It has never been more obvious where the Philadelphia Phillies should spend their money and/or assets at the trade deadline. The bullpen has been the achilles heal for any sort of momentum and a deterrent for many Phillies fans believing this team is capable of winning a World Series in 2025.
The 2025 MLB trade deadline will take place Thursday, July 31. It will be a highly anticipated one for the Phillies this season. It won't be just solely because of the name of their president of baseball operations, Dave Dombrowski, but also because this year might hinge on the success of reinforcements more than recent years of the Dombrowski Phillies era.
Dave Dombrowski knows he needs to fix Phillies' bullpen at trade deadline
The 13-0 routing of San Francisco was great on Wednesday, but let us not forget that the two previous losses to the Giants were inevitably surrendered by the bullpen, including an all-time meltdown on Tuesday night (subscription required), per Matt Gelb of The Athletic. It may feel like an exaggeration saying the team can't afford to operate this way any longer, but they've made it obvious they're capable of unraveling on any night.
Across all 30 MLB teams, the Phillies rank 23rd in bullpen ERA. They also rank 18th in strikeout percentage (21.9 percent), 23rd in BAA (.252), 21st in FIP (4.14) and 15th in fWAR (2.0). That doesn't bode well for a bullpen ready to close out important games in October. Dombrowski knows what's at stake and just needs to go all-in to give this fan base something to hang their hat on going forward.
Dombrowski was always known for making the big move. He's done that on occasion, but his recent deadlines have come up a little short with the likes of Carlos Estévez, Austin Hays and Tanner Banks. They've had to rely on the guys like Jordan Romano (7.44 ERA), Orion Kerkering (2.83 ERA) and Matt Strahm (3.47 ERA) to be the top arms out of the pen. They can get the job done at times, but are just clearly an arm short at the least.
This year could be different, and Phillies fans will be holding their breath as the day approaches. It's not a given that they'll go all-in, but based on reports, this may finally be the year (subscription required) fans and the front office have been waiting for, per Matt Gelb of The Athletic.