TRADING: A weekend deal for replacement valued around $100 million to…
Every Phillies fan knew going into the off-season that Craig Kimbrel would not be returning to the club for another Philadelphia season.
It was simple to forget that Kimbrel was really quite excellent throughout the most of the 2023 regular season until his catastrophic collapse in Game 4 of the NLCS, which eventually lost the Phillies a pennant. He gave up only a 0.69 ERA in June and a 1.38 ERA in July. In addition to helping the Phillies survive until Jose Alvarado and Seranthony Dominguez returned from extended absences on the injured list, he put up those figures throughout September, spinning a 1.50 ERA.
Since then, Kimbrel has signed a contract with the Baltimore Orioles, but the Phillies still have a Kimbrel-sized void in their rotation. We spoke about the alternatives that are still available and who has been taken in the previous few days on the most recent episode of Hittin’ Season.
First, over the weekend, Josh Hader inked a five-year deal with the Astros for around $100 million. Despite the fact that Hader is unquestionably one of the finest closers in baseball, national baseball journalists (i.e., Hader’s agency) persisted in attempting to link Hader with the Phillies in order to increase his contract. However, Hader was never going to come to Philadelphia, mostly because he is a rigid user and only wants to throw in the ninth inning. He would also cost a tonne of money and time.
Subsequently, the Rays signed Robert Stephenson, a former journeyman pitcher who had success the previous season and had developed a devastatingly effective cut fastball, to the Angels. Though he was expected to join the team, L.A. signed him to a three-year deal. And the Pirates inked Aroldis Chapman to a one-year contract. Chapman was once the most dominating closer in the game and is now a very solid left-hander in the late innings.
The Phillies have few options when it comes to free agents. Hector Neris—a former close friend—performed well in his two seasons in Houston, stifling the Phillies in the 2022 World Series and compiling 84 career saves in portions of eight seasons with the Phillies. Neris came up through the Phillies’ organisation. Phil Maton, another former Astro, finished the 2017 season with a 3.00 ERA in 68 games for Houston.
Fun fact about Maton: he is the older brother of Nick Maton, a former farmhand for the Phillies. The two Maton brothers played against each other in the major leagues for the first time in the second-to-last game of the 2022 regular season, after the Phillies’ victory in securing the last wild card slot. After Nick hit his brother Phil with a single, Phil became so enraged that he slammed a locker after the game, breaking his hand and preventing him from playing in the playoffs.
A video on YouTube
He is, therefore, a fiery guy.
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Is a replacement for Kimbrel really necessary for the Phillies? One may argue that Greg Soto, Alvarado, Dominguez, and Jeff Hoffman emerged as the primary four late-inning relievers when Hoffman took over as Kimbrel’s replacement during the previous season. The organisation is also placing a lot of faith in Orion Kerkering, a rookie reliever who came up through the Phillies system last year and had varied degrees of success pitching high pressure innings in the playoffs. He will have achieved the distinction of representing the Phillies in the playoffs before taking the field in a spring training game when he gets to Clearwater next month.
Reliever pitchers are known for being very inconsistent from season to season, so it’s a lot to expect of Kerkering. Hoffman and Kerkering could turn out to be the dominating right-handed relievers we anticipate, but we predicted the same thing before into the previous season about Andrew Bellatti and Conor Brogdon, two important 2022 players who were both unsuccessful and played most of the season in AAA Lehigh Valley.
Therefore, it’s feasible that Dave Dombrowski waits until the trade deadline to make an improvement, if he even needs one, and that there won’t be any new bullpen additions when pitchers and catchers report in a few weeks.
We’ll find out in time.
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