Coming into the off-season, every Phillies fan knew the team would not re-sign Craig Kimbrel for a second season in Philadelphia.
After his epic meltdown in Game 4 of the NLCS that ultimately cost the Phils a pennant, it was easy to forget that Kimbrel was actually quite good for most of the 2023 regular season. In June, he allowed just a 0.69 ERA and in July it was 1.38. He put up those numbers as Jose Alvarado and Seranthony Dominguez were on the Injured List for long stretches, helping keep the Phils afloat until their return, and he even had a good month of September, twirling a 1.50 ERA.
Kimbrel has since signed with the Baltimore Orioles and the back of the Phillies rotation still has a Kimbrel-sized hole in it. On the latest edition of Hittin’ Season, we discussed the options that remain and who has been snapped up over the last few days.
First, the Astros signed Josh Hader to a five-year contract worth nearly $100 million over the weekend. National baseball writers (i.e. Haders’ agent) kept trying to connect the Phils as a landing spot for Hader to drive up his price, and Hader is legitimately one of the best closers in baseball. But he was never coming to Philly, mostly because Hader only wants to pitch in the 9th inning, would cost a ton in terms of years and dollars, and is inflexible in his usage.
But then the Angels signed Robert Stephenson, a former journeyman pitcher who found success with the Rays last year and learned to throw a devastatingly good cut-fastball. He was seen as a likely addition to the roster, but he was inked to a three-year contract by L.A.. And Aroldis Chapman, once the most dominant closer in the game and now a very good late-inning left-hander, signed a one-year deal with the Pirates.
There aren’t many candidates left for the Phillies to pursue in free agency. Former old friend Hector Neris, who came up through the Phils’ system and accumulated 84 career saves in parts of eight seasons with Philadelphia, excelled in his two years in Houston, stymying the Phillies in the 2022 World Series and posting a 2.69 ERA during his two seasons there. Another former Astro, Phil Maton, put up a 3.00 ERA in 68 games for Houston last season.
Fun story about Maton – he’s the big brother of former Phillie farm-hand Nick Maton. In the second-to-last game of the ‘22 regular season, after the Phils had clinched the last wild card spot, the two Maton brothers faced each other for the first time in the big leagues. Nick laced a single off his brother Phil, which angered Phil so much he punched a locker after the game and broke his hand, knocking him out of the postseason entirely.
So, yeah, he’s a fiery dude.
But do the Phillies even need a Kimbrel replacement? One could argue Jeff Hoffman became the Kimbrel replacement during the season last year and emerged with Alvarado, Dominguez and Gregory Soto as the main four late-inning relievers. The team is also pinning a lot of their hopes on rookie reliever Orion Kerkering, who rocketed up the Phillies system last year and pitched high leverage playoff innings to varying degrees of success. When he arrives in Clearwater next month, he’ll have earned the distinction of playing in the postseason for the Phillies before ever appearing in a spring training game for them.
It’s a lot to ask of Kerkering, and relief pitchers are notoriously volatile from year to year. It’s possible Hoffman and Kerkering are the dominant right-handed relievers we’re hoping they’ll be, but we said the same about key 2022 contributors Andrew Bellatti and Conor Brogdon going into last season, and both were ineffective and spent the majority of the season in AAA Lehigh Valley.
So, it’s possible that when pitchers and catchers report in a few weeks, there will be no new bullpen addition, and that Dave Dombrowski waits until the trade deadline to make an upgrade, if he even needs one.
Time will tell.
