The Phillies have been calling upon the services of Johan Duran a lot lately. The fire balling closer has appeared in four games over the last week and has seen his rest days start to shrink in number as the postseason race tightens.
Look no further than his appearances earlier this week for evidence of how much the Phillies will lean on him the rest of the year. Duran collected a save on Sunday but needed 33 pitches to do so. He was then immediately called upon again on Monday in another save situation,
however this time he only needed 10 pitches. Duran received some rest on Tuesday, but he was back at again for his third save in four days on Wednesday. In those appearances, Duran threw a total of 61 pitches.
Duran has for the most part been durable. He did miss time earlier this season due to an oblique strain, but has been otherwise extremely reliable since arriving in Philadelphia at last year’s trade deadline. Still, it’s always worrying to put this much mileage on a reliever’s arm, as you run the risk of overworking him and sacrificing effectiveness.
But in Duran’s case, his earlier injury may actually be a bit of a blessing in disguise at the current moment, as he’s only thrown 45.1 innings this season so far, way down from the 70 he tossed last year. There’s obviously still a month to go in the regular season, but Duran is behind his 2025 innings pace due to missing that time earlier, as he was up to 55 innings by August 19th of last season. Therefore, it should give the Phillies at least some confidence that he should be able to hold up over an increased workload down the stretch.
Of course, total innings is only one worry. The other is general lack of rest in the day-to-day workings of a reliever. The rest of the Phillies bullpen is a prime example of what can happen when relievers are called upon in rapid succession with little time off. Duran hasn’t seen any velocity bleeding yet and his fastball has actually slightly ticked up as the season has progressed, but it will be something worth monitoring as he sees his usage increase.
The Phillies are going to ride Duran as much as possible while they look to secure a postseason berth, especially if they keep up their tendency of playing close games. But how do you feel about Jhoan Duran’s workload?
