3 bullpen pieces the Phillies could still add after losing out on Darren O’Day
By David Esser
While Archie Bradley and J.T. Realmuto are steps in the right direction, the Philadelphia Phillies still have quite a bit of work to do in terms of creating a playoff caliber roster. Outside of *hopefully* bringing back SS Didi Gregorius for another year or two, the area that needs the biggest amount of improvement continues to be the bullpen.
The newly signed Bradley (who is good) withstanding, the Phillies are banking on major bounce back seasons from the likes of Hector Neris and Jose Alvarado, while simultaneously expecting breakout performances from Connor Brogdon and JoJo Romero.
Not exactly ideal.
There’s still some good bullpen talent out there for the Phillies to sign.
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Dave Dombrowski appears to be aware of this, as the Phillies were mentioned as a team in on reliever Darren O’Day prior to his deal with the New York Yankees. With this in mind, there are a handful of free agent arms out there – similar to someone like O’Day – who the Phils should be reaching out to.
Tyler Clippard
Taking into account the fact that Darren O’Day is a 38 year old right-hander, I tried to base this quick list around players with a similar makeup. Dombrowski appears to want to add a proven veteran to his bullpen, and there are definitely players who fit that mold still available to be signed.
Tyler Clippard is set to turn 36 in February, and it’s honestly pretty surprising that he remains unsigned at the moment. He’s coming off a fantastic 2020 with the Minnesota Twins (2.77 ERA, 0.885 WHIP). 2019 was also a fairly dominant year for the right-hander, as he posted a 2.90 ERA and 0.855 WHIP across 62.0 innings with the Cleveland Indians.
Clippard is a 2x All-Star whose career K/9 rate sits at a clean 10.0. He’s been productive for a variety of different teams at the professional level, and you could probably make the argument that he’d be the Phillies first or second best arm out of the bullpen.
MLB insider Joel Sherman connected the Phils to Clippard earlier in the offseason, and at this stage in free agency, it’s a move that would make a ton of sense.