3 surprising Phillies players who are off to slow starts and holding the team back

The Philadelphia Phillies have some concerns despite some good starts by their roster in the first month of the 2025 regular season. If the club has some inconsistencies, the bad play should occur at this point in the season rather than in mid-August and September, if given a choice. Despite winning their first National League East division title since 2011, Philly peaked during June last season but fizzled down the stretch and lost early in the postseason.

There have been concerning performances for Philadelphia a few weeks into a six-month regular season. The players have battled inconsistencies as the bad traits have outweighed the good. The players need to perform better regularly, before their statistics get worse.

3 surprising Phillies players who are off to slow starts and holding the team back

Max Kepler, OF

The Phillies signed Max Kepler in the offseason and intended to use him as their starting left fielder. The 32-year-old was the club's most productive starting player during spring training with a 1.175 OPS in 17 games. He entered the regular season with momentum.

However, Kepler has experienced his share of ups and downs during the first few weeks of the regular season. He had a 3-for-4 game in the home opener versus the Rockies in which he had a double, a home run and one RBI.

Following his first multi-hit game in a Phillies uniform, Kepler went 1-for-18 over his next six games. His OPS dropped from 1.318 to .678, and his batting average lowered from .364 to .172. The outfielder responded with two hits in back-to-back games, followed by going hitless in seven at-bats in his next two contests.

Kepler once again had two hits in the next two games against the Giants, including a double in each and one RBI in the first contest of the four-game series. He had a slash line of .245/.333/.377 line and an OPS of .710 entering the April 17 contest versus San Francisco.

However, the native of Berlin, Germany, went 2-for-16 with one double, one RBI, and five strikeouts in his last four games in the Phillies' homestand. In his first 19 games, Kepler gets on base when he gets hits, but he does not hit too many extra-base hits. His home runs and RBIs are infrequent as well. The former Minnesota Twin had two hits, including one double versus the New York Mets on April 21, raising his OPS to .673.

After the Phillies' 5-1 loss to the Mets on Tuesday, Kepler is now slashing .240/.337/.360 with just one home run, four RBIs and 10 runs scored in 86 plate appearances. He has 10 walks to 17 strikeouts, and his 9.8 percent walk rate and 19.5 percent strikeout rate are right around his career averages.

Kepler's 89.1 mph average exit velocity and 7.0 percent barrel rate are also close to what he has put up over his 10-year career. He should perhaps have had a better start to the year, as his 50.9 percent hard-hit rate so far is a career-best. Plus, his .275 xBA and .390 xSLG indicate that he has run into some bad luck early on this season.

Barring multiple injuries to position players, Kepler will not be batting any higher than fifth or sixth in the lineup. He should demonstrate more consistency at the plate in a batting order that has been underwhelming near the bottom of the lineup. Once again, the Phillies have an outfield position group that has shown some concerns offensively, and the club's newest outfield addition is one reason for the pessimism.

Jordan Romano, RHP

Jordan Romano's unpredictability has been one of the Phillies' glaring problems a month into the regular season. He began the year by allowing two runs in the bottom of the eighth inning in the Opening Day game against the Washington Nationals.

After two solid games against the Colorado Rockies, Romano surrendered five earned runs, three hits, including a home run, and three walks in two appearances against the Los Angeles Dodgers. His start during the season's first week was alarming, especially since he is an option for manager Rob Thomson to use in the late innings.

Romano's drop in pitch velocity was a concern, as were his mechanics, he mentioned in his postgame comments following his second outing against the Dodgers on April 6.

"I'm used to [my pitches] being at 96 [miles per hour]," Romano told gathered media. When the velo's right, it helps the slider too. It could be [a mechanical thing], I'm going to look at some video, really dive in and figure this thing out really quick."

Romano and the Phillies coaching staff seemed to identify the issue to help him get back on track in the next three games he appeared in. The reliever allowed no earned runs, no walks, and only one hit in three innings against the Atlanta Braves, St. Louis Cardinals and San Francisco Giants. It seemed like Phillies fans could have confidence in the right-hander being a dependable late-inning pitcher who Thomson could turn to as the organization envisioned following signing him.

The day after his third consecutive solid outing, MLB.com's Todd Zolecki wrote a piece on how the Phillies and Romano identified an issue with his delivery. The 32-year-old adjusted his leg lift when winding up to throw a pitch.

Zolecki noted in his article that Romano's leg lift was noticeably smaller in his three appearances following the series finale against Los Angeles. Phillies pitching coach Caleb Cotham commented on the pitcher's mechanical change.

"You can make a decision where you set up on the rubber," Cotham said, per Zolecki. "You can make a decision about how you enter your lift, your posture, your position. For [Romano], he’s shown a bunch of different styles of leg lifts that have worked, but when he’s at his best, it’s usually just a little tighter, a little quieter. A delivery’s job is to go toward the plate. You can overcomplicate it, but you want to be going toward the plate. But the more I’ve got going east-west with my balance, the harder it is to get going to the plate with balance. He’s just quieted it up a little bit.”

Romano entered his next appearance with a comfortable seven-run lead in the ninth inning of the April 19 game against the Miami Marlins. His velocity and mechanics appeared normal, but the Marlins got the better of Romano. He allowed a career-high six earned runs in addition to six hits, including two home runs, in 2/3 of an inning.

The reliever mentioned what the issues were after his fourth bad outing in nine relief appearances.

"When I'm up in the count, I need to make better pitches, 1-2, 0-2, I still felt great out there, [I] just got crushed," Romano said.

Based on how he has done so far, Romano will likely be up and down for the foreseeable future. With every bad performance by the reliever, it becomes more of a concern whether the Phillies will win or lose, depending on how he pitches.

Aaron Nola, RHP

Aaron Nola typically struggles at the beginning of the season. His erratic play so far is not completely surprising. The last year he did not begin with a high ERA was 2021. This year is no different, as he allowed five earned runs in 5 1/3 innings against the Nationals in his first game.

Nola gave up four of his six earned runs in the first inning versus the Giants in his fourth start. Given his reputation as the Phillies' second-best starter, he needs to correct his issues, as they are holding the team back.

The 31-year-old has not received much offensive support from the lineup in four of his five starts. Phillies batters put up no runs when Nola pitched in the game against Washington, or in the five innings in his third start against St. Louis.

Despite his overall struggles, Nola has finished with good strikeout totals in four of his five appearances. The right-hander totaled eight, seven, and eight strikeouts versus the Nationals, Cardinals and Giants.

Following his performance against San Francisco, the veteran spoke about his command issues in the first inning, per MLB.com's Todd Zolecki.

“It drives me crazy,” Nola said, per Zolecki. “I mean, it’s unacceptable. Three times in my career I’ve done that, and two times in the past two games. I’ve just got to get ahead better. Too many free passes, and usually those runners have been scoring. I’m just making it harder on myself in those situations. Eight walks in two games overall. That’s not good. I’ll clean it up.”

According to Zolecki, Nola had his worst four-game stretch since he totaled a 6.86 ERA from Sept. 2-20 of 2023. The beat writer wrote that his 2025 start is his worst start to a season since 2019, when he totaled a 7.45 ERA.

Nola’s bad start to the year continued on Monday as he allowed four earned runs (although two of those scored after he left the game), seven hits, two home runs and two walks in 6 1/3 innings in the Phillies' 5-4 loss at Citi Field against the Mets. He had six strikeouts as well.

Once again, the Phillies' offense did not come through as they totaled no runs while he was on the mound. Nola, who is now 0-5 with a 6.43 ERA, is next scheduled to be on the mound against the Chicago Cubs, which looks to be another tough start for him on the road.

Nola's home run problem has reared its ugly head early on this season. He has already given up six long balls; his 24 percent HR/FB rate and 1.93 HR/9 are by far the highest rates of his career. This is despite a 48.8 percent ground ball rate, which is his highest rate since 2020.

With an xERA of 4.00 and xFIP of 3.40, better days should lie ahead for the veteran Phillie, if he can wrestle his command back under control. However, he will also need to get his velocity back up. All of his pitches are down at least 1.5 mph from last year, but that should improve as the weather warms up.

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