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.
Fool’s Gold: Edmundo Sosa
As one of the key backup infielders for the Phillies over the past few seasons, Edmundo Sosa has become a dependable piece on their roster from both an offensive and defensive standpoint. But what stood out was how he was able to step up his game last season in the absence of Trea Turner with his hamstring injury, showing that he could be a big-game player when needed.
This year, Sosa got off to a good start in spring training when he posted a strong .292 average and .833 OPS, along with five runs scored, four doubles, two home runs and 11 RBIs in 18 games of action. But who would have thought that he would have an even crazier start to the 2025 regular season?
In nine games entering Monday, Sosa has compiled an eye-popping .444 batting average, which leads the team, and a 1.057 OPS, which is just behind Kyle Schwarber. In addition, he has also recorded four runs scored, four doubles and six RBIs over that stretch. To try to keep his potent bat in the lineup, the Phillies have even experimented using Sosa in the outfield.
But as good as he has been, hitting well over .400 and maintaining a 1.000+ OPS all year is highly unlikely for the 29-year-old infielder, especially when his career marks for batting average and OPS are more in the .260 and .720 range, respectively. Nevertheless, there’s a good chance he will remain productive enough to maintain his important value coming off the bench for the Phillies in the long run.
Sustainable: Kyle Schwarber
Phillies star Kyle Schwarber will never be known for being a defensive stalwart. But one thing is for sure, you can always count on him to provide massive offensive production whenever he is in the lineup for the Phillies.
During his past few seasons with Philadelphia, Schwarber has averaged greater than 100 runs scored, 40 home runs, 100 RBI and 105 walks per year while maintaining a strong .346 on-base percentage and .840 OPS in the process to power the Phillies’ attack. In particular, when the bulk of the Phillies struggled during the latter parts of 2024, it was Schwarber who ended up carrying the offensive weight, as he ended up leading the team in runs scored, home runs and RBIs when all was said and done.
This year, the 32-year-old designated hitter has been at it once again to start his 2025 campaign. With Phillies stars Bryce Harper, Trea Turner and others struggling a bit coming out of the gate, Schwarber has been on fire. Before Monday's game against the Giants, he had already scored 13 runs, hit six home runs, and amassed 12 RBIs, 11 walks and 15 strikeouts while batting a solid .273 with a 1.067 OPS in his first 15 games of the season.
Just for comparison’s sake, the next closest Phillie in runs scored is eight (Harper) and in home runs is two (Harper again). So without Schwarber, the Phillies might not be fielding the record that they have now to be near the top of the NL East. And to ask the silly question if the 11-year veteran can keep putting up these big numbers for Philadelphia? There’s no question that would be a big “yes” as Schwarber continues to get it done for the Phillies as he always has.
Fool’s Gold: Taijuan Walker
After having a respectable first season with the Phillies in 2023 in which he led the team in wins with 15, things fell completely apart for Taijuan Walker during his injury-ravaged 2024 campaign. Constantly struggling with his control and command, Walker put up the worst numbers of his MLB career. In 19 total appearances that included 15 starts, he posted an abysmal 3-7 record with a 7.10 ERA and 1.72 WHIP, giving up 66 earned runs, including 24 home runs, with 37 walks and 58 strikeouts in just 83 2/3 innings of work.
As a result of the dreadful performance, the Phillies worked with Walker to re-establishing his velocity during the past offseason, with hopes that he would have a chance at redemption in 2025. So far this year, things have certainly been looking up for the 32-year-old veteran right-hander. In his two starts heading into his Monday start, Walker had held the opposition scoreless on eight hits with nine strikeouts in 10 2/3 innings pitched while sporting a tidy 1-0 record and 1.13 WHIP.
However, Phillies fans should temper their expectations just a bit, since Walker also managed to record a couple of quality starts near the beginning of his 2024 campaign before things started to go downhill from there. On top of that, in his last start against the Atlanta Braves on April 9, he actually escaped two base-loaded situations with the bullpen helping him out in one of them as well. So whether Walker was just lucky or that he has the ability now to grind it out will be up to him to prove as the year progresses.
Sustainable: José Alvarado
As one of the most reliable key cogs of the Phillies’ bullpen in recent years, José Alvarado surprisingly had a down season in 2024. Tasked normally in high-leverage, late-inning situations throughout his tenure with Philadelphia, Alvarado actually struggled mightily when he was handed the closing role last year following the departure of the wildly inconsistent Craig Kimbrel.
In 66 relief appearances, he compiled a 2-5 record with an uncharacteristic 4.09 ERA and 1.25 WHIP while blowing three saves in 16 total opportunities. In the end, Alvarado lost hold of his ninth-inning duties but finished the year on a stronger note, posting a 2.89 ERA, 0.86 WHIP while holding opposing hitters to just a .156 batting average during the final month of the season.
As a result, the 29-year-old left-hander looked for redemption and has been off to a blazing start in the 2025 season. In seven games, Alvarado has amassed a 2-0 record with a stellar 1.23 ERA and 1.09 WHIP, along with a whopping 13 strikeouts in just 7 1/3 innings of work.
More importantly, he's resembling his old dominant form and has also confidently taken over the Phillies’ closing duties this time around over Jordan Romano. Alvarado already showed positive signs of permanently turning things around during spring training when he mowed down hitters like no tomorrow by recording 20 strikeouts in nine innings pitched while giving up zero runs in the process.
Therefore, it appears as though this dominant version of Alvarado will be here to stay, which bodes well for the Phillies’ World Series aspirations this season.