The Phillies needed help in the bullpen, and Tuesday brought a move they’d been waiting on.
After a taxing stretch that included a brutal series against the Toronto Blue Jays, Philadelphia had leaned on Andrew Painter, Alan Rangel and Jonathan Bowlan just to get through Monday’s game against the St. Louis Cardinals. That kind of workload doesn’t solve much for a bullpen already stretched thin, so the club went back to Triple-A and made the call on a reliever prospect who has been knocking on the door.
According to Todd Zolecki of MLB.com, the Phillies recalled right-hander Alex McFarlane from Triple-A and optioned Rangel.
"The Phillies recalled RHP Alex McFarlane from Triple-A," Zolecki reports. "RHP Alan Rangel optioned."
The move makes sense on a practical level. Rangel had already handled multiple innings Monday night, which meant he wasn’t likely to be used out of the bullpen for a bit anyway. McFarlane, meanwhile, gives Philadelphia a fresh arm with real upside.
The 25-year-old has put together a strong year across Double-A and Triple-A, posting a 1.83 ERA in 36 appearances. His Triple-A work stands out in particular: in four outings with Lehigh Valley, he threw 4.1 scoreless innings and struck out eight. He also already has one major league appearance on his resume, a scoreless inning with no strikeouts.
That combination of power and results is what makes McFarlane such an intriguing option for the Phillies right now. With an elite fastball and a strong run of production behind him, he arrives as another possible answer for a bullpen that badly needs one.
He could even end up filling the kind of role Orion Kerkering did in 2023, when Kerkering debuted late in the year and helped the Phillies during their postseason push.
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Harpers return to right field has already come with a health concern, and the timing only sharpens the scrutiny on the rest of the arrangement. Bohm, meanwhile, remains entrenched in the middle of the order even though the production has not followed, leaving the Phillies with a spot that is both awkward defensively and underwhelming offensively. For a team trying to sort out its post-deadline shape, that is the kind of problem that can linger if the answers do not start coming soon. [Read more 🡒]
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McFarlane, in particular, has turned enough heads with his work between Triple-A and Double-A to land on the radar for a possible major league look, especially with bullpen injuries creating openings. The Phillies have reason to monitor him closely now, because the path from depth piece to real option can open fast once the big league relief corps starts thinning out. And while Parras rise is a story in its own right, the more immediate question is which arm Philadelphia trusts next if it needs help sooner rather than later. [Read more 🡒]