Is The Phillies Bullpen Better Than We Think? Sort of

The start to the season for the Phillies' Bullpen has not been great. Collectively, they have a 4.71 ERA. 6th worst in the majors. That goes with a 1.40 WHIP, 7th worst in the majors. Their 8 blown save are tied for the worst in baseball. Pretty much, things have been bad.

But are those numbers misleading? Are they actually a little better than we think they are? The answer is sort of.

This is not a good bullpen. There are real issues both with depth and with supposed backend guys not living up to their potential. Bullpen is a major need, and the Phillies need at least 2 more arms in there if they are going to be serious contenders. But it is not quite as bad as it looks.

Bob Wankel put out the numbers over the weekend that show that the Phillies bullpen has been closer to mediocre than truly terrible.

Again, not great. It won't get the job done in October. But not the complete disaster it might look like on paper. There are real concerns, but there has also been some bad luck.

Matt Strahm had one blowup game where he gave up 2 runs and only got 1 out. Outside of that, he gave up 0 runs in 13 out of his 15 appearances. Alvarado got blown up on Sunday. Before that, he had a 1.72 ERA and gave up 0 runs in 12 out of 15 games. Those two are rock solid.

After them is what worries people. We will get to Jordan Romano and Orion Kerkering as the 2 real problems in this pen. But the other options might be better than we initially thought. Take Joe Ross, for example. His 3.93 ERA is not overly impressive. But it is hard to judge relievers by ERA this early. Why? Ross is the perfect example. 1 bad outing can spoil the number.

Ross had some struggles early. Culminating in an awful outing where he gave up 4 runs in an inning. But since then, he has pitched 10.2 scoreless innings with a 0.84 WHIP. Take out that 1 outing, and his season ERA is sub 3.0.

So, who is the real Ross? It is probably somewhere in between. Can Ross be a backend guy? I would not be comfortable with him there. But can he be a longman/middle-inning pitcher? Certainly.

Tanner Banks is in a similar boat. His ERA is actually down to 2.93 with a WHIP of 0.98. Banks quietly gets the job done in the middle innings. Again, not a backend guy. But a solid option in the middle innings before you can get to Alvarado and Strahm.

Carlos Hernandez and Jose Ruiz are real problems. Hernandez especially can't stay in the pen. His ERA is 6.59 with a WHIP of 1.90. He is not a competitive pitcher. I thought Ranger Suarez returning and Taijuan Walker going to the pen would be the end of him, but Ruiz heading to the IL extended his life with the Phillies. With that extra life, he came into the game in extra innings and gave up every inherited runner.

Ruiz is not much better, but is at least semi-competitive. His ERA is 4.76 with a WHIP of 1.41. That won't get it done either.

Ideally, both of them will be replaced. One already was with Walker. Walker is a wild card. He has pitched mostly well as a starter. Will that hold up in the pen? Great question. He can't be worse than Hernandez and Ruiz.

Romano and Kerekering are a different story. Both are having struggles with the slider. Those slider issues lead to issues with the fastball. These 2 need to be backend guys. The entire bullpen is built on that hope. If you had 4 reliable backend guys, to go with Walker, Ross, and Banks, you would feel good right now. But them looking the way they do is the real problem.

Whether it is Romano and Kerkering figuring it out, adding another backend arm, or ideally, both, something eventually needs to change for the Phillies pen. Not just because they need more good arms, but because they can't keep leaning on Alvarado and Straham every other night. They are running the risk they will wear out their 2 best relievers.

But guys like Banks and Ross are better than we think. Both have mostly given you solid production in the middle innings. Ross even gives you a guy who can go multiple innings if you're starter gets chased early. Those 2 have value. Alvarado and Strahm have been fantastic. There is more to work with there than we think, and Romano has shown signs of coming around.

But they simply need him, and Kerkering, to get their act together. Short of that, the Phillies need to go shopping early.