August 10, 2026
Eric Hartline/Imagn Images via Reuters Connect
Phillies closer Jhoan Duran can't possibly do it all by himself.
It only feels like the Phillies bullpen has been worse since the All-Star break.
But even if they're not in actuality that much worse now than they have been at any other point this season, they're the main thing holding back a team dead set on making a deep playoff run.
Over the last 22 games since the break, a stretch during which the Phillies have gone a mediocre 8-14, the pen has been completely clean and effective in a game just eight times. That leaves the other 64% of games with blemishes, blown leads and blown saves. The bullpen ERA since July 16 is 4.48, which actually isn't much worse than the 4.41 ERA the unit has for the entire season.
The pen has been consistently unreliable. It's been consistently volatile. It's the wrong kind of consistency.
Knowing they needed to address a weak spot, the Phillies did try to upgrade the relief corps last week. They traded for lefty specialist Brooks Raley — who blew a save against Washington last week – and Caleb Kilian, who may have pulled his oblique this weekend and could be back on the injured list.
Add that duo to José Alvarado, who gave up the lead in a loss to the Blue Jays on Saturday and Orion Kerkering, who blew a save on Sunday before the offense bailed him out in extras, and you have a bullpen with lots and lots of problems.
Going back a bit further, even All-Star closer Jhoan Duran has been shaky, blowing a save on July 27th after five other relievers pitched clean innings before he did.
According to some numbers shared by beat writer Todd Zolecki, "the Phillies' bullpen has a 5.51 ERA and five saves in 12 opportunities since June 26. It has a 5.26 ERA and no saves in three opportunities in the last five games."
It sort of feels like it's the exception, not the rule these days when the Phillies bullpen is successful.
Playing 32 innings of baseball in humid 90-degree weather over a three-day stretch doesn't help — like they were forced to do against Toronto, taxing the bullpen to an extreme.
“Part of this, I don’t want to make excuses, but we’ve been leaning on these guys,” manager Don Mattingly told media members Sunday. “They’re pitching on short rest, not truly full tanks out there. It’s where we’re at. It’s what you do. We have to get over it. … But it comes from all areas. We’ve had a little stretch where we haven’t gotten as deep into games as we’re kind of accustomed to with our starters. When that happens, within a short period of time, the bullpen gets taxed. The bullpen gets tired. Overuse. Then you see things like this.”
There really isn't much choice for the team to do anything but let Alvarado, Raley and Kerkering work through their issues. Duran continues to perform like a star, with a 1.74 ERA and 25 saves already this season. Jonathan Bowlan hasn't been bad. Tim Mayza has been hit or miss.
It seems less and less likely the Phillies will turn to a big name prospect either, as Gage Wood continues to start and struggle in Double-A. Wen-Hui Pan is pitching very well in a relief role for the Double-A Fightins, too — but he's probably getting promoted to Lehigh Valley before the Phillies.
Alex McFarlane is the best bet. He has spent a week in Triple-A after a recent call up and has a combined 1.83 ERA over 39.1 innings.
Some new blood might help. The depth is pretty depressing with Max Lazar, Chase Shugart, Lou Trivino and Kyle Backhus the next best options available in the organization.
The bullpen sort of is what it is. And the Phillies are going to need to roll with the punches and hope the offense makes up for it.
Or that the starting pitching can go really deep into games for the rest of the season.
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