PHILADELPHIA \u2014 There\u2019s an irony to the ebb and flow of the Phillies bullpen if you only zoom out far enough to see it.<\/p>\n
Relief pitching was, for so many years, the limiting factor on the Phillies\u2019 playoff aspirations, even once they had begun to collect all-stars like J.T. Realmuto and Bryce Harper.<\/p>\n
In 2022, with the shape-shifting Ranger Suarez and a revitalized Zach Eflin, they figured it out until they didn\u2019t: Four different players recording postseason saves until Yordan Alvarez caught up to Jose Alvarado in Houston.<\/p>\n
Taking a cue from those shortcomings, the Phillies went out to get All-Stars Craig Kimbrel and Gregory Soto, then watched them, respectively, implode and become a non-factor by October 2023.<\/p>\n
Lesson learned. So the 2024 Phillies would develop talent internally, nurture a pair of shrewd acquisitions into All-Stars, augment it with one of the game\u2019s most fearsome lefties and then add an All-Star closer at the deadline.<\/p>\n
The result? Matt Strahm was bad in the playoffs. Alvarado was worse. Jeff Hoffman was unrecognizable. And Carlos Estevez shut the door in exactly the opposite way he was hired to.<\/p>\n
None of that directly impacts how the Phillies have built their bullpen in 2025, but then it can\u2019t help but exert some influence.<\/p>\n
The Phillies overinvested in the bullpen in 2024 only to see that unit betray them in the exact moments they were built for. The pendulum swung the other way this winter.<\/p>\n
Estevez and Hoffman reaped their riches elsewhere. Jordan Romano and Joe Ross masqueraded as significant additions. Don\u2019t worry about Strahm\u2019s fading velocity or the book being out on Orion Kerkering, or the need to grab Carlos Hernandez off the scrap heap just before the season started.<\/p>\n
And so a bullpen that was one right-handed arm short before Alvarado got popped for performance-enhancing drugs feels even more distant from its final form on June 1 than April 1, reason for concern no matter what the standings say.<\/p>\n
All that is too much to foist onto the shoulders of Taijuan Walker, who will move to the bullpen effective Sunday, duration unknown.<\/p>\n
Manager Rob Thomson doesn\u2019t want to keep yo-yoing the longtime starter on the fringes of the rotation. So Walker will head to the \u2018pen with an eye toward condensing his 217 career major league starts into a form amendable to getting three outs three times a week.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to see him in a one-inning stint and see what he can do,\u201d Thomson said Sunday.<\/p>\n
The Phillies have a glut of starting pitching and a dearth of relief.<\/p>\n
Mick Abel will fill Walker\u2019s starting spot Thursday in Toronto. The Phillies have four capable starters, plus the injured Aaron Nola, plus Abel, plus Andrew Painter once July arrives. That leaves no room for Walker.<\/p>\n
The best way to convert starting depth into relief help is via trade, but it\u2019s a one-way door. Abel may be too enticing for that, and Painter\u2019s value as a top prospect coming off Tommy John makes the Phillies reticent to alter his role.<\/p>\n
So, Walker will at least have the first chance at owning a bigger role.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s a pro. He really is,\u201d Thomson said. \u201cI\u2019m sure he\u2019s not 100 percent happy. I think he still thinks of himself as a starter, but he\u2019s a pro. I think he\u2019s a guy that\u2019ll do anything to help the team.\u201d<\/p>\n
Walker has started 217 of his 227 appearances in 13 major league seasons. He started six times this season when Suarez was hurt to an ERA under 3, then moved to the bullpen for two three-inning relief appearances, then returned to the rotation in place of Nola. He threw four innings on Friday and should be ready to relieve by Tuesday or Wednesday in Toronto.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s never worked on a reliever\u2019s schedule, and Thomson anticipates it\u2019ll take some three-day and two-day rests to acclimate to the workload. A fastball averaging 92.3 miles per hour this year could see some improvement in shorter bursts, and his six-pitch mix could be sharpened for shorter outings, with more play on a potentially elite splitter.<\/p>\n
The Phillies need the help. Their most reliable reliever just got his ERA out of the 8s. Jose Ruiz, DFAed on Sunday, joined the lengthy list of relievers who couldn\u2019t parlay one successful season into more (move over Connor Brogdon and Andrew Bellatti).<\/p>\n
Ruiz had been a candidate to fill the third right-handed spot behind Romano and Kerkering. But an 8.16 ERA failed that examination. Now it\u2019s Walker\u2019s turn.<\/p>\n
Sunday\u2019s decisions serve two purposes.<\/p>\n
The Phillies need relief help at the trade deadline, but it\u2019s unrealistic to think they\u2019ll land more than two guys worthy of a postseason roster. If Walker can be a competent reliever, maybe they only need one. He\u2019s auditioning for that job, as is Seth Johnson, as is Max Lazar.<\/p>\n
A four-man postseason rotation would turn two starters into relievers, possibly Suarez to reinforce the left side and Painter the right.<\/p>\n
Giving Walker a month in the bullpen not only kills more time on his four-year, $72-million contract, but it helps the Phillies evaluate internal options before dipping into the market.<\/p>\n
The side effect is to boost Abel\u2019s trade value as trade bait or to get him used to the bigs and comfortable enough to possibly shift him into a relief role.<\/p>\n
The questions are clear, if tricky. The Phillies have two months to try out the answers.<\/p>\n
Contact Matthew De George at mdegeorge@delcotimes.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHILADELPHIA \u2014 There\u2019s an irony to the ebb and flow of the Phillies bullpen if you only zoom…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":72748,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2397],"tags":[5,4,144,25,4216,40,185,9898],"class_list":{"0":"post-72747","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia-phillies","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-mlb","10":"tag-philadelphia","11":"tag-philadelphia-phillies","12":"tag-philadelphiaphillies","13":"tag-phillies","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-top-stories-dtd"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/114611875087152137","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72747","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=72747"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72747\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72748"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72747"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72747"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72747"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}