Phillies Legend Provides Optimism for Length of Current Team's World Series Window

One of the Philadelphia Phillies legends believes they have a longer World Series window than the team who last won a championship.

Oct 22, 2022; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; Former Philadelphia Phillies player Ryan Howard throws the ceremonial first pitch before game four of the NLCS against the San Diego Padres for the 2022 MLB Playoffs at Citizens Bank Park / Bill Streicher-Imagn Images

This offseason is a huge one for the Philadelphia Phillies.

After reaching the World Series in 2022 and making the city buy into the team again after a prolonged stretch of horrendous play, the club is now at a tipping point after two straight years where they were eliminated from the playoffs earlier than they should have been.

There are clear needs for changes across the roster, and despite there not being a clear path for them to make that happen based on the long-term contracts already in place, that is what Dave Dombrowski gets paid the big bucks to accomplish.

However, one of the former Phillies legends isn't buying into the new negativity that is surrounding this team.

Ryan Howard believes this version of Philadelphia has a much greater runway when it comes to winning a World Series championship than they did back when they hoisted the trophy in 2008 before losing in the Fall Classic the next year and being eliminated one round earlier each season until they missed the playoffs in 2012.

"I think they've got a little bit longer runway than we did with the youth on their team. So I think it's continuing to kind of add some of those pieces, but the nucleus is there. These guys, they know how to win. They've done it," Howard said per Ty Daubert of Phillies Nation.

The difference is that iteration of the Phillies actually won a championship.

Despite the disappointment that came from Howard's teams losing in the playoffs, there was still joy knowing they brought home the city's first World Series title since 1980.

Until that happens for this current group, though, there is going to be some angst about not getting it done in 2022 since it's so hard for teams to win titles, however, Howard does make a good point about the health of the organization.

Bryce Harper will be here for the next decade, always a good place to begin when putting together a roster, and while Trea Turner has been disappointing so far during his tenure, history suggests he will settle in to turn things around.

Beyond those two, Andrew Painter is slated to take over for Zack Wheeler when his career comes to an end, Aaron Nola will be in the city for the next six years alongside Cristopher Sanchez, and Philadelphia has built up their pipeline to the point where the next wave of stars are already in their lower-level minor league ranks.

Howard is optimistic the Phillies can keep their winning ways rolling, and they certainly are set up to do that for future seasons, but the first step to accomplish that is upgrading the roster so they can win a World Series in 2025.