Philadelphia Phillies: Five must-do steps to fix the bullpen
By David Esser
The time to fix the Philadelphia Phillies bullpen is now.
Following yet another late game collapse (this time by Tommy Hunter) the Philadelphia Phillies bullpen now has a collective ERA exceeding 9.00. They’ve given up 17 total runs, and have outright lost two games thus far. Needless to say, the Phillies ‘pen in 2020 has turned out to be an outright disaster.
They almost blew an 11-3 lead during Wednesday’s first double-header game, and failed to stay competitive against a below average Marlins team earlier in the season. With all that in mind, the time for action is now. In such a shortened season, there’s just zero room for error. Matt Klentak has done a flat out awful job giving Joe Girardi competent arms to work with, and he needs to fix it ASAP before the Philadelphia Phillies season is finished altogether.
Cut the Dead Weight
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Referring to major league pitchers as “dead weight” may come off as a tad offensive and unnecessary to some, but if you’ve seen some of these Phillies relievers pitch even once, you’ll know it’s not exactly a *wrong* description.
As of right now, the Phillies have four pitchers in their bullpen with an ERA over 16.00: Deolis Guerra, Austin Davis, Ramon Rosso, and Cole Irvin. As far as 2020 is concerned, these are just not players who need to be on the main roster for the remainder of the season.
Rosso flashed a small amount of firepower during Spring Training, and at just 24 years of age, he’s likely worth investing into down in the minors.
As for the others? They each consistently throw batting practice level fastballs, pitches that are just destined to get launched 400 feet into the stands. They are all simply not good enough to pitch at a level worthy of a major league contract.