Thad Levine

Now the question remains, as the Atlanta Braves did last year when they dug themselves such a hole, have the Phillies dug themselves such a hole that they won't be able to bounce back?

I don't know the answer to that, but I do expect that they'll improve significantly.

And on the Red Sox side of the ledger, I think

it is a different dynamic you know with with bregman signing with the cubs and i think they made a very sincere pursuit of trying to retain him it is a very young roster and so you're putting a lot of leadership in players who are if they're not rookies they're in their first year or two in the in the major leagues i think there's going to be a lot more volatility in the performance of those types of players

We saw some of those guys come in last year and spike and perform very well.

But as we all know, the sophomore year is a very important year because that's when the league really counterpunches.

We have a lot of data on these guys now.

We're not surprised by what their performance is.

So the question is, can they make the adjustment necessary to stay one step ahead of the pitching?

Time will tell whether that is the case, but that's why I think you see a little bit more volatility in the performance of a younger roster like the Boston Red Sox than you would a veteran roster like the Philadelphia Phillies.

You know, Jeff, I think throughout my career, you aspire to do the former of what you just said.

You aspire to understand that we have no influence and control over that.

And so we just need to do our jobs to the best of our ability.

I think we've been blessed despite what seems to be contention and a lot of rancor on both sides and some mudslinging.

we really haven't had a work stoppage in a couple of decades now.

And as a sport, we're very fortunate for that.

So we've been rewarded for keeping that head down mentality and the expectation that the next season, despite seeming in jeopardy, will be played as scheduled.

It feels a little bit different this time.

It feels as if there's some exceptionally weighty things on both sides that that will be brought to bear.

And so I don't know how optimistic the front office executives are that we're going to be able to prevail as we have had in negotiations past.