Maybe Orion Kerkering’s time with the Phillies is already running out.
What happened Saturday night in a 10-3 loss to the lowly New York Mets only sharpened that feeling. Kerkering was charged with four earned runs in one inning, allowing four hits, a hit batter, two walks and a wild pitch.
The stuff is still there. The command isn’t.
And at this point, the Phillies can’t keep pretending otherwise.
That outing pushed the club to make a move after the game. Philadelphia optioned Kerkering to Lehigh Valley and recalled right-hander Max Lazar from Triple-A before Sunday’s game against the Mets.
The Phillies also sounded concerned about where Kerkering stands mentally. Don Mattingly, speaking after the loss, said: “Yeah, a little bit.
Yeah. So I’d say … high.
You know, a pretty high degree of worry about him.” A few minutes later, he met with Kerkering behind a closed office door.
That worry makes sense. Kerkering has been in the Phillies’ bullpen since the final week of the 2023 regular season, but recent weeks made it hard to trust him in any meaningful spot. Even when he was on the roster, he was no longer part of the pitching plan in a real way.
There was a time this season when his numbers gave the Phillies reason to keep believing. In the first half, Kerkering posted a 2.43 ERA with a 1.162 WHIP across 37 innings.
That was a solid return for a pitcher the team was still trying to figure out after last season. But after the All-Star break, everything fell apart.
His ERA jumped to 9.43 and his WHIP climbed to 1.952 in just 21 innings.
He earned high-leverage chances because of that first-half performance, but he couldn’t handle them. When the Phillies tried moving him back into the middle innings, he still couldn’t find the version of himself they had seen earlier in the year.
That’s what makes this feel so bleak for Philadelphia. The bullpen problems go well beyond Kerkering, but he was part of the chain reaction on Saturday night that let the game slip away before the offense had any real chance to respond.
The Phillies were down 6-3 when his inning began, and a three- or four-run burst still felt possible. Instead, the Mets stretched the lead to seven, and the comeback window slammed shut.
Kerkering has been getting hit by soft contact that keeps dropping in, but once the trouble starts, it snowballs. One mistake turns into three or four.
That’s the part the Phillies can’t live with, because a good reliever has to steady himself when things go sideways. Kerkering has not been able to do that.
A change of scenery may be the best outcome for both sides. The Phillies may not want to wait around for him to sort it out in the minors next season, and they may not feel like they can afford to. There’s a real chance they’d rather enter next season with a bullpen that feels settled instead of one carrying more uncertainty.
A trade this offseason now looks much more likely than it did a few months ago, and he probably wouldn’t bring back much. It would also not be a shock to see him thrive somewhere else.
That happens more often than the clean, feel-good turnaround fans hope for. After Saturday, it would be a surprise to see Kerkering still wearing a Phillies uniform in 2027.
In Other News...
Phillies Have A Growing 2027 Roster Problem Fans Can See Coming
The Phillies have spent much of this season trying to balance a win-now roster with the reality that the back end of the roster does not always age gracefully. That tension is starting to show when you look ahead to 2027, where a few familiar names could be facing a much shakier path to staying in Philadelphia if their current trends continue.
Catching depth is part of the issue, with Rafael Marchn and Garrett Stubbs both coming off declining production, while Orion Kerkerings struggles have complicated his standing even as his trade value remains a real factor. The left-handed relief group has also been uneven, as Tanner Banks and Jos Alvarado have not delivered the kind of consistency the Phillies would want, and Brandon Marshs downturn only adds to the sense that some roster decisions may be getting harder before long. [Read more 🡒]
Phillies Suddenly Have A Big Jess Luzardo Decision Ahead
Jess Luzardos path back to the Phillies took another step forward this week, as the left-hander has been cleared to begin a throwing program after landing on the injured list with shoulder stiffness. The absence cost him starts and forced Philadelphia to manage its rotation without one of its more interesting arms, but the encouraging part is that his recovery is moving in the right direction and a return later in the season remains on the table.
What comes next may matter just as much as the comeback itself. The Phillies are weighing whether Luzardo should re-enter the mix as a starter or slide into a relief role when hes ready, a decision that could shape both the rotation and bullpen down the stretch. For a club trying to sort out every meaningful inning, the way they handle him could become one of the more quietly important calls of the second half. [Read more 🡒]
Brandon Marsh Has Become A Huge Phillies Problem At Worst Time
Brandon Marshs season has taken a sharp turn in the second half, and the timing has made his slump a real issue for the Phillies. Before the All-Star break, he was giving them the kind of steady production that made his spot in the lineup feel secure, hitting .301 with an .829 OPS and looking like a dependable presence in the outfield.
Since then, the numbers have fallen off hard, with a .179 average and a .474 OPS over 56 games, and Philadelphias offensive problems have only grown around it. For a team trying to get its bats lined up for the stretch run, Marshs slide has become more than an individual rough patch - its one of the problems the Phillies have had to keep working around. [Read more 🡒]