Philadelphia Phillies 2016 Grades: Bullpen

The Phillies bullpen exited spring training with no clearly established closer, had one emerge and received strong early work from the relievers, but have seen that bullpen group collapse as the season draws to a close.

After the latest collapse on Tuesday night, when the pen surrendered all of a 6-1 lead following a rain delay and handed the host Atlanta Braves a 7-6 victory, manager Pete Mackanin spoke in frustrating tone per Jim Salisbury at CSN.com.

“…at some point, somebody else has to do a (bleeping) job. Somebody else has to (bleeping) step up. In two games now, every reliever I brought in has given up a (bleeping) run. That’s unheard of.”

The Phillies are 10-14 in September, but could probably be at least a half-dozen games better than that if the bullpen simply did their jobs, holding leads and getting the opposition out late in games.

During the 2016 season the club has used 19 different pitchers in a relief role at one time or another. 

That includes Adam Morgan, who has made 20 starts but also has two relief appearances, and Phil Klein, who has made two relief appearances and one start.

Gomez, Neris, and Hernandez will all receive grades here, as will regular contributors Edubray Ramos and Elvis Araujo, and Andrew Bailey, who was a regular contributor until his late summer release.

Phillies 2016 Lefty Bullpen Options

Somewhat surprisingly, the Phillies have announced that starting rotation candidate Brett Oberholtzer is being moved to the bullpen, leaving the 5th starter battle as a head-to-head showdown between Adam Morgan and Vincent Velasquez.

Besides the obvious effect on that rotation battle, the move of Oberholtzer to the pen also muddles an already intense battle for relief pitcher spots. 

Other lefties who have been fighting for a role include incumbent Elvis Araujo and newcomers Bobby LaFromboise, Daniel Stumpf, and James Russell.

Oberholtzer would appear to be a lock to head north once the regular season opens. He has big league experience, is out of minor league options, and his experience as a starting pitcher would suggest that he could provide multiple innings in an emergency.

Assuming that Oberholtzer has a spot as a left-hander, the club would appear to have room for no more than one or two more southpaws. To this point, the three newbies have clearly out-performed the holdover Araujo.

Araujo has allowed five earned runs on four hits across 4.2 innings over five Grapefruit League appearances to this point. He has walked three and struck out three thus far.

The 24-year old made his big league debut with the Phillies last season and was mostly effective, allowing just 29 hits over 40 appearances in which he threw 34.2 innings with a 34/19 K:BB ratio.