If you have paid any attention to the Philadelphia Phillies over the last few seasons, every one of those teams has had one glaring issue in common. The lack of a consistent bullpen that was able to hold leads in the middle innings and close games out late in the 9th.
Dating back to 2020, the Phillies have consistently had one of the worst, if not the worst, bullpen in Major League Baseball. It has been arguably the biggest reason for their failure to reach the postseason in the Bryce Harper era. However, in 2022, things changed. Down the stretch in the 2022 season, the Phillies bullpen actually became one of their biggest strengths and was a huge factor in not just reaching the postseason, but making their run all the way to the World Series. And thanks to Dave Dombrowski, that same bullpen is poised to be even better in 2023.
Let’s take a trip back to the 2020 MLB season. With the playoffs being temporarily expanded for the shortened season, 8 teams from each league and 16 teams in total, the Phillies were in a great position to make it back to the playoffs for the first time since 2011. The Phillies had one of the best offenses in the league that season, scoring the 5th most runs in the MLB, and were top 10 in team OPS and OPS+.
Wheeler and Nola were one of the best 1-2 punches in the league that season and Zach Eflin turned in a very solid year as the team’s number 3 starter. Despite this, they finished 28-32 and missed the playoffs yet again. A top 10 offense coupled with solid starting pitching still couldn’t get over the hump and finish above .500, much less make the postseason.
This is where the attention turns to the bullpen. The Phillies’ bullpen had the worst bullpen ERA in Major League Baseball at a staggering 7.06. Their 7.06 bullpen ERA in the 2020 season was not only the worst in the league, but it was also one of the worst of all time, albeit in a 60 game season. Throughout the season, the Phillies’ bullpen had 26 save opportunities, and they blew 14 of them, which was tied with the Angels for the most in the league. The bullpen in 2020 was by far the weakest part of the team and cost them a playoff berth.
In the offseason following the disastrous 2020 season, the Phillies brought in Dave Dombrowski to be their President of Baseball Operations. Dombrowski immediately began adding to the bullpen in hopes of making it into a serviceable unit for the upcoming season.
He traded for Jose Alvarado from the Rays and Sam Coonrod from the Giants, on top of signing free agent relievers Archie Bradley and Brandon Kintzler. It was still far from a finished product, but these moves were just the start of a massive overhaul of the bullpen.
Unfortunately for the Phillies, the bullpen did not improve much in the 2021 season. The bullpen ERA dropped to 4.60 from the astronomical 7.06 ERA in 2020. However, this drastic change was likely due to playing a full 162 game season instead of just 60, as their 4.60 ERA was still the 6th worst in the MLB that season. They blew 34 saves in 70 opportunities, second-most in the league behind the 65-97 Washington Nationals who had just entered a full-blown rebuild.
A lot went wrong with the 2021 Phillies, whether it was virtually everyone on the offense not named Bryce Harper turning in average to below average seasons or Wheeler having the best season of his career, finishing 2nd in Cy Young voting, while all the other starters struggled mightily, the bullpen was still the weakest link.
That brings us to 2022. The Philadelphia Phillies, again, had high expectations for the 2022 season. In typical Phillies fashion, they came out of the game extremely flat and playing well below the expectations that had been set for them. At the end of May, they were 22-29. The Phillies front office felt they needed a change, and fired manager Joe Girardi and replaced him with bench coach Rob Thomson.
After the Phillies made this switch, everything changed. The offense began firing on all cylinders, Wheeler, Nola and Ranger were a great 1-2-3 in the rotation, but the most dramatic change came from the bullpen. By no means did the Phillies have the most talented bullpen, but down the stretch of the 2022 season this unit became one of the strongest in baseball.
Much of this dramatic turnaround in the bullpen can be attributed to Rob Thomson, and how he managed this unit. Thomson put guys in spots where they were most comfortable and set them up for success. While the Phillies bullpen finished the season with an ERA over 4 at 4.27, the blown saves decreased dramatically. The Phillies blew 18 saves in 60 attempts which was 7th best in the MLB. Their save percentage was 70%, a 19% increase from 2021, which was 6th best in Major League Baseball.
Breakout years from Andrew Bellatti and a finally healthy Seranthony Dominguez coupled with great seasons from veterans Jose Alvarado, Brad Hand, trade deadline acquisition David Robertson, and even Zach Eflin down the stretch helped clinch the final Wild Card spot for the Phillies and gave them one of the most formidable bullpen units heading into the postseason. The bullpen’s success continued all through the postseason and helped get the Phillies all the way to the World Series, where they, unfortunately, would fall in six games to the Houston Astros. The Phillies’ bullpen had a very successful 2022 season, but there was more work to be done and Dombrowski wasted no time getting started.
Following the end of the 2022 season, Dave Dombrowski wasted no time getting to work improving the Phillies’ roster in hopes of being able to make another run at the World Series in 2023.
The obvious big splash the Phillies made was bringing in Trea Turner on an 11 year $300 million contract to be the team’s shortstop for the foreseeable future. However, Dombrowski also made some great improvements to the Phillies’ bullpen that make them a much better, and much deeper unit for the upcoming season.
Dombrowski’s first move to improve the bullpen this offseason was to bring in Matt Strahm, a veteran lefty reliever who was coming off a very productive season with the Boston Red Sox on a 2 year $15 million deal. A couple of weeks later Dombrowski brought in another former Red Sox reliever in Craig Kimbrel on a 1 year $10 million deal.
While Kimbrel is not the lockdown closer he was back in his prime, he is still a solid depth piece for a bullpen in need of it. He struggled in save situations last year (5.54 ERA with 5 blown saves in 27 opportunities) with the Los Angeles Dodgers, but was very good in non-save situations in which he had a 2.45 ERA.
Finally, his big splash in the bullpen was acquiring closer Gregory Soto along with infielder Kody Clemens from the Detroit Tigers for a package of Nick Maton, Matt Vierling, and Donny Sands. Soto is a two-time All-Star with the Tigers, and while he does have some issues with control, he has been a very good lefty option out of their pen.
With productive arms like Seranthony, Alvarado, Brogdon, and Bellatti all returning from last year’s squad, and the additions of Strahm, Kimbrel, and Soto the Phillies now have the deepest bullpen they’ve had in a while. Add in the rotation with Wheeler, Nola, Ranger, new addition Taijuan Walker, and young studs like Andrew Painter and Mick Abel waiting in the wings, the Phillies have quietly assembled an absolutely fantastic pitching staff to go with one of the most prolific offenses in baseball. Dombrowski has put the Phillies in a position to be contenders for the long haul, something this fanbase hasn’t been able to say in a very long time.
