Who are the 5 Phillies with the most to prove in 2024?

Can Orion Kerkering solidify his job in the Phillies bullpen?

Orion Kerkering was some kind of cool story for the Phillies this season. The 22-year-old shot through the farm system at blazing speed, passing through four levels from Low-A to Triple-A before getting the call to the bigs in late September.

The question for Kerkering is, can he solidify a major league role in 2024? There have been plenty of rookies who burst on the scene with early success but struggle to readjust after the league adapts.

In his brief regular season action, the right-hander looked utterly unfazed by the best league in the world, at least in his first two outings. He pitched a clean inning in his debut against the Mets, striking out two and earning his first hold.

After another two-strikeout performance against the Pirates, he hit a speed bump in his final game of the season, giving up a run on two hits with a pair of punchouts against the Mets.

Despite only three innings of major league experience, Kerkering was included on all three of the Phillies' postseason rosters and pitched in every series. He again started off strong, pitching three clean innings across the Wild Card Series and the NLDS before stumbling in the NLCS.

While his inclusion in the playoffs shows how much the organization believes in the youngster, it also illustrates the precarious state of the bullpen at year's end.

Kerkering's devastating two-pitch mix of a 97.8 mph sinker and an 86 mph sweeper overpowered major league hitters when he was locked in, albeit in a very small sample size. What might raise doubts about his major league job security in 2024 is how consistent he can be in finding the strike zone against major league hitters.

He posted a 12.5 percent walk rate across his 8 1/3 regular and postseason innings (again, it's a small sample size). If that seems high, it's because it is. It's not impossible to survive at that rate, but he'll have to bump up his 27.5 percent strikeout rate to be successful.

Some of the most accomplished relievers have high walk rates. Aroldis Chapman had a 14.5 percent walk rate this year, Josh Hader had a 13 percent walk rate, and Alexis Díaz sat at 12.6 percent. The difference is that they had strikeout rates of 41.4 percent, 36.8 percent, and 30.1 percent, respectively.

The good news is that a high walk rate wasn't an issue for Kerkering in the minors, at 5.8 percent.

Growth isn't always linear, and the Phillies are a team with high hopes of another deep postseason run and a return to the World Series. As a rookie with three options, Kerkering could find himself getting more "seasoning" in Triple-A if he doesn't impress early on in 2024.

NEXT: Can Cristopher Sánchez take the next step?

Can Cristopher Sánchez take the next step to be a legitimate MLB starter?

After a strong showing in 2023, Cristopher Sánchez is another pitcher with a legitimate chance at being on the major league roster heading into the 2024 season. Not only does he have a chance to be on the roster, but he has a genuine shot at being an important part of the Opening Day starting rotation.

The 26-year-old just has to prove that he belongs in the major leagues as a full-fledged starter and can hold up to the rigors of a full 162-game schedule.

After one appearance in April, Sánchez got called up for good in mid-June and made 18 starts for the Phillies, throwing 99 1/3 innings. He finished the year with a 3.44 ERA and a 1.05 WHIP while striking out 96 batters.

While the lefty started out gangbusters through his eight June and July starts, he faded a little toward the end of the year as the league began to figure him out.

In June and July his posted a stingy 2.30 ERA, a 0.84 WHIP, and held opposing hitters to a .194 average. Despite his impressive outings, he didn't pick up a win, going 0-3. The highlight of that stretch was his July 24 start against the Baltimore Orioles when he struck out eight over seven innings of four-hit, two-run ball.

Through 10 games (nine starts) in August and September, Sánchez went 3-2 and his ERA expanded to 4.15 with a 1.17 WHIP. Opponents started hitting him, and his luck began to run out, as his .314 BABIP led to a .260 opponent average. This came about despite a higher strikeout rate, which bumped to 25.9 percent from 22 percent.

There's no question that the Dominican Republic native has legit stuff, as we examined during the season. He has a special sinker and a nasty changeup, which accounted for 43 percent of his whiffs this season.

And inning limits shouldn't be a problem next season. Sánchez threw 149 frames between Triple-A and the Majors this year.

The biggest question mark for the southpaw is whether he can continue producing such a top-tier walk rate. He finished the year with a 1.45 BB/9 and a four percent walk rate, which ranked in the 98th percentile according to his Statcast metrics on Baseball Savant.

In the minors this past season, he had a real problem issuing too many free passes. He ran a 5.26 BB/9 and a 13.1 percent walk rate over 49 2/3 innings. If Sánchez is going to prove himself to be a legitimate major league starter, he'll have to show that what he did this year for the Phillies was no fluke.

NEXT: Will Taijuan Walker prove the Phillies made a mistake not using him in the postseason?

Will Taijuan Walker prove the Phillies made a mistake not using him in the postseason?

Even after such an up-and-down season, the way Taijuan Walker's 2023 campaign ended, or rather unceremoniously fizzled out, was surprising, especially to the veteran pitcher. Walker took issue with being included on all three postseason rosters but not seeing the field for even one pitch.

While you can't blame the 11-year veteran for being upset about being relegated to a bench warmer in October, it's also easy to see why the team opted to go with other options.

Walker posted a 15-6 record in his first year in red pinstripes and finished with a 4.38 ERA and 1.31 WHIP. He just didn't do enough to move up the pecking order come playoff time. With Zack Wheeler, Aaron Nola, and Ranger Suárez pitching as well as they did, there weren't any openings in the abbreviated playoff rotation.

The right-hander's rough September contributed to his benching. The 31-year-old had a 5.93 ERA in the final month, which came after a tough first two months of the season when he had a 5.57 ERA through May. The only reason his 2023 stats are passable is his phenomenal June 1.50 ERA and his July 3.86 ERA.

Can Walker prove to be a piece that manager Rob Thomson can rely on through the regular season and then in the playoffs? He has had some impressive seasons in recent memory that show he has the ability.

Last year with the New York Mets, he had a 3.49 ERA and 1.19 WHIP in 157 1/3 innings. In 2020, he was an All-Star with a sparkling 2.70 ERA over 53 1/3 innings in the shortened season.

That's the pitcher the Phillies were hoping they were signing last offseason, and he'll have to prove it in the second year of his four-year, $72 million deal. The club has high hopes for Walker next year, which Dave Dombrowski spoke about at his end-of-year presser.

"I like Taijuan Walker. I think he did a nice job," Dombrowski said. "I look for him to be a real solid part of our rotation. I look for him to pitch well for us next year."

The fans will be looking for that too.

NEXT: Can Trea Turner put together a full season?

Can Trea Turner put together a full season and show he's worth the big contract?

By this point, we all know that Trea Turner was only Trea Turner for about two months of the 2023 regular season. After some mighty struggles over the first four months of the season, something clicked for him following the now-famous show of support from the fans.

He crumbled under the pressure of trying to perform up to the expectations that came with the massive 11-year, $300 million deal he signed in the offseason. He hit a pitiful .242 with a .673 OPS through the end of July. This wasn't the Trea Turner anyone was expecting to see in Philly.

This was a career .302 hitter who had racked up 21 home runs, 100 RBI, 101 runs scored, and 27 stolen bases just last season with the Los Angeles Dodgers. Yet, for the first four months of 2023, it didn't look like he could hit the broad side of a barn, as they say.

From Aug. 4, Turner hit .337 with a 1.057 OPS and finished the year with a .266/.320/.459 slash line, 26 home runs, 76 RBI, 102 runs scored, and 30 stolen bases. Respectable counting stats, but not the batting average, on-base, or slugging percentages most had been expecting to see from the two-time All-Star.

Then came the strong start to the playoffs, in which he posted a 1.482 OPS in the Wild Card and a 1.441 OPS in the NLDS. Unfortunately, that was followed by his disappearing act at the end of the NLCS. He had a .636 OPS and finished the season-ending series on a disappointing 0-for-12 skid.

Add on his defensive struggles at short, with the worst season of his career in the field, and the first year didn't live up to the hype or the contract. But Turner still has time to prove that the signing was worth it for a Phillies team that expects him to help take them back to and win the World Series.

He'll turn 31 in the middle of the 2024 season and will have to show he still has all the tools to play up to his $27 million annual salary.

Can the real Trea Turner please stand up?

NEXT: Can Bryce Harper prove himself at first base and cement his Phillies legacy?

Can Bryce Harper prove himself at first base and cement his Phillies legacy with a World Series?

Bryce Harper had quite the 2023 season. He made it back to the field in record time after his Tommy John surgery in the offseason, endured a career-long home run drought, started playing a new defensive position, and capped it all off with some incredibly dramatic and memorable postseason moments.

The one thing he didn't do was deliver a World Series to Philadelphia.

There's no doubt that Harper loves playing in Philadelphia, but the ultimate goal for the two-time MVP is to bring a World Series trophy to the city and fans he loves so much. Anything less during his tenure as a Phillie will be a huge disappointment for him and the fans.

Harper is five years into the 13-year, $330 million contract that brought him to Philadelphia. We can give him a pass for 2022 when he played with a bum elbow, and perhaps this season, after all the challenges he overcame to get back into game action.

But the former first-overall pick is now 31, and while there's still time for him to lead the team to the pinnacle of the sport, the window won't stay open forever. The gradual downhill slide out of his prime years is getting close. As incredible a ballplayer and as impressive a specimen as Harper is, the clock is ticking for him and the core group of stars that make up this formidable version of this Phillies team.

It's a trip to the World Series or bust in 2024.

The other question for Harper going into next season is: how good will the former outfielder be at first base now that he has picked his position?

He held his own in 36 games at first base this year. He committed one error and earned one Defensive Runs Saved with his play. Obviously, there are a lot of intricacies to playing first, but the Phillies don't seem concerned about Harper's ability to pick up the position.

"We think he'll develop into a Gold Glove first baseman," Dave Dombrowski told Jon Morosi at the GM Meetings.

Let's hope so.

More Philadelphia Phillies news and analysis