For the Philadelphia Phillies, even though just one year has passed, a lot has happened with the club since Opening Day in 2024. The Phillies have definitely made numerous relevant moves and changes with hopes of making the team that much more competitive. But no area had undergone as much of an unexpected overhaul as their once-elite bullpen, as pointed out by Phillies Tailgate on X.
In fact, just taking a look at Philadelphia’s 40-man roster as of this moment, Matt Strahm and José Alvarado are the only two relievers who were on last year’s Opening Day roster for the Phillies who remain with the team today. Of course, there’s also Orion Kerkering, but recall he began the 2024 season on the IL due to a right forearm strain, so he wasn’t officially part of the big league roster until later in April.
Massive turnover in Phillies’ bullpen from Opening Day 2024 is wild
Gone are the likes of Jeff Hoffman, Seranthony Domínguez, Gregory Soto, Luis Ortiz, Yunior Marté and Connor Brogdon. Just taking a look at that list could come as quite a surprise. After all, didn’t Anthony Castrovince of MLB.com once rank this group of Phillies as the top bullpen in all of baseball prior to the start of the 2024 campaign?
But a lot since has taken place that has led to the wild turnover in less than a year’s time. Injuries wreaked havoc on Luis Ortiz such that his 2024 season became a write-off. Marté’s year, on the other hand, was marred by both ailments and extreme ineffectiveness throughout the course of the season. As a result, neither was able to earn another shot with Philadelphia in the end.
Domínguez and Soto, two supposedly key cogs of the Phillies’ relief corps, ended up being expendable at the trade deadline due to their inconsistencies. Brogdon, the former Phillies standout from the 2022 MLB Playoffs, couldn’t even survive the first month as a 27.00 ERA earned him a DFA and ticket out of town in the first week of April.
Hoffman managed to be best of the bunch, putting together an All-Star season and helping the Phillies reach the postseason for the third consecutive year. However, his impressive performance ultimately priced him out of Philadelphia’s range to retain him.
As a result, it will be interesting to see how experts around the league will rank the Phillies’ bullpen heading into 2025, especially now with the additions of Tanner Banks, Jordan Romano and Joe Ross to go along with the highly underrated José Ruiz. But knowing that having an elite bullpen is vital for postseason success, as we just witnessed with the Los Angeles Dodgers last season, Philadelphia will hope their newly formed group can ultimately produce similar results in 2025 to help them finally capture their third World Series title.