{"id":118120,"date":"2026-04-07T13:10:28","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T17:10:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=118120"},"modified":"2026-04-07T13:10:28","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T17:10:28","slug":"phillies-bullpen-getting-return-of-relief-pitcher","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2026\/04\/07\/phillies-bullpen-getting-return-of-relief-pitcher\/","title":{"rendered":"Phillies Bullpen Getting Return Of Relief Pitcher"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Philadelphia Phillies bullpen is getting a boost with the return of Orion Kerkering from the 15-day injured list. Kerkering recorded a 2.25 ERA and a 0.98 FIP in four minor league rehab appearances for Triple-A Lehigh Valley. In addition to that Kerkering had a 0.75 WHIP and a 5.00 K\/BB rate. Kerkering returns from the injured list before Zack Wheeler who is also expected to return<\/a> in April. The Phillies will have to make another 26-man roster decision when Wheeler is activated. Currently the Phillies have a full 40-man roster. That could change when Wheeler returns because of the corresponding move to this transaction to activate Kerkering.<\/p>\n

Kyle Backhus has been optioned to Triple-A Lehigh Valley to make room for Kerkering on the 26-man roster. While Backhus had an excellent spring training he got off to a slow start in the regular season. Backhus has multiple minor league option years available which likely played a role in the decision as well. In four regular season outings Backhus has a 9.00 ERA and a 5.84 FIP along with a 1.67 WHIP and a 4.00 K\/BB rate. Backhus and Tim Mayza were competing to be the third left-handed relief pitcher<\/a> but both made the team due to the injury to Kerkering. Mayza has no minor league options. To add to that Mayza has a 0.00 ERA and a 1.32 FIP with a 0.29 WHIP as well as a 8.00 K\/BB rate in five outings this year.<\/p>\n

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Sep 14, 2025; Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher Kyle Backhus (43) pitches to Minnesota Twins first base Kody Clemens (18) in the ninth inning at Target Field. Mandatory Credit: Matt Blewett-Imagn Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Phillies Bullpen Return<\/h2>\n

Change In Balance<\/h3>\n

The Phillies now have three left-handed relief pitchers<\/a> instead of four in their bullpen. Mayza is joined by Jos\u00e9 Alvarado and Tanner Banks. Furthermore the Phillies have five right-handed relief pitchers instead of four in their bullpen. Jonathan Bowlan and Zach Pop move into lower leverage roles with Kerkering returning. The Phillies bullpen will return to a more traditional split and that could be helpful for the team. It will allow for more favorable matchups because of there being less of a need for one of the left-handed relief pitchers to face multiple right-handed hitters in an inning. Regardless of what the corresponding move ended up being the Phillies bullpen improves by getting Kerkering back in the mix.<\/p>\n

Role Adjustment For Kerkering Relative To Last Season<\/h3>\n

With Brad Keller signing a multi-year free agent deal<\/a> this offseason the Phillies are giving Kerkering a lower leverage role. Keller is the primary right-handed setup man while Alvarado is the primary left-handed setup man. Kerkering took a step back in 2025 after a stellar 2024. In 2024 Kerkering had a 2.29 ERA and a 2.42 FIP with a 4.35 K\/BB rate. For comparison in 2025 Kerkering recorded a 3.30 ERA and a 3.82 FIP with a 2.41 K\/BB rate. Kerkering pitched five more high leverage innings in 2025 than he did in 2024. Kerkering had a 3.42 ERA and a 1.25 WHIP with 116 batters faced in the eighth inning of games last season compared to a 0.84 ERA and a 0.94 WHIP with 43 batters faced in the eighth inning of games in 2024.<\/p>\n

Credit Image: \u00a9 PI via ZUMA Press Wire<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Philadelphia Phillies bullpen is getting a boost with the return of Orion Kerkering from the 15-day injured list. Kerkering recorded a 2.25 ERA and a 0.98 FIP in four minor league rehab appearances for Triple-A Lehigh Valley. In addition to that Kerkering had a 0.75 WHIP and a 5.00 K\/BB rate. Kerkering returns from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4566,"featured_media":118121,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":true,"sfio_embed_code":"<\/smartframe-embed>","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[23,1071],"tags":[2530,28461,2347,28752,29188,5901,2114,683],"class_list":["post-118120","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-phillies","category-mlb","tag-brad-keller","tag-jonathan-bowlan","tag-jose-alvarado","tag-orion-kerkering","tag-tanner-banks","tag-tim-mayza","tag-zach-pop","tag-zack-wheeler"],"modified_by":"Ben Rosen, Staff Writer","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118120","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4566"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=118120"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118120\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":118127,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118120\/revisions\/118127"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/118121"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=118120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=118120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=118120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}