Phillies news you missed over the weekend; Embiid shut down; Flyers win

The bad news is it’s Monday. The good news is we have lots of Philly sports action to recap from the weekend. Let’s jump right in.

In the email today:

• 🗞 Phillies news you missed over the weekend

• 😱 Sixers shut down Embiid, post damaging win over Dubs

• ✈️ Flyers ground Jets in OT as Michkov shines in shootout

  • 📆 This Day in Philly Sports History

  • 📊 Poll

  • 🔗 Links

  • 📺 Coming Up

The Phillies played four games since our Friday morning send, including Sunday’s split-squad action. Some stories from over the weekend:

Is Phillies outfield prospect Gabriel Rincones Jr. legit?

Phillies prospect Gabriel Rincones Jr. hit his third home run of the spring on Sunday.

Overall, Baseball America says Rincones projects as "a powerful regular on a second-division club [or] part of a platoon on a championship team." If the Phillies consider themselves a championship caliber team, there will probably not be a big-league role for the outfielder with the club this season.

Rincones can change that, of course, if he continues to impress (especially if he improves his numbers against lefties). But barring an injury to Brandon Marsh or Max Kepler, his quickest path to the majors may be via a trade.

Read the full article on Rincones here.

Aaron Nola works on changeup, Phillies starting pitchers continue to impress

Cristopher Sanchez, Zack Wheeler, Jesus Luzardo, and Aaron Nola each tossed two scoreless outings in their spring debuts. (Ranger Suarez is expected to take the mound on Tuesday.)

Nola's results could probably be considered accidental. He was reportedly working only on his fastball and changeup and didn't throw a single curveball. "I wasn't able to even counts with [the changeup in 2024] or get back into a count with it, so I had to rely on other stuff," said the pitcher after he exited the game. "Every year, I try to sharpen that pitch. That's always a feel pitch for me, like try to get it to sharpen before the season starts and have it all season.”

According to Statcast data, hitters posted an Expected Batting Average (xBA) of .340 against Nola's changeup in 2024, with an Expected Slugging Percentage (xSLG) of .490. Those are Nola's worst numbers for the pitch since his rookie season in 2015.

Read the full article on Nola here.

J.T. Realmuto: 'I feel like we have a No. 1 and maybe four No. 2s'

The Seattle Mariners, Arizona Diamondbacks and Los Angeles Dodgers will have something to say about it, but with the offseason addition of Jesús Luzardo, the Phillies may very well have the best starting rotation in baseball in 2025.

Realmuto obviously didn't mean any disrespect to Luzardo, Sánchez, Suárez or Nola when he suggested that Phillies could have "four No. 2s." Still, he might have been being too modest about this rotation.

Read more here.

Phillies and Kyle Schwarber in contract extension talks? 'Nothing imminent,' according to report.

The Phillies and Kyle Schwarber's camp "have engaged in broad contract extension talks this spring, according to major-league sources, but nothing is perceived as imminent," The Athletic's Matt Gelb reported ($) on Friday. Schwarber's current contract expires after the 2025 season.

"Broad" extension talks are better than no extension talks, for those who hope the Phillies will bring their biggest slugger back next season.

Read more here.

“My wife is crying upstairs. I hear cars coming to the house. Consigliere of mine, I think you should tell your Don what everyone seems to know.”

As Tom Hagen had to tell Vito Corleone of Sonny’s death well after the fact, so did the Sixers drop the Friday afternoon news dump of Friday afternoon news dumps, news that everyone really already knew.

No one paying any attention to the Sixers this season thought this could end any other way.

The Sixers had lost nine in a row coming into Saturday’s matchup with Steph Curry and the Warriors. If there was ever an excusable L, the Sixers had one lined up. How could they hope to beat the Dubs in the wake of the Embiid news? Why would they try?

Welp.

All due credit to Quentin Grimes. People throw words like “unstoppable” around carelessly, but take our word for it: Grimes was unstoppable on Saturday night.

Grimes was so dominant, we think Embiid and Tyrese Maxey were only half-joking when they asked Grimes postgame how he didn’t end up scoring 50.

But let’s not get caught up in the cheap thrill here. This was a devastating win for the Sixers.

Given the precarious nature of their first round draft pick, every loss matters now. The Sixers need to be accumulating losses aggressively, especially in games like Saturday night’s where no one expects them to win.

There are just too many games left on the schedule against the likes of the Wizards, the Hornets, the Jazz and the Pelicans where the Sixers are probably just too talented to lose. Kicking away a gimme loss to the Warriors just wasn’t a good idea long term.

The Sixers are back in action tonight against the Trail Blazers at the Center. Hopefully, they’ll lock in on the big picture and revert to what lost them nine in a row in the first place.

Unless you are a serious puck head, you could be excused for not knowing that the Winnipeg Jets, who play in a city less populated than Montgomery County, are running away with the NHL’s Western Conference.

The Flyers were in Manitoba Saturday night to play the Jets before returning to Philadelphia for a seven-game homestand. That looked for all the world like a schedule loss.

No one told the Flyers.

The Flyers won this game deploying the best possible strategy against a more talented team. They outshot the Jets early and relied on their goaltending when the Jets made their predictable late charge.

Ivan Fedotov was nearly flawless for the Flyers in net, and came up with some spectacular saves to get the Flyers to the shootout.

Fedotov’s strong play continued in the shootout as he denied all three Jets shooters. NHL Rookie of the Month Matvei Michkov produced a moment of magic to get the Flyers the win.

Unlike the Sixers, it’s far too late for the Flyers to tank this season. They’ve won too many games, and they’re by and large too healthy to shut any of their stars down.

Their playoff chances are still terrible. It’s not so much the four points the Flyers are behind the Red Wings for the last playoff spot — it’s the four other teams ahead of the Flyers chasing the Wings.

The homestand starts tomorrow night against the Calgary Flames.

📆 This Day in Philly Sports History

On March 3, 1993, Charles Barkley played against the Sixers for the first time. Barkley’s Suns won the game, but Manute Bol stole the show by hitting six three-pointers in the second half.

📊 Poll

Results from Friday:

🔗 Links

• ⚽️ Tai Baribo’s hat trick led the Union to their second win on the bounce to start the season and put him in select company.

• 🇺🇸 The Commanders traded for Deebo Samuel.

• 🪦 Doesn’t do much for Pete Rose now that Rob Manfred is mulling reinstating him to MLB’s eligible list.

• 🏀 Villanova’s late season resurgence continued with a win over Butler on Senior Day.

• 🏟️ The Blue Jackets and the Red Wings drew over 94,000 people to the Horseshoe.

📺 Coming Up

Games before our next send.

Monday, March 3, 2025

• Sixers vs. Trail Blazers, 7:00 p.m. (NBC Sports Philadelphia)

Thanks for reading. See you tomorrow.

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