...through the first 41 games of 2026, Harper is quietly building a statistical profile that looks surprisingly close to that MVP campaign.

For the Phillies, that matters more than almost anything else. Because recent Phillies history shows a clear pattern: When Alec Bohm is productive, the Phillies become a much more complete and dangerous baseball team.

Remember, during the offseason on the Romantic About Baseball podcast, I was vocal about how the Phillies should let Schwarber walk, pursue Bregman and/or Tucker full bore, and call up Crawford to revamp this lineup. At this point, you have to look at the lineup and understand that their "running it back approach" is an utter failure.