Philadelphia Phillies Owner Sends Message to Players Amid Struggles

The Philadelphia Phillies are in a major slump, and as they look to turn things around on their 10-game road trip, their owner has sent a message to the players.

Jun 5, 2023; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; Philadelphia Phillies owner John Middleton before game against the Detroit Tigers at Citizens Bank Park / Eric Hartline-USA TODAY Sports

Anytime a team is viewed as buyers ahead of the trade deadline, deals get dreamt up where those like the Philadelphia Phillies come away with a roster resembling that of an All-Star team.

But for the Phillies, who had a lot of representation in the Midsummer Classic as is, there weren't a whole lot of areas the front office truly needed to address for the back half of the year.

That didn't stop some fans from hoping Dave Dombrowski would truly push all his chips into the center of the table by landing someone like Randy Arozarena, Luis Robert Jr., Jazz Chisholm or other big names who seemingly were going to be available.

When that didn't happen, some criticism was levied his way.

However, Philadelphia certainly made some upgrades to this roster by bringing in former All-Star Austin Hays, star closer Carlos Estevez, and another reliever Tanner Banks, while replacing two of their struggling arms.

The idea is that these moves will make them much harder to eliminate in the playoffs after they have come up short in the World Series and National League Championship Series in back-to-back years, but with the team struggling massively the past few weeks, alarm bells are going off.

For what it's worth, the players don't seem worried.

They trust the process they are approaching each game with and believe things will turn around once this stretch of unlucky variance passes.

Because of how good they have played up until this point, the Phillies have afforded themselves a cushion in case struggles like this were to occur. They are virtually a shoo-in to make the playoffs, it just isn't known what seed they will be.

Amid this prolonged stretch of poor play, Philadelphia's owner sent a message to the players.

"I think we did what we had to do, which is get a right-handed bat in the outfield. We strengthened our bullpen. Now it's up to the players," John Middleton told Destiny Lugardo of Phillies Nation.

That sentiment isn't lost on anyone in the clubhouse.

They know how close they've been to bringing another World Series title to the city and they have openly talked about how that is what they are set out to accomplish this year.

Bryce Harper also sent a message to his teammates and has said "superstars got to show up" when referencing his shocking slump prior to Friday's contest.

Unfortunately, they were not able to turn things around, getting completely embarrassed by the Seattle Mariners in a 10-2 loss that saw them trail by eight just two innings into the game.

How they respond to this newfound adversity iwill be telling on how the rest of this season will go.