Bullpen issues continue for Phillies
Relief corps still source of frustration, contributing to demoralizing loss
It stands to reason, with Bryce Harper scheduled for thumb surgery Wednesday, that a popular talking point is whether the Phillies will be able to make a trade to boost the offense in the MVP’s absence.
But let’s not forget the Phillies’ biggest need: the bullpen.
Now and always, it seems, the Phillies are a few relievers short of a reliable late-inning crew. The reminders are frequent. Whether it’s deposed closer Corey Knebel getting the seventh inning instead of the ninth, or journeyman Andrew Bellatti coming into the eighth inning of a tie game, the bullpen is an ever-present weakness.
Bellatti took a turn on the firing line Tuesday night. Two days after picking up his first career save — in his hometown of San Diego, no less — he gave up Matt Olson’s tie-breaking line drive into the bleachers in right-center field in a 5-3 loss to the Atlanta Braves in the opener of a pivotal three-game series.
One inning earlier, Kyle Schwarber tied it with a long home run into the shrubbery in center field and brought the announced crowd of 27,725 to life at Citizens Bank Park. But Olson’s homer let all the air out.
That’s what the Phillies’ bullpen does. Deflating is its specialty.
It’s an important week for the Phillies, who are still adjusting to life without Harper — for six weeks, at least, or however long it takes for him to achieve his vow of playing again this season. They are chasing Atlanta, both in the division and the wild card. And when the Braves leave town, the St. Louis Cardinals — also in the wild-card mix — will pay a visit.
Schwarber tried his darndest to carry the offense, a la Harper. In the waning days of June, his favorite month on the baseball calendar, he extended his on-base streak to 31 games, the longest by a Phillies hitter since Chase Utley’s 35-gamer in 2006, by working an eight-pitch leadoff walk in the first inning against Braves starter
market for J.T. Realmuto? Who is starting at first base two years from now? Is there a way to inject some quality near-major-leagueready pitching talent into the minor league system? Does it make sense for Harper to come back at all, or should he pour all of his effort into repairing the elbow injury that has relegated him to DH duty for much of the season?
The clock on these and other questions officially started on Saturday night, when Harper was hit on the thumb by a pitch in a
4-2 win over the Padres. While the Phillies did not put a timetable on their superstar’s return when announcing that he would undergo surgery to stabilize his thumb, the layoff is more likely to be in multiples of months not weeks.
They’ll need much less time than that to figure out how to proceed.
The Phillies’ series opener against the Braves on Tuesday was the start of a crucial stretch that will see them play 12 out of 15 games against teams that entered the day at least eight games over .500. That includes 10 games against the Braves and Cardinals, both of whom are ahead of them in the NL wild-card standings.
“We plan on being in the mix,” Thomson said.
There’s nothing wrong with hope as long as it does not become a currency. Even with Harper, the Phillies were a baseball team whose flaws were so fundamental that you had to wonder whether they could afford to prioritize the present at the Aug. 2 MLB trade deadline. The pitching situation is not one of those things that can be rectified cheaply. Matt Moore and Ian Kennedy did not cut it last season. Their 2022 equivalents won’t fare any differently.
The Phillies are at least two shutdown innings a night away from being a team that inspires any degree of confidence for the stretch run and beyond. That could take a number of different forms: a playoff-worthy
starter plus a legit high-leverage arm, a couple of high-leverage arms plus a back-of-therotation piece ... mix and match all you want.
The fact of the matter is, the Phillies are expecting to send Bailey Falter out to the mound at least twice in the next 10 days as Zach
Eflin attempts to recover from his latest bout of knee soreness. In 53⅔ innings in the majors, Falter has allowed 34 runs and 10 home runs, including 13 and five in 20 innings this season. Whenever Eflin returns, he’ll be riding a stretch of six starts in which he has allowed 18 runs in 31 innings. Combine that with Kyle Gibson’s current trend toward regression — the veteran righty has allowed 17 runs in 26⅓ innings in his last five starts after entering June with a 3.83 ERA — and there are plenty of red flags.
Eflin, Gibson, Ranger Suárez — that’s a back of the rotation that needs good
backup. The Phillies don’t have it, and the only place they might potentially find it is the trade market. That’s a dangerous position to be in for a team that is hovering around .500 and just lost its MVP.
As for the loss of that MVP, it’s worth considering just how much the Phillies are losing. Heading into Tuesday, the Phillies had won 17 of 23 games since Thomson replaced Joe Girardi on the bench. In those 23 games, the Phillies scored 122 runs, an average of 5.3 per game. Of those 122 runs, Harper was responsible for scoring or driving in 26, an average of 1.13 per game that grows to 1.37 when you account for the fact that he did not play in four games. He reached base 35 times, hit five home runs, and walked as many times as he struck out (11).
Obviously, the best-case scenario is for the Phillies to continue to win games at a 17-of-23 clip for as long as Harper is sidelined. Anything short of that, and the focus should turn to 2023.