It’s too early to make a huge move, but here are some external possibilities if the Phils need new blood.
It’s not too soon to start making some moves.
The Phillies have a bullpen problem and, more specifically, a right-handed bullpen problem. After allowing Jeff Hoffman and Carlos Estevez to leave in free agency, Dave Dombrowski pivoted to Jordan Romano, who was coming off a down season and an elbow injury after being one of the game’s best closers from 2021-23, and asked Orion Kerkering and Jose Ruiz to take on more prominent and important roles in the back of the bullpen.
Through 25 games, it’s been a disaster.
Entering their weekend series with the Cubs at Wrigley Field, Phillies’ right-handed relievers have a combined ERA of 7.96, the worst in baseball. And they’re coming by it honestly, too.
The combination of Romano, Kerkering, Ruiz, Joe Ross and Carlos Hernandez have combined to strike out a league-low 16.5% of batters while walking 11.2%, 9th-highest in MLB. Opposing hitters are batting .306 against them, again, the worst mark in baseball, and have allowed 10 home runs. Only the Marlins and Reds’ righties have allowed more. They’ve also accounted for six blown saves in the first 25 games.
No matter how you slice it, the Phils’ right-handed relief pitching has been dreadful.
Help is urgently needed, so what help potentially exists outside the organization? Certainly there are players in the high minors with other franchises that could be of interest to the Phils, but we won’t dive into those millions of possibilities here, and it’s too early in the season to make a big splash for an elite closer like the Cardinals’ Ryan Helseley or even the Nationals’ Kyle Finnegan that would require the Phillies to give up one of Aiden Miller, Justin Crawford or Andrew Painter or some other prized top prospect.
So, here are six candidates I think could be useful right now for the Phils to pursue that wouldn’t cost them the farm.
Dennis Santana – Pittsburgh Pirates
The guy at the top of my wish list at the moment is the Pirates’ current closer, a player whose talents and skills really aren’t of use to a going nowhere team like Pittsburgh. In 12 appearances and 11 1⁄3 innings he has a 1.59 ERA and a 2.59 FIP. He’s getting good results but isn’t striking a lot of guys out, just 16.7% on the young season, down from 24.0% a year ago, but he was effective last year after coming to the Pirates from the Yankees, seeing his ERA drop from 6.26 in 23 games for New York to 2.44 in 39 appearances for the Pirates. He saw his K/9 jump from 6.3 with the Yankees to 10.2 with Pittsburgh.
Phil Maton – St. Louis Cardinals
Depending on how the Cardinals’ season progresses, it would make sense for St. Louis to shop the veteran right-hander. Now 32, he has appeared in 13 games and allowed a 3.09 ERA in 11 2⁄3 innings. Unlike the players listed above, Maton has much better command, with a 4.3% walk rate and 31.9% strikeout rate. He throws four pitchers (cutter, slider, sinker and curve) and does a decent job keeping hitters off-balance.
Jake Bird – Colorado Rockies
The Rockies might be willing to sell high on Bird, a sinker-balling right-hander that is off to a terrific start. Bird has seen a remarkable jump in his strikeout rate this year, 33.3%, up from his career 20.2%. His walk rate remains a concern, 17.6% in the early going, but he’s managed a 1.42 ERA and 2.47 FIP in nine games and 12 2⁄3 innings this season. He’s getting hitters to pound the ball into the ground at a rate of 60.0%, tied for 14th among 147 qualified right-handed relievers.
Justin Lawrence – Pittsburgh Pirates
Fangraphs’ Michael Baumann recently wrote about the 30-year-old right-hander, who has had an inconsistent career, if we’re being polite. He spent his first four years in Colorado and, last season, put up a 6.49 ERA in 56 appearances with a -0.8 fWAR. His best season was in ‘23, when he had an ERA of 3.72 in 69 games. Like Bird, Lawrence has seen an uptick in his strikeout rate, 34.1% this season, up from 16.1% a year ago, while walking 13.6% of batters. He’s a side-armer who throws a 95 mph sinker with a low-80s sweeper with lots of horizontal movement, and added a four-seam fastball to his repertoire this off-season, making his other pitches play up a bit.
Justin Sterner – Sacramento Athletics
Sterner is a 28-year-old rookie whose MLB career consists of two games with the Rays at the end of last season. But after a red-hot spring, Sterner is throwing well for the A’s, yet to allow a run in 11 1⁄3 innings with a 31.8% K-rate. Like Lawrence and Bird, he will give up the free pass, about 13.6% of the time, but he’s allowing a batting average against of .132 with a 0.97 WHIP thus far. He’s not a hard thrower, averaging just 93.5 mph on his fastball, with a cutter and slider to go with it. He’s not someone you want closing games, but he might be another good depth piece if you’re tired of watching Jose Ruiz.
Ronny Henriquez – Miami Marlins
DFA’d by the Twins at the start of the off-season, the 25-year-old throws a hard, mid-90s fastball with a slider and changeup. In nine appearances and 12 innings, he has an ERA of 1.50 and has seen his strikeout rate jump from 18.3% last season to 25.9% this year. Unfortunately, the walk rate has also ballooned, from 6.1% to 14.8%, one reason why his FIP is 4.08 and his xERA is 3.39. Still, he’s allowing a .200 batting average against and has been adept at stranding runners thus far.