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Right now, the million-dollar question in Major League Baseball isn’t whether or not the Yankees will make the playoffs (unless a meteor takes out our planet, yes, they will) or if the A’s are moving out of Oakland (when and where, not if) but what is going on with the Phillies bullpen? In a season that’s nearly half over, the dismal weakness of the Fighting Phils bullpen looks like the Liberty Bell is about to crack yet again.
The ineffectual efforts by the Phillies bullpen staff and how they’ve been used so far this season already cost Joe Girardi his job as manager. Yes, Girardi probably brought some of that on himself with bad decisions or no decisions at all. One of Girardi’s most controversial decisions that came back to haunt him was his desire to not overuse relievers by having them throw on more than two days in a row. Seriously? I remember watching Mariano Rivera, the Sandman himself, pitch nearly every single night to close out games in all those years the Yankees were dominant in the Jeter era. Nobody ever questions the resting of starting pitchers or a five-man rotation or pulling starters out after a certain pitch count or whatever other combination a manager wants to use with his pitching staff. The purpose of a bullpen is to have a steady flow of pitchers who can pitch night after night to close out an inning or two or finish off the ninth inning and preserve a win.
As of the writing of this article, the Phillies are 37-34 and lurking around the edge of a wild card spot if the season ended tomorrow. If the Phills get to the postseason, it probably won’t’ be due to the bullpen staff but in spite of them. As things stand now, the Phillies have nine blown saves so far this season (14th in the MLB) along with a bullpen ERA of 4.22 (20th) and 121 bullpen issued walks (28th.) Good grief, it does get worse . . .the Phillies bullpen staff have a strikeout/walk ratio of 2.06 which puts them in at 29th in the big leagues. Ok, statistics aside, who will the Phillies interim manager move into a steady closer position to help finish out close games?
We now know that it probably won’t be Corey Knebel. Knebel is the worst offender on the Phils pitching staff and has given up 14 runs in 23 separate ninth inning appearances. Knebel is languishing with a 2-5 record in 29 game appearances and in 28 innings pitched, he’s given up 17 runs (albeit only 11 have been earned runs – thank you infield errors.) Knebel’s ERA is 3.49 which is high for a starting pitcher but he’s a closer – or he was in the past tense. With a 1.52 WHIP, Knebel’s straw that broke the camel’s back was his blown save in an 11-9 loss to the Marlins that was wrapped up when he entered the game.
If you identify a problem, you have to come up with a solution. The Phillies under Rob Thompson have two viable options in the closer position. One possible choice is to lean on righty Connor Brogdon more. Brogdon does have a 2-0 record with three holds and no saves so far this season. However, Brogdon has been effective in his 17 innings of work by giving up only five walks as opposed to 21 punch outs and has a WHIP of 1.13.
More than likely, the new Phillies closer role is landing in the lap of Seranthony Dominguez. Dominguez is coming off of Tommy John surgery from last year and boasts a 4-1 record with no saves due to his use in a mop-up role under Joe Girardi. In 26 innings of work, Dominguez has shined with a walk/strikeout ratio of 1:5 and his WHIP of 0.86 which means he has been taking care of business on the mound for the Phillies. More than likely going down the stretch, Rob Thompson will come to lean on Seranthony Dominguez more and use Connor Brogdon as a backup closer or an eighth inning set-up pitcher for Dominguez.
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