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Otto Kemp

Dombrowski: Phillies Focused On Bullpen Help

By Steve Adams | June 25, 2025 at 10:23am CDT

The Phillies enter deadline season as clear buyers, sitting atop the NL East with a 47-32 record — the third-best record of any club in the game. It’s a familiar refrain, but president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski made clear this week in interviews with Daniel Alvarez Montes of El Extrabase and Jayson Stark of The Athletic that his focus will be on adding to the bullpen.

“Our starting pitching’s so good,” Dombrowski told Alvarez Montes. “When [Bryce] Harper comes back, our lineup is in pretty good shape at that time. It’s probably bullpen is our biggest focus.”

Dombrowski offered similar sentiments in his chat with Stark and podcast co-host Doug Glanville, though he expanded a bit deeper. While the Phils clearly have a need for some relief help, The longtime baseball ops leader reminded that lefty José Alvarado will be back for the end of the regular season, which will be a boost to the team’s bullpen. Because Alvarado is serving an 80-game PED ban, he’s ineligible for this year’s postseason, but Dombrowski noted that his club will likely shift multiple members of its vaunted rotation into the ’pen for the postseason, just as one of his former teams — the 2018 Red Sox — did to great effect when plugging Nathan Eovaldi and David Price into the playoff bullpen.

That’s not to say the Phillies won’t go out and add a bullpen arm (or perhaps even two). Dombrowski is nothing if not aggressive and straightforward when his team has a need. He emphasized to Stark and Glanville that winning opportunities only come around so often and should not be taken for granted, even if it means “you may give up a little more than you would want to in other circumstances.”

[Related: Philadelphia Phillies Trade Deadline Outlook]

Dombrowski pointed back to his 2022 trade of righty Ben Brown to Chicago in exchange for David Robertson as one such example, noting that it was a painful decision that was made out of what he believed to be strong pitching depth in the system and a major league roster that was capable of making a deep postseason run. Brown, 22 at the time, was ranked as the Phillies’ No. 7 prospect at Baseball America and was ready for a bump from High-A to Double-A. Robertson was a pure rental but in the midst of a terrific rebound season for the Cubs. He went on to pitch well for the Phils down the stretch and into the postseason. Brown was in the majors less than two years after the trade. He’s struggled in 2025 (and was optioned yesterday) but pitched quite well for Chicago last year and is still viewed as a viable long-term member of the pitching staff.

Phillies relievers currently rank 25th in the majors with a 4.63 ERA. They’re slightly better when it comes to FIP (4.24, 22nd) and SIERA (3.78, 15th). The Philadelphia bullpen has a 22.2% strikeout rate that’s right in line with the 22.4% league-average for relievers, and their 8.8% walk rate is a bit shy of the 9.4% league-average mark. However, the group has been far too homer-prone overall, sitting with a 1.29 HR/9 mark that is tied for the second-worst mark in the majors.

The Phillies have gotten generally good work from Matt Strahm, Orion Kerkering, Tanner Banks and (before he was suspended) Alvarado. Offseason signee Jordan Romano struggled considerably in the season’s first month but has posted a 2.95 ERA with a huge 35.6% strikeout rate and 9.6% walk rate over the past two months. Taijuan Walker, moved from the rotation to the bullpen, has shown flashes of excellence — he tossed three scoreless innings of one-hit ball and fanned seven Rays in a relief outing back in May, for instance — but has been inconsistent and stumbled as of late.

Stark did touch on other topics with Dombrowski, notably wondering whether the Phillies might be open to moving Harper back to the outfield if the opportunity to acquire a right-handed-hitting first baseman presented itself. The Phillies’ president declined to speak in absolutes but said he would strongly prefer not to do so, citing Harper’s defensive acumen at first base. In more general terms, Dombrowski downplayed the possibility of adding a bat in any capacity, pointing to previous trade deadlines where he’s promoted players from the farm rather than make an outside acquisition. Twenty-five-year-old Otto Kemp, who hit .313/.416/.594 in Triple-A before a recent promotion to the majors, is currently getting a look and was mentioned specifically by Dombrowski.

Dombrowski also spoke in broad terms about hoping to re-sign Kyle Schwarber and J.T. Realmuto after the season, as both are up for free agency this winter. Phillies fans, in particular, will want to check out both interviews, which clock in around six minutes (Alvarez Montes) and 30 minutes (Stark/Glanville) in length.

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Philadelphia Phillies Bryce Harper J.T. Realmuto Kyle Schwarber Otto Kemp

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Phillies Place Bryce Harper On 10-Day IL Due To Wrist Inflammation

By Mark Polishuk | June 7, 2025 at 10:39am CDT

The Phillies announced that Bryce Harper has been placed on the 10-day injured list (retroactive to June 6) due to inflammation in his right wrist.  Utilityman Otto Kemp had his contract selected from Triple-A in a corresponding move, and no 40-man transaction was needed since the Phillies only had 39 men on their 40-man roster.  Philadelphia also sent right-hander Alan Rangel down to Triple-A while calling up righty Daniel Robert to provide a fresh arm for the bullpen.

Harper didn’t play in the Phils’ 5-4 loss to the Pirates yesterday, and manager Rob Thomson told reporters (including Scott Lauber of the Philadelphia Inquirer) that Harper was being given a rest day to deal with a wrist problem that has been bothering the first baseman “for a while,” as Thomson put it.  Lauber wrote that it isn’t known if this current injury is similar to or a continuation of the right wrist issue that also nagged at Harper during the 2024 season.

It’s been a rough stretch overall for Harper on the health front, as he was hit on the right elbow by a Spencer Strider pitch on May 27 and then missed Philadelphia’s next five games.  No IL stint was ultimately required for that injury, though Harper had only one hit in 11 plate appearances after returning to the lineup.  Between both Harper’s wrist and any lingering soreness with his elbow, a proper IL placement seems like a good idea to allow Harper to get fully rested and healed up.

Harper is hitting .258/.368/.446 with nine home runs over 253 PA this season — good for a strong 129 wRC+ but down from Harper’s usual superstar levels of production.  While there’s never a good time to get drilled on the elbow by a Major League pitch, Harper’s painful encounter with Strider came at a particularly inopportune moment, as Harper had a .936 OPS in the 20 games prior to May 27.

With Harper either unavailable or not hitting much, the Phillies have hit a slump in the last week, losing seven of their last eight games.  Alec Bohm moved over to play first base in Harper’s previous absence and Edmundo Sosa played third base, so that will likely be the most standard alignment for the Phils while Harper is on the IL.  Weston Wilson could also factor into the infield picture if utilityman Sosa is spending more time in an everyday role, and Kemp has seen a lot of time at first, second, and third base (plus a handful of games at shortstop and in the corner outfield) during his four minor league seasons.

Kemp will be making his Major League debut whenever he first appears in a game for the Phillies, which marks quite a journey for a player who went undrafted in 2022.  Philadelphia signed Kemp as a free agent following the draft and he has only gotten better as he has risen through the minor league ranks, including some sensational numbers at Triple-A Lehigh Valley this year.  The 25-year-old Kemp is hitting .317/.417/.602 with over 264 Triple-A plate appearances, and he leads the International League with 14 home runs.

This kind of production is more than worthy of a look at the MLB level, and Kemp figures to also be part of the third base picture while Harper is out.  Like Bohm, Sosa, and Wilson, Kemp is also a right-handed hitter, so it doesn’t make for a smooth platoon situation.  Since Kemp has played some left field in Lehigh Valley, however, he might get some time in left field in place of the left-handed hitting Max Kepler if a southpaw is on the mound.

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Philadelphia Phillies Transactions Alan Rangel Bryce Harper Daniel Robert Otto Kemp

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