The 2025 Philadelphia Phillies bullpen will look different than it did in 2024. Many pitchers who were part of the bullpen are now gone. Perhaps the biggest loss is Jeff Hoffman after he signed a deal with the Toronto Blue Jays earlier this month. He will be difficult to replace after coming off an All-Star season.
The Phillies front office signed Hoffman's replacement earlier in the offseason in Jordan Romano. While the former Blue Jay is expected to take a bulk of late, high-leverage innings, another Phillies reliever will have to continue to develop and become a solid option at the back of the club's bullpen.
Orion Kerkering will need to continue to take the next step if the Phillies want to repeat their bullpen success story from 2024.
Phillies are counting on reliever Orion Kerkering taking another step this season
Kerkering has only pitched 66 regular season innings in the big leagues. The bulk of that workload came in 2024 when the right-hander tossed 63 innings. In that span, the young reliever impressed by finishing with a 2.29 ERA. He also struck out 74 hitters while allowing just two home runs and walking 17 opposing batters.
Not that Kerkering's short campaign in 2023 was disappointing, but there are signs that his improvement between his first two seasons could be replicated heading into spring training. For example, the now 23-year-old lowered his walk rate significantly, from 14.3 percent in a very small sample size in his first three outings to 6.6 percent all of last season.
The University of South Florida product was able to hone his command simply by trusting and using his fastball more frequently. In 2023, Kerkering relied on his sweeper 85 percent of the time while using his fastballs — he throws a four-seamer and a sinker — the remaining 15 percent. Last year the right-hander adjusted this lopsided ratio by using his fastball just under 44 percent of the time and cut back on his sweeper by throwing it about 55 percent of his pitches.
It turns out that the righty has added a two-seamer to his arsenal as well. On a recent episode of The Phillies Show podcast, pitching coach Caleb Cotham noted that Kerkering added this rendition of a fastball to build off his four-seamer.
"I think the next step for him is, like I said, he started throwing the two-seam, and it got pretty good," Cotham said. "But if can we get to where there is complete ownership of one spot with his four-seam and two-seam, and then if he does that, he's kind of completing his triangle with the back door two-seam, which he kind of did because he's obviously very nasty, the sweeper is a fantastic pitch."
Phillies believe in Orion Kerkering's growth into a late-inning option
Entering his second full season with the Phillies' relief corps, Kerkering will need to be ready for added usage. His high-velocity fastball and devastating sweeper are enough to make him a solid and reliable high-leverage reliever in the major leagues. Assuming the Phillies are telling the truth about not making any additional significant upgrades, it seems that Kerkering could be one of two or three relievers who could get eighth- and ninth-inning nods in 2025.
Cotham has full confidence in his young reliever evolving as a high-leverage pitcher and that he can fill in the gap that was left when Hoffman departed.
"He's a good thinker, he's what you want," Cotham said. "I mean this in the best way, he's a little bit of a dirtbag. He likes the ball and he likes those sticky hot situations and he doesn't back down, he's a trash man. So I think he can do that role that Hoffman was, you know, obviously fantastic at. Kerkering got a lot of taste of that role and those spots, but you know he's just going to continue, and that's the evolution of a major league reliever ... he's hungry, he's a hungry kid, and he wants to be really good."
Kerekring will have the first half of the season to prove to his club that he can really be that type of pitcher for them before they decide whether or not to add a big name at the trade deadline. Given his development thus far, there is no reason for the club to doubt that entering the season, their 2022 fifth-round draft pick could become a solidified piece of their bullpen for the foreseeable future.