{"id":99722,"date":"2025-04-28T12:32:21","date_gmt":"2025-04-28T16:32:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=99722"},"modified":"2025-04-28T12:32:38","modified_gmt":"2025-04-28T16:32:38","slug":"phillies-starter-nearing-return-to-rotation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/04\/28\/phillies-starter-nearing-return-to-rotation\/","title":{"rendered":"Phillies Starter Nearing Return To Rotation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Philadelphia Phillies starting pitcher Ranger Su\u00e1rez is nearing a return from the injured list<\/a> and his season debut. Su\u00e1rez has made four minor league rehab starts between Low-A Clearwater and Triple-A Lehigh Valley. Matt Gelb of The Athletic reported<\/a> that Su\u00e1rez could make one more rehab start. However, according to Gelb, Su\u00e1rez is not expected to make more than one additional rehab start. Su\u00e1rez has a 1-0 record with a 1.08 ERA in those four rehab outings. Furthermore, Su\u00e1rez has a 1.65 FIP along with a 4.80 strikeout-to-walk rate. Su\u00e1rez has a 38.1% strikeout rate and a 7.9% walk rate in those outings. Opposing batters have a .172 average and a .294 BABIP against Su\u00e1rez. In addition, Su\u00e1rez had a 0.90 WHIP during his rehab assignment.<\/p>\n

Su\u00e1rez is in a contract year this season. With that being said, a contract extension is unlikely<\/a> to happen. Su\u00e1rez could theoretically move to the bullpen when top prospect Andrew Painter arrives. However, all indications point to Su\u00e1rez remaining as a starting pitcher at least for the time being. Su\u00e1rez has 96 innings pitched in the major leagues out of the bullpen during the regular season. It does not make much sense for the Phillies to move Su\u00e1rez to the bullpen at this moment. Tanner Banks has a minor league option, but is performing well enough. Banks has a 3.86 ERA along with a 3.00 strikeout-to-walk rate this season in 11 appearances. In addition, Banks has a 3.14 FIP with a 25.0% strikeout rate and an 8.3% walk rate this season.<\/p>\n

Phillies Starter in Line to Return Soon<\/h2>\n

Starting Rotation and Bullpen Implications<\/h3>\n

Taijuan Walker will presumably move to the bullpen when Su\u00e1rez returns. Walker has a 1-2 record with a 2.78 ERA in five starts this season. This season, Walker has a 4.02 FIP and a 2.00 strikeout-to-walk rate. The Phillies had a decision to make<\/a> about Walker during spring training and opted to keep him. Walker has put together respectable outings for the most part. So far, Walker has a 20.0% strikeout rate and a 10.0% walk rate. Walker has a 1.37 WHIP this season. Meanwhile, opposing batters have a .239 average and a .288 BABIP against Walker. Relative to last season, Walker has shown improvement in most statistical categories. Walker will likely be in a long relief role in the bullpen as he was at the end of last season.<\/p>\n

Anticipated Corresponding Move<\/h3>\n

Carlos Hern\u00e1ndez has had a slightly longer stint<\/a> with the team than anticipated, but will likely be designated as the corresponding move for assignment. Hern\u00e1ndez has no minor league options available. This season, Hern\u00e1ndez has a 7.20 ERA in nine outings. Hern\u00e1ndez has a career worst 6.45 FIP as well as a 1.14 strikeout-to-walk rate this season. So far this season, Hern\u00e1ndez has a 15.1% strikeout rate and a career-worst 13.2% walk rate. Hern\u00e1ndez has a career worst 2.10 WHIP this year as well as a career worst 24.3%-barrel rate. It is worth noting that most of the appearances Hern\u00e1ndez has made this season have come in low-leverage situations. Hern\u00e1ndez has pitched nine low-leverage innings this season instead of one medium or high-leverage inning.<\/p>\n

Main Photo Credits: Brad Penner-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Philadelphia Phillies starting pitcher Ranger Su\u00e1rez is nearing a return from the injured list and his season debut. Su\u00e1rez has made four minor league rehab starts between Low-A Clearwater and Triple-A Lehigh Valley. Matt Gelb of The Athletic reported that Su\u00e1rez could make one more rehab start. However, according to Gelb, Su\u00e1rez is not expected […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4566,"featured_media":99734,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_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],"tags":[4784,3009,701],"class_list":["post-99722","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-phillies","tag-andrew-painter","tag-ranger-suarez","tag-taijuan-walker"],"modified_by":"Evan Mazza, Site Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99722","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=99722"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99722\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":99737,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99722\/revisions\/99737"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/99734"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}