Philadelphia Phillies relief pitcher Orion Kerkering was thrown to the wolves to begin his major league career. He debuted in late September of 2023, appearing in three games and throwing just three innings before he was asked to go shut down the Marlins in the Wild Card series, the Braves in the NLDS, and then the Diamondbacks in the NLCS.
The fact that he only gave up two earned runs in 5.1 innings pitched is remarkable. Proof positive that the then-22-year-old has got the stones and the stuff to make a big impact on this bullpen.
Orion Kerkering receives high praise from the Phillies’ veteran backstop
If approval from Phillies catcher J.T. Realmuto is a litmus test, Kerkering passed with flying colors. Just the other day on “The Phillies Show” podcast, Realmuto explained why he has the utmost confidence that the young reliever can handle the closer role:
“Yeah, absolutely, there’s no doubt in my mind that he’ll be a closer in this game for sure,” Realmuto said. “He just has that mentality… The way that he stepped in last year, his first year pitching in the playoffs, nothing bothering him.”
He reiterated his immense focus and ability to block everything out:
“He has that ‘it’ factor where when he steps on the mound, it seems like there’s no crowd, there’s no nothing going on. It’s just him and the hitter. He’s trying to execute, and no moment really seems too big for him,” Realmuto said.
Phillies and baseball moving away from the closer role
I had Phillies reliever Matt Strahm on my podcast (Sheff’s Kiss) a few weeks ago to discuss the Phillies’ strategy when it comes to the seventh, eighth, and ninth innings:
I asked Strahm if there was any discussion between relief pitchers, pitching coach Caleb Cotham, and manager Rob Thomson on how they plan to use each reliever situationally as there was no real clear-cut traditional closer last year:
“We don’t necessarily have a closer in our bullpen, they’re gonna play our matchups…Caleb Cotham is very good with numbers and matchups…if you are the “closer” we don’t label it, but you throw the 7th inning, its because we saw the 7th inning as the hardest inning coming up between 7, 8 and 9,” Strahm stated.
He went on to explain how teams are moving away from the traditional closer role for that specific reason. Your closer is going to get the hardest outs whether it’s in the seventh, eighth, or ninth inning based on the matchup. I asked him how the bullpen was going to pick up the slack that Jeff Hoffman left and how Kerkering could make an impact.
“On the field, the kid has all the talent,” Strahm explained.
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Phillies pitching coach Caleb Cotham had a hilarious way of explaining how Kerkering is going to help fill the void that Hoffman left.
A dirtbag and a trash man, in the best way possible. He looks to replicate another season like last year where he had a sub-2.3 ERA over 64 appearances including a sub-2.5 ERA in the postseason. No matter what inning the Phillies choose to throw Kerkering out there, there is no doubt, that hitters will have their hands full with his filthy sweeper that they can count on seeing over 55% of his pitches.
