Phillies Need To Keep Giving Chances to Alex McFarlane

At this point, interim manager Don Mattingly doesn’t have much to lose. The bullpen is overworked and having a fresh, young arm as talented as McFarlane to turn to in middle relief is something he needs to take advantage of.

As shared by many outlets on X, the stuff that he possesses is legitimate. His arsenal is MLB-ready, with eight of his 26 pitches reaching triple digits on the radar gun. For his first career strikeout, he blew Alec Burleson away with a 100.5 mph fastball.

As shared by Pitch Profiler on X, McFarlane had elite stuff, recording a STUFF+ score of 116 overall. His sweeper, which he threw seven times, had the highest score with a 123. His four-seam fastball, which was thrown nine times, and his slider, which was thrown three times, both had scores of 121.

His sinker, which was thrown seven times, was the lowest-graded pitch in the repertoire with a 100. He generated elite whiff numbers with his four-seam fastball and sweeper, as both look like wipeout offerings.

McFarlane registered the best STUFF+ score of any relief pitcher who took the mound on Aug. 11, which speaks volumes to the kind of upside that he possesses.

While some people will point to the surrendered run as a reason why he was called up too early, digging a little deeper into the results paints a much better picture. He has electric arm talent, and Philadelphia certainly needs more of that in their bullpen.

Mattingly will almost certainly want to see more body of work before he is part of the high-leverage, late-inning mix. But with Orion Kerkering struggling recently and Kilian down with an injury, opportunities will assuredly present themselves to McFarlane and Jonathan Bowlan to cement high-leverage roles.