Phillies News and Discussion 2025 Season

[zambonir]

He only made two appearances and got lit up in one of them just like he got lit up last night (i.e. one bad inning). But according to Gelb they are considering bringing Abel back (he can't be recalled for 15 days anyway). Mostly so Walker can focus on being a relief pitcher. Still not sure that would be the best thing for Abel, even as good as he was. He'd probably get two starts, then go back to AAA, and then who knows. This is why teams have swingmen and AAAA arms, so that good prospects don't have to work as temps. And even though the stuff looks impressive you also can't know for sure that Abel would perform at that level again (just ask Tyler Phillips or Kolby Allard, they made one great start last year too).

Anyway, it sounds more like they are desperate to get Walker back into the relief mix because the pen is so thin.

Abel is going to come up in trade talks too.

[andyb]

Walker was not awful last night. Just not terribly efficient and his command was not perfect (which was understandable with the layoff).

I think Walker and Suarez are the solution to the bullpen. We've got Nola coming back and hopefully he'll be better (the K/BB ratio suggests he can be even with the HR mistakes). And Painter is even better than Abel.

I don't think we'll trade any starters at the deadline (given Walker's salary and Ranger's versatility). So it is up to the manager to make the pieces work. Our bullpen is mediocre. We have too many starters. It is a problem with creative solutions. We'll probably add to the bullpen too. But let's figure out how to best use our current pieces first.

[zambonir]

The Ranger move does seem inevitable assuming everyone else holds up. And Painter could end up in the bullpen too (at least in October, but you might want him to get used to the role before then).

You never know though. Starting pitching is still very hard to come by. Even Walker could still be tradeable. Or, if the Phillies do end up needing both a reliever and a bat, trading Ranger could replenish everything they give up for those things.

June won't be as easy as May but they'll get through it. Knowing you've got Aaron Nola coming back in two weeks and Andrew Painter available in six weeks are still luxuries.

[Austinfan]

I think Thompson doesn't have a good feel for pitchers.

Walker had good stuff but struggled with command, but also had a dozen extra pitches in the 3rd on two seeing eye weak ground balls. By the 5th he was running on fumes, but Thompson left him in there.

I know he's trying to spare the bullpen, but there's an off day on Monday and Walker was up to 80 pitches and wasn't stretched out.

[zambonir]

He was stretched out enough. He'd already made one start, and had done two 60-pitch bullpen sessions before each of them (and probably another one during this longer layoff). He also threw 59 in his last relief outing. I don't think he was on fumes at all, but rather, rusty (in the first). He was supposed to go 90 or 100 if he could. For all we know he would have gotten out of his own inning more successfully than Banks did. Either way there was no reason to start the top of the 5th with a reliever.

He's been reworking his slider, and it didn't work for him on that last pitch.

[andyb]

I know he's trying to spare the bullpen, but there's an off day on Monday and Walker was up to 80 pitches and wasn't stretched out.

Walker was stretched out. Just off a long layoff. The reality is the middle and back of the bullpen is worse than Walker. That is what the manager has to work with.

[zambonir]

They also had four hits last night. And just one walk (Marsh). The opener really worked for Milwaukee (and it still didn't help that Harper was out since he hits lefties).

Walker did his job well enough, if not excellently. Banks was not up to his. Offense was not up to theirs, even if playing from behind is always tough.

But they got what they wanted out of the rest of the bullpen usage. All the good arms will be available the rest of the series and they should be able to go without Banks for one day with two LH SPs.

[Callison]

I think Walker and Suarez are the solution to the bullpen.

That's where I live. Good thinking, ab. The Phils will likely showcase Suarez as a starter to enable him to get starter pay. But sometime after the AS break, they SHOULD send him to the pen. The Phils' pen is full of question marks, not to say dog meat, and Suarez would be their best arm by far. (Stats jocks, please post where the Phils' pen ERA is ranked - I'm guessing the bottom 3.) He could create the position of long closer, closing after 5... or even 4! Will come in handy the days Nola can't perform. Most importantly, Suarez won't get the opportunity to overwork himself, so he'll be ready for the post season, not nursing/recovering from some injury. Suarez is an All Star arm and the Phils should make a real effort to re-sign him. I can see the Phils turning off the lights to welcome Suarez into a game.

Walker should never have been moved out of the pen. I guess when you owe a pitcher $36M, he should be a starter, just like the Phils thought when they signed him, and they had to see for themselves, one more phlogging time, he's not ready. Put him back in the pen and let him work on his game. He could also become a long closer.

[zambonir]

I've heard worse ideas, unlikely as it may be. If you didn't trade Kepler he'd share RF with Casty (of course there's also an argument to just move Harper back to RF but Kepler's the best RF on the team).

Or the hell with it, like I was saying, let Schwarber (or Hoskins) play LF and just live with the bad defense. If they had actually stuck to their guns back in 2019 Rhys probably would have become passable there (or at least not any worse than Schwarber or Casty).

Should the Phillies move Bryce Harper to left and acquire Rhys Hoskins?

[zambonir]

And there it is

Phillies DFAd José Ruiz. Seth Johnson will join the bullpen.

— Matt Gelb ( @mattgelb.bsky.social ) June 1, 2025 at 10:32 AM

[andyb]

I guess a quick audition before Nola is back would be good for Johnson even if he is not quite ready for the role. I assumed the Phillies moved him with an eye towards the second half of the year.

The stuff has just regressed for Ruiz. Hernandez is still pretty bad, but the stuff is legit.

[zambonir]

The fact that he's been bad enough to get DFA'ed (stuff-wise and execution-wise) also makes it easier to not worry about losing him. If it happens, it happens. The question now is still, does Walker start on Thursday?

[andyb]

No word on Nola throwing yet so I imagine we have at least 2 or 3 more Walker starts. I guess if the next one went poorly they might get Abel again, but not sure they really want to keep yanking Abel back and forth. And with Painter and Abel I assume they would prefer both continue to start, but if they both deserve to be in the majors in the second half I think they would move Abel to the bullpen first rather than Painter.

[zambonir]

A lot of what the Phillies want to do now and later hinges on Nola returning to form. He threw an abbreviated bullpen between games of Thursday’s doubleheader against the Atlanta Braves and reported good progress. He will throw another bullpen Sunday. Then, he could face hitters in a simulated session before making a minor-league rehab start. That means Nola would not return to the Phillies until sometime in mid-June, making this almost a monthlong absence.

Given that timeline and the lackluster state of the bullpen, the Phillies could consider bumping Walker to the bullpen sooner and replacing him in the rotation with Mick Abel, who also pitched Friday night.

But doesn't mean they will do that. Bringing Johnson up might indicate they aren't going to.

It could be time for Taijuan Walker’s new role as Phillies search for bullpen...

[zambonir]

In fact, it's done

The Phillies will shift Taijuan Walker to a one-inning setup role for the first time in his 13-year career while reinserting prospect Mick Abel into the rotation. Additionally, they removed veteran righty José Ruiz from the mix by designating him for assignment and added hard-throwing Seth Johnson to the bullpen.

Phillies juggle bullpen duties in hopes of solving pitching woes

[Callison]

Cleaning up after fixing what wasn't broken.

Abel must be asking himself what it takes to impress the Phils.

Walker recently recorded his first ML save by pitching 3 innings to close it out. Rather than limiting him to one inning, why not just tell him that's his role? Tell him he'll be coming in in the 7th or so and all he has to do is just pitch like that and close it out. The idea that the pen is for 1-inning arms is preconceived.

[zambonir]

He was a long man/swingman so he could still be in reserve for starting. As a higher-end reliever the outings have to be shorter and the effort greater. He has always gotten hit when he stays in longer, in either role. This lets them keep Ross as the two-inning guy.

I doubt it is really going to work, he will be useful but he is not going to be one of the team's four best relievers. He does not have the stuff to turn into a Hoffman, but keeping his outings short increases the chance of better stuff

[julio]

As a higher-end reliever the outings have to be shorter and the effort greater.

This may or may not be true, or relevant. What struck me is that you asserted it in a way that seems almost like dogma, or "everybody knows" this. Yes, it's the current dominant pattern - but it wasn't always, and it needn't always be. You assume that it's the dominant pattern because it's more effective...but the history of baseball suggests that, when it comes to "the book," most managers are followers - almost sheep. Innovation is rare, because managers (and baseball people in general) are conservative, relatively risk-averse, more interested in keeping their jobs than taking experimental risks. It's "safe" to manage the way everybody else does. If you experiment and it doesn't work (whether because it was a bad idea, or because somebody simply wasn't effective), you're blamed for innovating.

[zambonir]

Well, I am asserting what the Phillies and the beat writers are saying to explain their decision (and Walker himself has said he think he can pick up at max effort in one inning).. But Callison has previously used the term "long closer" as a suggested job for Walker or Ranger which is just not a thing these days (though it was in the '70s). Ranger has never provided length as a reliever either. I think the idea that a setup man can be high leverage and/or scrupulously matched up for one inning is the current cutting edge. Perhaps eventually that will seem stale. Maybe we will go back to overvaluing the 9th. Tandem starts or a six man rotation also the current vogue and I think we will still see that.

[julio]

Tandem starts or a six man rotation also the current vogue and I think we will still see that.

Yes, we probably will. And you're very correct to characterize what goes on in MLB as "the current vogue." These are not deep thinkers.