The Philadelphia Phillies’ new-look bullpen is noticeably lacking one thing

With Opening Day just a few days away, the Philadelphia Phillies have made some final roster cuts to their pitching staff, painting a relatively clear picture as to what their bullpen will look like for Thursday’s game against the Atlanta Braves.

At first glance, one glaring weakness really sticks out:

With the bullpen’s final two spots coming down to the likes of Sam Coonrod, David Hale, and JoJo Romero, the Phillies made a somewhat surprising move by way of optioning the sole lefty from the group. Romero joined Scott Kingery on a trip to the team’s minor-league alternate site, while right-handed veterans Hale and Coonrod snuck onto the major league roster as back-end relief options.

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Seeing as the team also released veteran left-hander Tony Watson earlier in the week, this leaves the Phillies with just one southpaw reliever: Jose Alvarado.

As great as the “Pitching Ninja favorite” has looked this spring, the Phillies appear to be playing a rather dangerous game when it comes to entrusting Alvarado with all of their left-handed reliever needs. Not only has the former Ray battled injury in the past, but the NL East is also loaded with dominant lefty hitters like Freddie Freeman and Juan Soto. Even if the Phillies had 2-3 southpaw relievers to rely on this season, dealing with so many MVP-candidate lefty hitters would have been a challenge.

For what it’s worth, I understand the team not rushing Romero into the role of being a major league reliever right off the bat. While he was definitely a fan-favorite last season, he finished 2020 with an ERA of 7.59. HIs affairs down in Clearwater this spring weren’t all that much better either, as he allowed 13 baserunners in just 8.2 innings of work.

However, one has to wonder if some sort of corresponding move is set to follow in the coming days. Even if Romero isn’t 100% ready to face the Freddie Freeman’s and the Juan Soto’s of the world, waltzing into the regular season with just one left-handed reliever feels like a rather foolish idea. Throw in the fact that the Phillies’ first 13 games are against the Mets and the Braves, and things look even worse.

The Philadelphia Phillies currently have just one lefty reliever.

On the flip side, it’s worth noting that both Brandon Kintzler and Sam Coonrod have fared well against left-handed hitters in the past. It’s totally possible that the Phillies feel these two combined with the before mentioned Alvarado is enough to deal with any lefty-heavy innings (at least early on in the season).

It’s also worth mentioning that either Vince Velasquez or David Hale could be traded sometime soon to make way for a returning JoJo Romero. Velasquez’ name has been circling around in trade talks for quite some time now, and Hale is an average relief arm at best. Clearing either one of their salaries to make way for Romero (or some other lefty arm) checks out on paper.

Ultimately speaking, one has to somewhat trust Dave Dombrowski and Joe Girardi when it comes to building a major league ball club, but they also shouldn’t be totally void of criticism. As things currently stand, the decision to roll with just one left-handed reliever looks like it could be the Philadelphia Phillies’ Achilles heel in 2021.