Last night against the Mets, Orion Kerkering was asked to clean up the mess that Jesus Luzardo created in the fifth inning. Luzardo could not lock down two 1-2 hitters in the inning (with a little help from the umpire) and had to be lifted with the bases loaded and nobody out. As we know, Kerkering was unable to escape the inning unscathed, allowing all three runners to score in what turned into a nightmare inning for the right hander.
Earlier in the day, Jordan Romano was placed on the injured list
with right middle finger inflammation while Joe Ross was given his release from the team, necessitating the recall of Max Lazar and Daniel Robert to pick up the innings that were vacated by the two offseason signings.
How are these two events related, if at all? Indulge me for a bit.
The release of Ross and continued ineffectiveness of Romano brought about the understanding that this offseason, Dave Dombrowski and the front office failed at building a bullpen that needed a little reinforcement. All competent pennant chasers are looking for added help for their bullpen at the trade deadline, but the Phillies were in need of something more, something as close to a lockdown reliever that would allow others to slide into a more appropriate role. Acquiring Jhoan Duran allowed them to do that, yet Ross and Romano continued to struggle, meaning the team had to finally act.
Signing Romano this offseason after his nontender by Toronto had some merit when taken at surface level. He had had success in the past a closer and would be relatively cheaper than giving Jeff Hoffman a multiyear deal, something they appeared unwilling to do. Yet Romano has never really looked good in Philadelphia, despite several spurts of what looked to be his turning the corner. The highs have never been high enough to justify the depths that his lows reached. He’s technically still on the roster, yet it feels like his days of throwing any kind of meaningful inning in town feel numbered.
Getting back to Kerkering, he has some numbers that look good when having casual conversation about him. His ERA prior to the evening was a very pretty 2.92. That’s the kind of ERA that, when looked at without a microscope, makes one think he’s having a good year, but that outing helps reinforce some beliefs held in the fanbase, that he struggles in high leverage spots. Kerkering has inherited 30 runners this season and allowed 14 of them to score. That’s a 47% clip, which would among the top fifteen worst relievers in the game. There is no doubting Kerkering’s stuff, but from an subjective point of view, there still seems like there should be more to his game, especially in situations like that. Putting him in high leverage spots is probably not the best usage of his skillset right now…
…but who else does the team have?
This is where the failure of the offseason and Kerkering’s outing is (loosely) related.
Had the team been more vigilant this past offseason in pursuing upgrades for the bullpen, maybe none of this happens. Maybe that involves being a bit more aggressive in leveraging their resources to add better options, maybe it means giving Hoffman that third year he clearly desired. Remember, there were reports and whispers that teams were offering him the chance to go back into the starting rotation, yet when it came time to put ink to paper, he went to the team that gave him the most money and years.
Bringing in better options then would have made differences now. Not signing Romano might have meant better options in games in which he was so clearly not performing up to standards. Maybe last night Kerkering is not brought into that situation since he has not demonstrated consistent ability to thrive in them in the first place. It’s not to say he can’t and won’t on occasion. He just….hasn’t. Maybe a better option would have done a better job at not surrendering the lead.
Looping in Kerkering’s outing with the ultimate failure of Romano and Ross is admittedly a stretch. He is one of the high leverage pitchers the team has right now and they have to go with what they have. Yet if in his past offseason, the team had been more aggressive in upgrading the bullpen in a way that would have made adding Romano and Ross unnecessary, it could have been a different story to the season. They are still holding a rather comfortable five game lead, no matter what these past two games have done to the collective psyche of the fanbase, and the bullpen has performed much better since the acquisition of Duran and subsequent reshuffling of the bullpen components. The front office does deserve credit for identifying the issues and addressing them with the best option available.
But now, with the Joe Ross chapter of the season complete and the book nearly closed on Jordan Romano, we can say with pretty defining confidence: this offseason of trying to help the bullpen was a failure.
