Orion Kerkering Discusses Moving Past Nightmarish End to 2025

The Phillies didn't give up on Orion Kerkering.

They could have, even though he's an ascending, soon-to-be 25-year-old reliever, citing the need for a change of scenery after a nightmarish end to the 2025 NLDS.

Kerkering, of course, made the errant throw home in a walk-off loss to the Dodgers as the Phillies were eliminated. All he needed was the out at first base but, in the moment, he flubbed the decision and then the throw.

In the wake of the mistake, a talking point became whether or not the Phillies could afford to bring Kerkering back for 2026. Not because of talent or the ability to contribute but because of the constant reminder of how things ended last season. Think Mitch Williams.

"I've just got to flip the script this year and kind've learn from it," Kerkering told NBC Sports Philadelphia's John Clark over the weekend. "It's like if you have a bad test in school and you're like, I've got to do something better to flip the whole grade around or I can't let this one bad test ruin the whole semester grade."

Kerkering took the situation hard last fall. He was shown plenty of love and support from his Phillies teammates but you never really know how a player will respond to that sort of shell shock.

Too talented to move on from

It shouldn't be overlooked how important Kerkering has been to the Phillies' bullpen the last two seasons. He owns a 2.79 ERA in 126 innings with 145 strikeouts, 46 walks and eight home runs allowed. He's been a part of five playoff series with the Phillies, pitched well in three and poorly in the other two. Those other two were the 2023 NLCS loss to the Diamondbacks — when he was learning on the fly as a rookie in the postseason — and the 2025 NLDS vs. the Dodgers.

Kerkering has experienced a career's worth of highs and lows the last two years alone.

"It was a tough situation. I know he was distraught," president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski said two weeks after the Phillies were eliminated last October.

"I talked to him a couple of times myself. He's a strong individual. He will get whatever assistance and we will offer him whatever assistance he needs and we'll work with him to try to get him through that. I think he can do that."

Kerkering will enter the season as one the Phillies' four or five most important relievers, a quintet that includes himself, closer Jhoan Duran, right-handed setup man Brad Keller and lefties Jose Alvarado and Tanner Banks.

Missing his vets

Gone are the two vets who helped Kerkering along the most: Matt Strahm and Jeff Hoffman. Strahm was traded to the Kansas City Royals in December for right-hander Jonathan Bowlan, another bullpen hopeful. Hoffman is going into his second year with the Blue Jays after a postseason that was just as traumatic as Kerkering's.

Hoffman was awesome all October for the Blue Jays until the end, allowing one run over 11 innings through the ninth inning of Game 7 of the World Series when he gave up the tying home run to Miguel Rojas in a game the Dodgers won.

This whole relief thing is pretty dang hard. You can do your job four times a week for six months but all that most remember is the way it ends.