Philadelphia Phillies Bullpen Is Not Built for High-Pressure Situations

The Philadelphia Phillies rostered four relievers capable of closing out tight ball games in 2024. For the first time in many years, while it still was not great, the bullpen was not an anchor dragging the team down.

Over the offseason, two of those relievers left in free agency (Jeff Hoffman and Carlos Estevez), while the front office took a flyer on Jordan Romano, a once-great closer returning from a season-ending injury. After posting a 3.94 ERA in 2024, the bullpen has struggled out of the gate this year with a 5.03 mark, ranking 27th in MLB.

Romano has failed to find the success he once had, with the team even believing he was tipping his pitches, and the Phillies now only have two relievers who can be comfortably relied on to close out tight games in Matt Strahm and Jose Alvarado. It is back to being a dreadful unit, but it all comes down to one key aspect: they are not built for high-leverage situations.

It is something that has become evident over the past two weeks, especially in Wednesday's game against the Washington Nationals. Philadelphia led by three or more runs for the majority of the contest, and relievers were brought into the game with empty basepaths. It was not even the back-end guys, either, but Carlos Hernandez, Tanner Banks, and Jose Ruiz. They combined for four innings of no-hit ball with six strikeouts.

That is a far cry from what you might expect, given their ERAs (6.55, 3.38, and 4.76, respectively), but it was in low-pressure situations, and coming into the game without any runners on base.

It is impossible to always bring a pitcher out of the bullpen with no one on base, but this year it has been worse than normal. For two pitchers specifically, Ruiz and Orion Kerkering, it has been especially bad. Ruiz has already inherited 10 runners this year in 12 games after inheriting only 13 in 2024 across 52 games. For Kerkering, he has inherited seven runners in 13 games after inheriting 13 in 64 games last year.

While manager Rob Thomson's bullpen management can certainly be critiqued, there just are not enough guys on the roster who are capable of navigating through high-leverage situations with ease.

There is still a lot of baseball left to be played, and more than enough time for the front office to make moves. Until that happens, however, there will be a lot of stressed fans in close games.