After capturing the National League East division title while posting one of their best seasons in over 13 years in 2024, the Philadelphia Phillies are looking forward to another big year in 2025. With the bulk of their daily lineup returning from last season, the Phillies will aim to take care of some unfinished business after falling short of a World Series championship in each of their past three years.
With that in mind, the Phillies have gotten off to a solid start for their 2025 campaign. Even after a rough road trip, they held a 9-6 record heading into Monday's homestand, while hanging around the top of the NL East. Their success thus far has been fuelled by significant contributions from various players on their 26-man roster. Some of those players’ strong performances were expected, but for some others, they have actually come more as a surprise.
So which of those hot starts will likely continue, and which will end up normalizing to the mean? Here, we will take a look at three Phillies players whose starts are likely sustainable and two other Phillies players whose strong starts are more likely to look like “fool’s gold” as the season progresses.
3 Phillies players whose starts feel sustainable, 2 whose feel like fool’s gold
Sustainable: Orion Kerkering
Coming up through the minor league system, the Phillies already knew they had a good one in right-handed pitcher Orion Kerkering. After all, the young 24-year-old reliever was able to fast-track through all the levels in the minors within two years of his development in the organization. In particular, in 2023, he ascended four levels in total, from Single-A all the way to the majors.
Kerkering apparently impressed enough in just three relief appearances during his call-up in the latter stages of 2023 such that the Phillies even included him on their postseason roster. More noteworthy was the fact that he actually didn’t look out of place during his MLB playoff experience, despite being thrown into the fire so early in his professional baseball career.
This year, Kerkering has been continuing that dominance out of the bullpen for Philadelphia. In six relief appearances entering Monday's action, he has amassed a 1-1 record with three holds and a tidy 1.69 ERA, while yielding just one earned run with four strikeouts in 5 1/3 innings of work.
With some of his fellow bullpen teammates struggling to start the year, Kerkering has helped provide that calming presence in their relief corps that Phillies manager Rob Thomson could turn to and trust each time out.
For those who may be looking for some potential rookie jitters or the haunted sophomore jinx, Kerkering has put that all to rest in his MLB tenure with Philadelphia to date. In just his rookie season with the Phillies last year, he posted phenomenal numbers across the board, compiling a 5-3 record with an impressive 2.29 ERA and 1.08 WHIP, giving up just two home runs all year with 17 walks and 74 strikeouts in 63 innings pitched over 64 appearances.
Look for the promising young talent to continue to get even better as he develops into one of the top relief options in the league in due time.