Inside the Phillies’ home clubhouse, where they hope to return: Who sits where — and why?

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After the boos rippled through Citizens Bank Park on Monday night, the Phillies were left with silence.

It filled the clubhouse. Some players sat alone at their lockers. A few pitchers quietly chatted in the corner. Others tried to navigate the hordes of media surrounding teammates. It might have been the last game the Phillies’ roster, as currently constructed, spent in their home clubhouse together. Trailing the Dodgers 2-0 in the National League Division Series, the Phillies’ season could be over as soon as Wednesday evening in Los Angeles.

“It could be the last time this group gets to play together,” Alec Bohm said after Monday’s devastating 4-3 loss in Game 2. “The whole, full 26-man roster, for sure. But the core group, I think it would just be best if we go out and just enjoy, possibly, the last time we get to play together.”

The Phillies’ core hasn’t changed too much since the club reached the 2022 World Series. But, on the brink of elimination and with some players in their free-agent walk years, the roster could look different entering 2026. It could be closing time for this group, after years spent building relationships on the road and in the clubhouse, which essentially functions as their office for six months of the year.

Lockers are players’ cubicles, overflowing with commemorative hats, gloves, custom spikes, food and more. They don’t spend a ton of time in the clubhouse between working on the field, eating in the cafeteria and hitting in the cages. But a lot of thought goes into who goes where and why, and the details that make the clubhouse feel like home for Phillies players. With the postseason underway, NLDS nameplates hang above each locker. It seems improbable they will be replaced by NL Championship Series decor, though not impossible.

Clubhouses turn over year after year, though this group of Phillies could see theirs change much sooner and more dramatically than they hoped. The corner locker is a universal concept in major-league clubhouses, honoring players who are leaders with significant service time. When longtime clubhouse manager Phil Sheridan began working at Veterans Stadium, John Kruk and Darren Daulton occupied the corner lockers. Now, Harper and J.T. Realmuto — an impending free agent — hold the spots at Citizens Bank Park.

As for assigning the rest of the lockers?

“It comes down to service time,” Sheridan said. “It’s the ultimate, black-and-white arbiter of status.”

Assigning lockers can be an inexact science, though. When the Phillies called up Aaron Nola in 2015, he was placed in the second-closest locker to the corner because it happened to be open. So, Nola ended up sitting next to Cole Hamels for a couple of weeks before the Phillies traded the veteran to the Texas Rangers at the deadline. Sitting near players like Hamels, even briefly, influenced Nola’s clubhouse demeanor.

“They were really good to me,” Nola said. “I always said, ‘When I’m a veteran, I always want to be like those guys.’ I always wanted to be approachable and a guy that’s easy to talk to. They (can) ask me anything.”

Nola, who is under contract through 2030, will likely be a figure in the Phillies’ clubhouse for years to come. He has held the same locker since his debut, though Zack Wheeler, his friend and rotation mate, has tried to get him to move.

Wheeler sits near the front of the clubhouse, closer to the exit to the field, along with pitchers Taijuan Walker and Ranger Suárez, who will be a free agent in November. Walker and Wheeler have significant service time. Wheeler chose to sit in the front when he first signed with the Phillies because of the close proximity to other pitchers. The empty locker next to Wheeler’s is effectively his own, overflowing with gear — one perk of being a veteran.

A depiction of the Phillies’ clubhouse as it was set up September 28, the final day of the regular season. (Graphic: Dan Goldfarb / The Athletic)

On the road, clubhouse attendants work with the Phillies’ staff to figure out where to place players. It can be complicated because the Phillies have eight players with more than 10 years of service time: Wheeler, Harper, Nola, Walker, Realmuto, Nick Castellanos, David Robertson and Kyle Schwarber.

“Say we only had Harper and J.T. — they’d be the guys (taken care of),” Sheridan said. “We have eight guys like that, so they have to try and take care of everybody with an extra locker, (location) in the corner, stuff like that.”

Sometimes road clubhouses are set up numerically. Those that have bigger lockers or prized locations will use service time to determine who goes where. That is the setup at Dodger Stadium, as the Phillies prepare for Game 3 of the NLDS. Harper and Robertson — the club’s players with the most service time — occupy corner lockers with extra space.

Robertson, who signed with the Phillies in July, was initially placed in a locker closer to the front of the home clubhouse. Then he arrived at Citizens Bank Park a few weeks ago and discovered he had been moved. His new locker is located next to a door on one side and an empty locker on the other. Robertson was given more space, Sheridan said, out of respect for his 15 years of service time.

There are 44 lockers in the Phillies’ clubhouse. When players are placed on the injured list, they typically keep their lockers. So, Sheridan has to figure out where to put players who are promoted — often placing them in lockers that other players used to hold extra belongings. As with locker assignments, service time determines which players he tells to remove items from empty lockers to make way for new players.

The corner lockers are coveted — a symbol of status, with an easier getaway to the private areas of the clubhouse at Citizens Bank Park. But many players aren’t picky.

“I love it,” Brandon Marsh said of his locker.

Why?

“Because it’s mine,” he said.

Friends are close, no matter the location. Still, there are pros and cons to various parts of the clubhouse. Matt Strahm is situated right by the bathroom doors. He likes being in the middle of the room to be near everyone, but not so much all of the coming and going near him.

Edmundo Sosa, center, who sits next to Weston Wilson in the clubhouse, likes being in the “center of attention,” near the TVs and games. (Emilee Chinn / Getty Images)

Edmundo Sosa, via team interpreter Diego D’Aniello, said he feels his locker, which is situated by the miniature golf and pingpong tables, is the best spot. He often chats with Weston Wilson, who has the locker next to him. They talk about routines, their similar roles off the bench, what being a first-time father is like.

“It’s kind of the center of attention,” Sosa said, “because right in front of me, the TVs are set up. So, we gather around there. We have to work a lot of hours, and we have to move around a lot. But we always find time to sit around each other and have a quick chat.”

Across the room, Tanner Banks is situated next to bullpen mate Orion Kerkering. As the rosters have expanded and players hit the IL at the end of the regular season, the spaces around them filled up.

“It’s not bad or good,” Banks said. “It’s just full. I don’t think it has a significant impact on anything.”

Banks, like other Phillies, often receives fan mail. One month into the season, a fan gave him some baseball cards. So, Banks gave one to Kerkering. It has not moved since May. Banks has bugged Kerkering to clean his locker, to no avail.

Brandon Marsh (right, with Jhoan Duran) isn’t picky about his locker assignment. “I love it,” he said of his spot, which is next to his housemate, Alec Bohm. (Patrick McDermott / Getty Images)

Players, prior to games, are often doing their own thing as they run through routines. Sudoku and crosswords are popular. They might take phone calls or scroll their phones at their lockers. The group of veterans in the back often joke about fantasy football and other sports. There is a basketball hoop, and a clubhouse TV was a casualty of players shooting hoops recently. It is the casual conversations, the moments passing by each other, of sharing the crossword answers, that bring a team closer together.

The same happens in visitors’ locker rooms, as the Phillies travel the country. Everyone has opinions on the best clubhouses. Nola likes Dodger Stadium, small though it may be, because the staff is great. Fenway Park is among his least favorites because it is cramped and old. Banks likes the recent upgrades at Rogers Centre and Progressive Field.

“Some places are nicer, more comfortable,” Banks said. “Some places are really cold, so it’s kind of like being hangry. You get people that are cold, so they’re kind of irritated. Some places are clean and new and spacious. Some places are old and small and they’re on top of each other. I mean, that kind of dictates the environment in the clubhouse.”

Whatever the atmosphere on the road during the season, the Phillies have the promise of returning to a home clubhouse. There they have their routines, know where everything is and have everything they need.

But, on the brink of elimination, nothing is guaranteed. Realmuto may not occupy that corner space at Citizens Bank Park. Suárez, another soon-to-be free agent, may not occupy his spot next to other pitchers in the front of the clubhouses. Players on one-year deals, like Robertson and Max Kepler, may not spend time at their lockers again. An offseason roster shakeup could alter the clubhouse’s look and feel in unforeseen ways.

Change is coming eventually, one way or another. But, however difficult it may seem at the moment, these Phillies could delay it.

They want to win on Wednesday and Thursday to force a Game 5 and get back to Citizens Bank Park. Back home, to their fans and the laughter and conversations and routines shared at their lockers.

This news was originally published on this post .

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