New Pitch Arsenal Could Take Philadelphia Phillies Reliever to Next Level

The Philadelphia Phillies will have a different looking bullpen this year.

Jeff Hoffman, who had been a staple in high-leverage situations, is now with the Toronto Blue Jays. And after acquiring Carlos Estevez ahead of the trade deadline to become their closer, he's also expected to depart in free agency this offseason.

That's not even mentioning Seranthony Dominguez and Gregory Soto not being in the picture after they were shipped to the Baltimore Orioles in separate deals last year.

With all of these alterations comes other players having to step up.

Perhaps no one is in for a greater role change than Orion Kerkering, their former star prospect who vaulted through their pipeline in 2023 and is seen as the Phillies' closer of the future.

Rob Thomson doesn't deploy the standard "closer" coming out of the bullpen, so the right-hander won't be reduced to just a ninth-inning act. But he certainly will be called upon in high-leverage situations more often.

Kerkering is confident he'll be up for the challenge, stating he's not nervous about what's coming his way.

And it seems like there's a reason for that; a new pitch arsenal.

When coming up through the minors, the 23-year-old was able to dominate opposing lineups with the simple one-two punch of a four-seam fastball and his devastating slider. But it was clear he needed something else if he was going to get big league hitters out at the same rate.

Philadelphia worked with him on adding a sinker, something that climbs inside on righty batters and goes away from lefties.

After deploying it for the first time this past campaign, he's ready to full unleash it this season.

"Last year, I don't want to say [the sinker] was a play-around pitch, but [it was an] experiment almost. See how it is. But this year it's take the next step into it," he said per Todd Zolecki of MLB.com.

The sample size was small in 2023, but Baseball Savant clocked him as throwing his sweeper 51 times (83.6%), the four-seamer nine times (14.8%), and just one sinker.

Considering he only appeared in three games and threw three innings that campaign as a late call up, it makes sense why he would rely on the pitch that got him there.

But, this past year, the splits were more telling.

Kerkering's sweeper was thrown 55.7% of the time (605 pitches), while the four-seamer was used 29.2% of the time (317 pitches), and the sinker 15.2% (165 pitches).

How might that look this season?

"Maybe it's like 25-25 [percent] between fastballs," Kerkering added, stating the other half would be his sweeper. "Split it a little bit more, and play off between righties and lefties a little bit more. Be able to locate left and right side of the plate a little better with it. Just keep growing off it."

If he is able to locate that sinker and have it become a real part of his arsenal, then he's just scratching the surface of what he can accomplish.

And for the Phillies, that could mean having one of the best relievers in all of baseball.