), we’ve shown that we’ve been able to overcome a lot of different things,” Schwarber said. “Deep down in my heart, I thought this was the team that was going to do it and overcome that.”
The weight of it all ending on a walk-off error after 11 innings of little offense was overwhelming. So was the enormity of all that was lost, an era that has ended. Winter has come early for this group that boasts a two-time MVP, a two-time NL batting champion, the 2025 NL home run leader and one of the sport’s best rotations.
The group has one goal — hoisting a World Series trophy — and it has been unattainable. Roster and coaching shakeups could soon be underway, as the Phillies must reckon with all that has gone wrong after exiting in the NLDS two years in a row.
The Phillies’ core, largely together since its 2022 World Series run, will likely be different. Realmuto and Schwarber will be free agents, though they could return to Philadelphia. Ranger Suárez, who signed with the club as a 16-year-old in 2012, also will be a free agent. The club could make other roster changes, seeking a new look for its aging core and the surrounding pieces after years of postseason futility.
Those conversations will take place in the weeks to come. Thursday evening, for the Phillies, was simply about being present after a gut-wrenching loss.
“You’re never going to have the same group of guys again,” Jesús Luzardo said. “That’s the tough part.”
So, Schwarber, Nick Castellanos, Bryson Stott, Garrett Stubbs and Trea Turner were among those nursing beers together, for what could be the last time, about an hour after the Dodgers’ on-field celebration. They have seen a lot; the glow of a World Series run in 2022 (minus Turner), a haunting loss in the 2023 NL Championship Series, offensive droughts in the NLDS two years straight. Still, Turner feels this group can turn the corner.
“We got it all,” said Turner, who won a World Series with the Washington Nationals in 2019. “It’s not always the roster or the talent or all that. It’s who plays the best this time of year. We just haven’t gotten it done. Are we capable of it? A hundred percent. We’ve beaten really good teams and we’ve lost to some teams that we probably should beat on paper, but that’s on paper.”
So, what comes next?
The Phillies will extend the qualifying offer to Realmuto, Schwarber and Suárez, and all will likely decline. The Phillies have made clear they want to re-sign Schwarber, one of the sport’s best hitters and a key leader in the clubhouse. Realmuto, still one of the top catchers in the game at 34, would be valuable to re-sign — especially with a lack of organizational catching depth. Suárez’s price might be more than the Phillies would like to pay, especially with their other front-line starters under contract and top prospect Andrew Painter further removed from the ups and downs following Tommy John surgery.
Teammates all agreed after Thursday’s brutal loss: They would love to retain the club’s soon-to-be free agents if possible. But the Phillies’ clubhouse, filled with veterans, is well aware that business decisions fuel everything. Players will look out for their interests, and so will the organization.
“I want everyone back,” Turner said. “We have a great group. We talk about it all the time, but it’s not fake. We love hanging out with each other. We built great clubhouse chemistry.”
“I’d love to have Ranger back,” Game 4 starter Cristopher Sánchez said. “I mean, he’s one of my brothers here. Kyle, too. J.T., too.”
Ranger Suárez, 30, has been with the Phillies organization since signing with the club at 16 years old. (Ronald Martinez / Getty Images)
As for the free agents themselves? Suárez said he’d like to stay with the club, but it will come down to his agent, Scott Boras, and the team. Realmuto did not want to talk about his contract. “I’m thinking about losing a baseball game,” the veteran catcher said. “That’s what it feels like right now. The last thing I’m thinking about is next year.”
Schwarber, throughout the season, said he preferred to leave contract negotiations until the offseason. He is one for staying in the moment, saying he’d reflect on his historic, 56-home run season when all was said and done. When it all came to a halt on Thursday, he changed his tune. He looked back.
“They become family,” Schwarber, 32, said of his teammates. “These guys all know how I feel about them. I’ve got a lot of respect for the guys in here, in our organization, the coaches — everyone top to bottom. This is a premier organization. And a lot of people should feel very lucky that you’re playing for a team that is trying to win every single year, and you have a fan base that cares and ownership that cares and coaches that care. You have everyone in the room that cares. We’re all about winning, and it’s a great thing. That’s why it hurts as much as any other year.”
Kyle Schwarber, a key team leader, has hit 187 homers for the Phillies since joining the club in 2022. (Norm Hall / Getty Images)
It is the pursuit of winning and just how good the Phillies are at accomplishing the task during the regular season that makes their situation all the more puzzling, and all the more pressing to fix. They have regressed or treaded water in the postseason for three years. And, from 2024 to 2025, much of the roster remained the same. The group earned the NL’s second-best record this season and won 96 games. But again, the Phillies failed in October.
The front office will make decisions about who to keep, who to sign, who to trade. The players who remain will use this failure to drive them through offseason work into spring training, through the regular season, to next October.
The sting of October futility is why Suárez, who pitched an excellent five innings in Wednesday’s win, was the last man on the dugout bench Thursday after the Dodgers walked it off. He watched the mob, the fireworks, the players experiencing the joy of advancing that he felt with the Phillies in postseasons past.
It all feels distant now. All the Phillies players are left with is the memory of watching the Dodgers’ celebration before sipping beers as the sadness settled. And with the stark reality, given their shortcomings: The Opening Day clubhouse may look very different from the group that left for Los Angeles earlier this week.
The newness of Opening Day, the shine of postseasons past, are far away. There is only the sense of crushing defeat, the stillness of a clubhouse that just a month ago hosted a raucous party after clinching the NL East, the questions of roster building to come.