The Phillies enter the offseason with something most clubs would love to have locked in already: a starting rotation that looks set for 2027.
Cristopher Sanchez, Jesus Luzardo, Zack Wheeler, Aaron Nola and Andrew Painter give Philadelphia a strong foundation, and if Nola and Painter can stay close to the level they showed over the final weeks of the 2026 regular season, the group could belong in the conversation for baseball’s best rotation.
That doesn’t mean the work is done. The one area the Phillies have to shore up is starting-pitching depth, because the last two seasons have shown how quickly that can become a problem.
In 2025, Philadelphia had to turn to Walker Buehler after he was released by the Boston Red Sox, bringing him in to help cover for Wheeler after Wheeler was sidelined by a blood clot and venous thoracic outlet syndrome.
This past summer brought another scramble. Jose Urquidy was signed after the Chicago White Sox released him, and he was used to soak up innings after Luzardo’s injury. Urquidy made two appearances in September.
The Phillies also added Nestor Cortes on a Major League deal in August, though his time with the organization never reached the big leagues. He made three appearances with Triple-A Lehigh Valley, which only reinforced how thin the club’s depth can get behind the main rotation.
That is not a formula Philadelphia can keep relying on. The organization has gotten by with veteran stopgaps, but it is not a sustainable way to survive a season, and Dave Dombrowski knows it.
“It’s not starting pitching. It’s starting-pitching depth,” he said, via Cole Weintraub of NBC Sports Philadelphia. “We’ll get some more starting-pitching depth.”
What the Phillies need now is a pitcher who can step into a start when the schedule or the injuries demand it. That job was handled by Alan Rangel and Brian Keller, with both working behind an opener in Tim Mayza.
A useful model for what Philadelphia should be seeking is Spencer Turnbull, who filled in for Taijuan Walker in 2024 and then moved back to the bullpen once Walker was healthy.
That kind of swingman is the type of arm the Phillies need, especially after how shaky the starting depth was at Lehigh Valley. Cortes could still be an option if he comes back healthy, but the expectation is that Dombrowski will add at least one or two pitchers to help stabilize that part of the staff.
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Ward also comes with the kind of background teams have to weigh carefully. He has shown he can drive the ball, but his career has included injury interruptions, including a facial injury in 2023 and a quad injury in 2026, so any pursuit would come with the usual reclamation-project questions. Still, for a Phillies team looking for value and upside in the same player, he checks enough boxes to stay in the conversation while the front office sorts out what kind of move makes the most sense. [Read more 🡒]