After getting a taste of the World Series, the Phillies are ready to go back: ‘It’s kind of addicting’

ARLINGTON, Texas — On Oct. 23, shortly after his start in Game 5 of the National League Championship Series, Phillies pitcher Zack Wheeler was sitting in the training room at Citizens Bank Park, watching his teammates on TV. His feed was a little delayed, but he could hear what was about to happen before he saw it. If cheers started to echo through the training room, Wheeler knew something good was coming.

In the bottom of the eighth inning, he heard the cheers. But then, the glass windows around him started to shake.

“Why are they shaking?” he asked himself.

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Wheeler glanced at the television and quickly found out. Bryce Harper had just hit the most iconic home run of his career — a two-run shot to left-center field that gave the Phillies a 4-3 lead over the Padres. It would send the Phillies to the World Series.

Wheeler has seen a lot over his eight seasons in the big leagues, but last year’s postseason was entirely new for him. He had never gone to a playoff game in person before, let alone pitched in one. So, he tried to soak it all in.

“As a starter you can do that,” Wheeler said. “You can sit back and enjoy the atmosphere. It’s kind of addicting. We want to get back there.”

Wheeler isn’t alone. All spring, the Phillies have gone out of their way to remind us of just how close they were to winning it all. “Two wins away” has become an unofficial catchphrase, of sorts. It didn’t come from anyone in particular, but it didn’t have to. Everyone knew there was unfinished business.

“As good as we feel about the NL championship, that’s not what you set out the year wanting to do,” said catcher Garrett Stubbs. “You don’t set out to just win the division. You don’t set out to just win the National League. You set out to win the World Series. And we came up two games short. So that’s kind of our mantra going into this year.”

The tone was set even before the Phillies arrived in Clearwater, Fla., for spring training. This was not a dormant offseason. President of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski locked up Trea Turner to an 11-year, $300 million deal in early December. He signed reliever Matt Strahm the next day, and starter Taijuan Walker a few days after that. The baseball operations group made some savvy waiver claims — notably Jake Cave, who cracked the opening day lineup — traded for Gregory Soto and Yunior Marte, and signed Craig Kimbrel just before Christmas. They signed Josh Harrison as bench depth in late January.

By spring training, they had committed nearly $400 million for five free agents this winter. It sent a message.

“It starts from [owner] John Middleton down,” said right fielder Nick Castellanos. “When you have an owner that is showing that much enthusiasm for his organization … investing the kind of resources into the organization, there’s an expectation that comes with that. And everybody in here really takes pride in their craft. That’s a good mixture.

“It can go two ways. You see organizations that get really close to winning it all and then they’re like, ‘All right, we can sit on that for a little bit.’ But he wants to win. That attitude that he’s bringing — it has a trickle down effect.”

Castellanos has only been a Phillie for one full season, but he said this spring training felt more “focused” than last year’s.

“I think we kind of understand the importance of each game,” said third baseman Alec Bohm. “I think there’s more of a focus on the big picture, rather than getting caught up in little failures here and there.

“We know what we’re playing for now.”

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