Much of the focus this off-season for the Phillies (around the impending lockout, of course) will be how the team improves their lineup, baserunning and defense.
All of those areas are vitally important. No, they won’t transform themselves into the Milwaukee Brewers overnight, nor should they. But they do need to improve significantly in some vital areas in order to be a more consistent unit, and one that is capable of producing results against better pitching.
While that may suck up most of the oxygen
in the room, no one should be sleeping on the bullpen. Sometimes, ‘pen moves can feel minor because oftentimes, you’re trading for a guy you’ve never heard of, or signing someone on a relatively inexpensive one-year deal.
One of Dave Dombrowski’s strongest moves last off-season was a trade with the Kansas City Royals in which he dealt away his best left-handed reliever, Matt Strahm, in exchange for right-hander Jonathan Bowlan.
The move was a gamble, in that Strahm had been a stalwart in the ‘pen since his arrival as a free agent ahead of the 2023 season. Over three years he posted a 2.71 ERA across 188 appearances and a 0.955 WHIP, earning an All Star berth in 2024, but Strahm’s stuff was fading by the end of 2025, and his time in Philadelphia ended when Teoscar Hernandez hit his go-ahead three-run home run off Strahm in Game 1 of the 2025 NLDS.
Strahm’s 2026 season was a disaster with Kansas City, perhaps the worst by any relief pitcher. It’s difficult for a reliever to get enough opportunities to compile -1.3 WAR, but his 7.32 ERA and 7.14 FIP were not fluky. Dombrowski’s timing was spot on.
But that doesn’t mean the Phillies didn’t miss vintage Strahm in their bullpen last year. They did. Dombrowski entered the season pinning his hopes on Jose Alvarado bouncing back from injuries and an 80-game PED suspension the season before, Tanner Banks repeating a surprisingly successful ‘25 season, and Tim Mayza or Kyle Backhus being the No. 3 lefty out of the ‘pen.
It didn’t work. The team’s 5.12 ERA from left-handed relievers was 2nd-worst in the Majors. They allowed a league-worst .277 batting average last season, and only four other teams saw their lefty bullpen options give up more home runs than the Phils.
So it’s no surprise they are entering this off-season desperate to make fixes. They re-signed their lone effective left-handed reliever, Tim Mayza, to a one-year deal. They’ll need at least one more, and maybe two.
The highest-profile arm is San Diego’s Adrian Morejon, who posted a 2.83 ERA and a 1.9 WAR last season for San Diego. Over the last three years, he’s been worth 5.6 WAR and has a 2.58 ERA in 211 games. He’s a high-velocity, high-strikeout pitcher who will get a big-money contract from someone. He’s the best relief pitcher on the free agent market and would form a dynamic 1-2 punch with Duran at the end of games.
Despite all that, there are a number of reasons why a Morejon signing is unlikely. MLB Trade Rumors is predicting a five-year, $80 million deal. Dombrowski has never given a relief pitcher more than a two-year contract since joining the Phillies. Not only that, Jhoan Duran is slated to make around $11-12 million in his final year of arbitration. It’s likely that, if Dombrowski is going to give a relief pitcher a big-money contract, it will be Duran. There is little chance the team will put that kind of cash into just two relief pitchers, and an even smaller chance the team will give Morejon a larger contract to be a set-up guy than their incumbent closer will earn this season. That could create some uncomfortableness in the clubhouse.
Phillies fans know Alex Vesia quite well. The 30-year-old long-time Dodger was a thorn in their side during the 2025 playoffs. Despite not being a hard thrower, his arm angle and delivery make him difficult for left-handers to hit. As such, he has a 2.45 ERA over the last three seasons, piling up 184 innings and 207 appearances. His overall numbers remain good, but his walk rate did jump to 13.5% a season ago, and there are worries any further loss in velocity could make him more homer-prone. Still, the two-year, $26 million contract estimated by MLBTR is more in line with what the Phils may be willing to pay their top left-handed option.
Another potential is Houston’s Steven Okert. As a 34-year-old, he came out of nowhere for the Astros in 2025 and, over the last two seasons, has a 2.58 ERA and 3.8 WAR in 136 games. He also doesn’t throw hard, averaging just 91.2 mph on his four-seam fastball. His specialty is generating a lot of infield flies. Last season he had a 28.3% strikeout rate and 6.1% walk rate, and despite his extreme fly ball tendencies, he’s managed to avoid getting deluged with dingers. His two-year contract is projected at $14 million.
The remaining relievers are all likely gettable on one-year contracts, so it could make sense for the Phillies to add multiples if they choose not to invest on the higher end. Sean Newcomb has had a terrific last two years, putting up 1.8 WAR and a 2.73 ERA for the Red Sox and A’s in 2025 and a 2.0 WAR/3.09 ERA in 60 games for the White Sox last season. His fastball averaged 94.4 mph last year, placing him in the 49th percentile, and he doesn’t generate much chase, but he’s a ground ball guy who was good against lefties (.632 OPS allowed) and right-handers (.637 OPS) last year.
Cincinnati’s Brock Burke has also had a solid two-year run, with identical 1.3 WAR seasons each of the last two seasons. In 2025 with the Angels, he posted a 3.36 ERA and last year for the Reds, he was the most used relief pitcher in the National League, with a league-leading 77 appearances, in which he put up a 2.30 ERA. He was in the 89th percentile in hard-hit rate, averaged 95.5 mph on his fastball and generated a 28.7% whiff rate that was in the 76th percentile. He will walk some guys (12.7%), but would be a terrific addition on a one-year deal.
Let’s talk a minute about JoJo Romero, the former Phillies reliever who became an extremely effective and consistent reliever for the Cardinals and, last season, for the world champion Brewers. Over the last four years, he has a 3.04 ERA in 212 games and, between St. Louis and Milwaukee, had a 3.36 ERA in 56.1 innings in ’26. He’s a sinker/sweeper pitcher with a lower-than-average fastball velo, but is an elite ground ball thrower, ranking in the 88th percentile with a 51.2% ground ball rate. While lefties actually did better against him than righties last year, he’s traditionally been very tough on left-handers. He will be just 30 years old in 2027.
There is also A.J. Puk. If the Phils are looking for a potential high-end guy on a cheaper deal, Puk is a good candidate for a potential bounceback. He didn’t pitch at all last year due to UCL surgery and appeared in 8 games in 2025. But from 2022-24 he had a 3.38 ERA in 182 games with 22 saves and 242 strikeouts in 194.1 innings. His Baseball Savant page for 2024 is littered with red, upper-tier numbers across the board. If he can be had on a low-cost, one-year deal, he’s absolutely a pitcher worth taking a chance on if the medicals come back clean.
The Phillies need to take this area of the team as seriously as fixing the offense. The blame for their postseason failures dating back to 2023 are evenly split between a non-functional offense and a bullpen that hasn’t converted a save opportunity since Game 4 of the NLDS against the Braves in ‘23 (Strahm).
