The Phillies’ bullpen has spent plenty of this season getting dragged through the mud by the schedule, but when the group is fresh, the ceiling looks a lot higher.
That was on display in the most recent win over the Minnesota Twins, a 7-5 comeback that started with Andrew Painter absorbing the early damage after a grand slam in the bottom of the first and still grinding through five innings. Philadelphia answered with a four-run sixth and a three-run eighth, but the comeback only had a chance because the relief work after Painter was sharp from top to bottom.
Tim Mayza, Orion Kerkering, Jonathan Bowlan and Duran handled the heavy lifting from there, and they did it cleanly. The four combined for four innings, gave up just one hit, walked two and piled up seven strikeouts. If Don Mattingly drew up the ideal path to the back end of the game, that’s about as close as it gets.
That kind of performance has not always been easy to find because the bullpen has been worn down at different points. A brutal run of 14 games in 14 days, with several extra-inning games mixed in, left the relief corps stretched thin.
Mattingly had to manage around real shortages, including Aug. 10 against the St. Louis Cardinals, when Andrew Painter, Alan Rangel and Jonathan Bowlan were the only arms available.
The group finally got a breather after a few strong starts from the rotation and an off day on Aug. 14, and the difference showed. When the bullpen is rested, there’s real bite here.
The front office tried to bolster the mix before the MLB trade deadline, bringing in right-handed pitcher Caleb Kilian and left-handed pitcher Brooks Raley. Kilian, though, landed on the injured list after his fourth appearance in six days. Raley, after a rough first outing, has settled in and given Mattingly another left-handed option in late-game spots.
There’s also another name to watch in Alex McFarlane. The right-hander is one of the organization’s top prospects and has the kind of stuff that plays in high-leverage innings, though Philadelphia is expected to bring him along carefully.
At full strength, this looks like a deep bullpen. Bowlan, Kerkering and Raley form a strong group in front of Duran, while Mayza, McFarlane, Chase Shugart and Jose Alvarado give the Phillies more quality depth behind them.
In Other News...
Alec Bohm Just Reopened A Phillies Question Fans Had Given Up On
Alec Bohms recent run at the plate has given Phillies fans something they had all but shelved for later in the summer: a reason to wonder if his season can still be salvaged. His overall OPS is still sitting below .700, but the improvement has been gradual enough to catch attention, and his showing in the recent series against the Twins added another layer to the conversation around a player who has spent much of the year trying to dig out of a difficult start.
The bigger question now is whether this is simply a hot stretch or the start of something more meaningful for a hitter the Phillies still need to keep developing. Bohm has put together a hitting streak and shown more consistent contact, which is enough to reopen a debate that had gone quiet among the fan base. For a team still weighing every answer it can get from the lineup, his bat suddenly feels worth watching again. [Read more 🡒]
Phillies Suddenly Have A Zack Wheeler Concern They Can't Ignore
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The timing matters because the Phillies have built so much of their confidence around Wheeler being the arm they can trust in any spot, especially as the schedule tightens and every series starts to carry more weight. His next turn comes August 18 against the Marlins at Citizens Bank Park, and for a pitcher of his stature, a cleaner outing would do more than calm nerves. It would help remind the team that one rough run has not changed the bigger picture. [Read more 🡒]
Phillies Farm System Concern Just Got More Complicated Fast
The Phillies minor league depth has been taking on more wear and tear for a while, and the latest rankings only sharpened the concern. After trading away prospects and promoting a pair of top 100 talents, Philadelphias system has slid from No. 20 to No. 26, a reminder that the organization has been willing to pay a farm-system price in its push to keep the big league club in contention under Dave Dombrowski.
There is still some talent worth tracking, with Gage Wood, Aidan Miller and Francisco Renteria among the names that matter most in the pipeline. Millers back injury has added a frustrating layer of uncertainty, though, because his development path is now less straightforward than it was a few months ago, and for a club already leaning hard into the present, every setback in the system makes the future a little harder to map. [Read more 🡒]