PHILADELPHIA -- Rolls of plastic sheeting still hung from the ceiling as the Phillies emptied their lockers on Wednesday night at Citi Field.

The Mets’ clubhouse staff had prepared for the Phillies potentially winning the National League Division Series in four games. But not only did the Phils not clinch the series in New York, they never won a game there, instead watching the Mets storm the field after a 4-1 series-clinching victory in Game 4.

“I mean, we knew what was around the corner for us,” Philadelphia left-hander Matt Strahm said afterward. “If we could have gotten back to [Citizens Bank Park] for [Game] 5, I think it would’ve been something special. I mean, it's just bitter missing out on that opportunity. Yeah, we’ve got to wait 365 [days] to do it again.”

The Phillies entered the spring with World Series championship expectations. They were on a 114-win pace through June 8.

But they went 51-51 after that, including the postseason.

Defining moment
The sixth inning in Game 4 summed up everything that went wrong in the NLDS.

The Phillies carried a 1-0 lead into the frame. Bryce Harper hit a leadoff double. Nick Castellanos struck out swinging. Alec Bohm walked to put runners on first and second. But J.T. Realmuto struck out swinging and Bryson Stott grounded out to end the inning.

The Phillies scored 12 runs in the entire series. They batted .186 with a .597 OPS.

In comparison, they batted .197 with a .622 OPS in the final five games of the 2023 NLCS, when they blew a 2-0 lead to the D-backs and lost Game 7 at Citizens Bank Park.

Jeff Hoffman loaded the bases in the bottom of the sixth on Wednesday, and Carlos Estévez allowed a grand slam to Francisco Lindor to make it 4-1. Philadelphia’s bullpen was a strength for six months, but it had an 11.37 ERA in the NLDS. It was the fifth-highest ERA by any bullpen in any series in postseason history (minimum 10 innings), and the highest since Cleveland's 11.70 bullpen ERA in the 2018 AL Division Series.

What we learned
The Phillies ran it back with the same group that fell one victory short of its second consecutive NL championship in 2023, but they didn’t get that far this year. The front office will need to make changes to the offense, find better starting pitching depth and maintain a bullpen that could lose two of its best relievers (Estévez and Hoffman) in free agency.

Best development
Andrew Painter, the club’s No. 1 pitching prospect and the No. 32 overall prospect in baseball, is pitching in the Arizona Fall League. If everything goes well this fall and if he continues to progress in the spring, he could join the Phillies’ rotation at some point.

The Phils believe Painter will be a difference maker.

“I do think he’ll be pitching at the big league level at some point in 2025,” Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski said.

Area for improvement
The Phillies don’t have a ton of options, but they need to make offensive upgrades.

If you look at the overall numbers, the situation might not seem so bad. The club was tied for fourth in the Majors in OPS (.750) and ranked fifth in runs (784) in 2024. But it is prone to team-wide prolonged slumps. From Sept. 8 through the end of the regular season, the Phils ranked 15th in runs per game (4.25) and 12th in OPS (.706).

They were far worse in the NLDS.

“That’s baseball, man,” Realmuto said. “It’s just a hard game. It’s hard to stay hot for 162 games. We knew we weren’t playing our best baseball coming into the postseason, but we were hoping once the lights turned on, we’d flip a switch and get our offense and get going. It just didn’t happen for us.”

On the rise
Cristopher Sánchez went 11-9 with a 3.32 ERA in 31 starts. He earned NL Pitcher of the Month honors in June, when he signed a four-year, $22.5 million contract extension. He pitched well in Game 2 of the NLDS. He finished fifth on the Phillies with 3.4 WAR, according to Baseball Reference.

Team MVP
There’s no Team Cy Young in this exercise, so Zack Wheeler makes the most sense. He went 16-7 with a 2.57 ERA in 32 starts. He finished with a team-high 6.1 WAR. (Harper finished second with 4.8 WAR.)

Wheeler dazzled again in the postseason, pitching seven scoreless innings in Game 1.

It’s impossible to imagine where the Phillies would be without him.