{"id":130256,"date":"2025-06-25T15:38:10","date_gmt":"2025-06-25T15:38:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/130256\/"},"modified":"2025-06-25T15:38:10","modified_gmt":"2025-06-25T15:38:10","slug":"dombrowski-phillies-focused-on-bullpen-help","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/130256\/","title":{"rendered":"Dombrowski: Phillies Focused On Bullpen Help"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Phillies enter deadline season as clear buyers, sitting atop the NL East with a 47-32 record \u2014 the third-best record of any club in the game. It\u2019s a familiar refrain, but president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski made clear this week in interviews with Daniel Alvarez Montes of El Extrabase<\/a> and Jayson Stark of The Athletic<\/a> that his focus will be on adding to the bullpen.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur starting pitching\u2019s so good,\u201d Dombrowski told Alvarez Montes. \u201cWhen [Bryce] Harper<\/a> comes back, our lineup is in pretty good shape at that time. It\u2019s probably bullpen is our biggest focus.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dombrowski offered similar sentiments in his chat with Stark and podcast co-host Doug Glanville, though he expanded a bit deeper. While the Phils clearly have a need for some relief help, The longtime baseball ops leader reminded that lefty Jos\u00e9 Alvarado<\/a> will be back for the end of the regular season, which will be a boost to the team\u2019s bullpen. Because Alvarado is serving an 80-game PED ban<\/a>, he\u2019s ineligible for this year\u2019s postseason, but Dombrowski noted that his club will likely shift multiple members of its vaunted rotation into the \u2019pen for the postseason, just as one of his former teams \u2014 the 2018 Red Sox \u2014 did to great effect when plugging Nathan Eovaldi<\/a> and David Price<\/a> into the playoff bullpen.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not to say the Phillies won\u2019t go out and add a bullpen arm (or perhaps even two). Dombrowski is nothing if not aggressive and straightforward when his team has a need. He emphasized to Stark and Glanville that winning opportunities only come around so often and should not be taken for granted, even if it means \u201cyou may give up a little more than you would want to in other circumstances.\u201d<\/p>\n

[Related: Philadelphia Phillies Trade Deadline Outlook<\/a>]<\/p>\n

Dombrowski pointed back to his 2022 trade of righty Ben Brown<\/a> to Chicago in exchange for David Robertson<\/a> as one such example, noting that it was a painful decision that was made out of what he believed to be strong pitching depth in the system and a major league roster that was capable of making a deep postseason run. Brown, 22 at the time, was ranked as the Phillies\u2019 No. 7 prospect at Baseball America and was ready for a bump from High-A to Double-A. Robertson was a pure rental but in the midst of a terrific rebound season for the Cubs. He went on to pitch well for the Phils down the stretch and into the postseason. Brown was in the majors less than two years after the trade. He\u2019s struggled in 2025 (and was optioned yesterday<\/a>) but pitched quite well for Chicago last year and is still viewed as a viable long-term member of the pitching staff.<\/p>\n

Phillies relievers currently rank 25th in the majors with a 4.63 ERA. They\u2019re slightly better when it comes to FIP (4.24, 22nd) and SIERA (3.78, 15th). The Philadelphia bullpen has a 22.2% strikeout rate that\u2019s right in line with the 22.4% league-average for relievers, and their 8.8% walk rate is a bit shy of the 9.4% league-average mark. However, the group has been far too homer-prone overall, sitting with a 1.29 HR\/9 mark that is tied for the second-worst mark in the majors.<\/p>\n

The Phillies have gotten generally good work from Matt Strahm<\/a>, Orion Kerkering<\/a>, Tanner Banks<\/a> and (before he was suspended) Alvarado. Offseason signee Jordan Romano<\/a> struggled considerably in the season\u2019s first month but has posted a 2.95 ERA with a huge 35.6% strikeout rate and 9.6% walk rate over the past two months. Taijuan Walker<\/a>, moved from the rotation to the bullpen, has shown flashes of excellence \u2014 he tossed three scoreless innings of one-hit ball and fanned seven Rays in a relief outing back in May, for instance \u2014 but has been inconsistent and stumbled as of late.<\/p>\n

Stark did touch on other topics with Dombrowski, notably wondering whether the Phillies might be open to moving Harper back to the outfield if the opportunity to acquire a right-handed-hitting first baseman presented itself. The Phillies\u2019 president declined to speak in absolutes but said he would strongly prefer not to do so, citing Harper\u2019s defensive acumen at first base. In more general terms, Dombrowski downplayed the possibility of adding a bat in any capacity, pointing to previous trade deadlines where he\u2019s promoted players from the farm rather than make an outside acquisition. Twenty-five-year-old Otto Kemp<\/a>, who hit .313\/.416\/.594 in Triple-A before a recent promotion to the majors, is currently getting a look and was mentioned specifically by Dombrowski.<\/p>\n

Dombrowski also spoke in broad terms about hoping to re-sign Kyle Schwarber<\/a> and J.T. Realmuto<\/a> after the season, as both are up for free agency this winter. Phillies fans, in particular, will want to check out both interviews, which clock in around six minutes (Alvarez Montes) and 30 minutes (Stark\/Glanville) in length.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Phillies enter deadline season as clear buyers, sitting atop the NL East with a 47-32 record \u2014…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":130257,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[5,1207,113,81,4,5162],"class_list":{"0":"post-130256","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-bryce-harper","10":"tag-j-t-realmuto","11":"tag-kyle-schwarber","12":"tag-mlb","13":"tag-otto-kemp"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/114744754552207000","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130256","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=130256"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130256\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/130257"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=130256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=130256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=130256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}