{"id":668880,"date":"2026-04-07T18:22:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T18:22:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/668880\/"},"modified":"2026-04-07T18:22:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T18:22:13","slug":"phillies-bullpen-getting-return-of-relief-pitcher","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/668880\/","title":{"rendered":"Phillies Bullpen Getting Return Of Relief Pitcher"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Philadelphia Phillies bullpen is getting a boost with the return of Orion Kerkering from the 15-day injured list. Kerkering recorded a 2.25 ERA and a 0.98 FIP in four minor league rehab appearances for Triple-A Lehigh Valley. In addition to that Kerkering had a 0.75 WHIP and a 5.00 K\/BB rate. Kerkering returns from the injured list before Zack Wheeler who is also expected to return<\/a> in April. The Phillies will have to make another 26-man roster decision when Wheeler is activated. Currently the Phillies have a full 40-man roster. That could change when Wheeler returns because of the corresponding move to this transaction to activate Kerkering.<\/p>\n

Kyle Backhus has been optioned to Triple-A Lehigh Valley to make room for Kerkering on the 26-man roster. While Backhus had an excellent spring training he got off to a slow start in the regular season. Backhus has multiple minor league option years available which likely played a role in the decision as well. In four regular season outings Backhus has a 9.00 ERA and a 5.84 FIP along with a 1.67 WHIP and a 4.00 K\/BB rate. Backhus and Tim Mayza were competing to be the third left-handed relief pitcher<\/a> but both made the team due to the injury to Kerkering. Mayza has no minor league options. To add to that Mayza has a 0.00 ERA and a 1.32 FIP with a 0.29 WHIP as well as a 8.00 K\/BB rate in five outings this year.<\/p>\n

\"\"Sep 14, 2025; Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher Kyle Backhus (43) pitches to Minnesota Twins first base Kody Clemens (18) in the ninth inning at Target Field. Mandatory Credit: Matt Blewett-Imagn Images
\nPhillies Bullpen Return
\nChange In Balance<\/p>\n

The Phillies now have three left-handed relief pitchers<\/a> instead of four in their bullpen. Mayza is joined by Jos\u00e9 Alvarado and Tanner Banks. Furthermore the Phillies have five right-handed relief pitchers instead of four in their bullpen. Jonathan Bowlan and Zach Pop move into lower leverage roles with Kerkering returning. The Phillies bullpen will return to a more traditional split and that could be helpful for the team. It will allow for more favorable matchups because of there being less of a need for one of the left-handed relief pitchers to face multiple right-handed hitters in an inning. Regardless of what the corresponding move ended up being the Phillies bullpen improves by getting Kerkering back in the mix.<\/p>\n

Role Adjustment For Kerkering Relative To Last Season<\/p>\n

With Brad Keller signing a multi-year free agent deal<\/a> this offseason the Phillies are giving Kerkering a lower leverage role. Keller is the primary right-handed setup man while Alvarado is the primary left-handed setup man. Kerkering took a step back in 2025 after a stellar 2024. In 2024 Kerkering had a 2.29 ERA and a 2.42 FIP with a 4.35 K\/BB rate. For comparison in 2025 Kerkering recorded a 3.30 ERA and a 3.82 FIP with a 2.41 K\/BB rate. Kerkering pitched five more high leverage innings in 2025 than he did in 2024. Kerkering had a 3.42 ERA and a 1.25 WHIP with 116 batters faced in the eighth inning of games last season compared to a 0.84 ERA and a 0.94 WHIP with 43 batters faced in the eighth inning of games in 2024.<\/p>\n

Credit Image: \u00a9 PI via ZUMA Press Wire<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Philadelphia Phillies bullpen is getting a boost with the return of Orion Kerkering from the 15-day injured…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":668881,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2397],"tags":[5,7798,13041,1104,4,4681,144,25,4216,40,9681,364,23295,117],"class_list":{"0":"post-668880","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia-phillies","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-brad-keller","10":"tag-jonathan-bowlan","11":"tag-jose-alvarado","12":"tag-mlb","13":"tag-orion-kerkering","14":"tag-philadelphia","15":"tag-philadelphia-phillies","16":"tag-philadelphiaphillies","17":"tag-phillies","18":"tag-tanner-banks","19":"tag-tim-mayza","20":"tag-zach-pop","21":"tag-zack-wheeler"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116364821640166316","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/668880","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=668880"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/668880\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/668881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=668880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=668880"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=668880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}