Phillies: 3 silver linings with Archie Bradley injury

Connor Brogdon is another reliever who the Phillies like. While he has a little less upside, he showed last year that he can also be a really solid arm for years to come.

The 26-year-old right-hander has appeared in four games and 4 2/3 innings of work. He has not surrendered a single run so far — including his 10th inning outing on Opening Day, so he has had to work with runners on base.

Brogdon has faced 16 total batters so far in 2021 — and has given up just three hits and one walk. These are also very good numbers. Last season, he also showed some promise with an xERA of 2.34 and an xFIP of 3.22.

The Phillies have a familiar-face left-hander coming back to town.

With placing Archie Bradley on the injured list, the Phillies called up left-handed reliever JoJo Romero to take his roster spot. Romero made headlines as a rookie in 2020 for drinking energy drinks before coming in to pitch, but there are other reasons why you need to know who he is.

First, he is the guy who will be called up when a reliever is hurt. He was the last reliever cut in camp and probably deserved to be on the roster over someone like David Hale.

Last season, Romero pitched pretty OK with his FIP numbers — but his ERA and xERA were nothing to be impressed with. A 3.66 FIP and 3.53 xFIP are promising for a young rookie reliever, but a 7.59 ERA and 5.17 xERA are not very good.

With all of this said, JoJo Romero is back and has a chance to really show the Phillies why he deserves a chance. One of the added benefits of this is the Phillies will have two lefties for the first time this season. When Jose Alvarado can’t pitch, at least they have someone else to go to, if needed.

Romero might not get many chances. For the team’s sake and Romero’s, let’s hope he makes the most of them.

There could be a reliever battle between Vince Velasquez and JoJo Romero.

So far this year, Vince Velasquez has appeared in just one game, while everyone else has at least two appearances. There is a clear lack of trust in Vince Velasquez from the Phillies. If the right-hander can’t get things together in the bullpen, it is not impossible to think it will be his last chance in Philadelphia.

Romero has a chance to be up here for a while. There is an argument to make that Romero would be better to have up now. He is younger, and at this point, has more potential. At least Romero showed some promise in 2020, and he is a notably lefty.

The three-batter rule certainly has changed the landscape of the southpaw specialist, but still it could be a benefit to have another option instead of just Alvarado for some more versatility.

At the end of the day, if Romero is just as bad as Vince, having this versatility would benefit the overall bullpen. If Romero is in fact better, then the Velasquez experiment might finally be over.