Philadelphia Phillies Bullpen Creating Plenty of Reasons To Be Pessimistic

The bullpen of the Philadelphia Phillies has once again become a concern for the team.

Mar 27, 2025; Washington, District of Columbia, USA; Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Jordan Romano (68) throws a pitch during the sixth inning against the Washington Nationals at Nationals Park | Reggie Hildred-Imagn Images

The Philadelphia Phillies are in the midst of a bit of a tough stretch with some issues on the roster resulting in losses.

Coming into the season, expectations were once again high for the Phillies. Despite a tough loss to the New York Mets in the National League Division Series, Philadelphia mostly ran it back in 2025.

In the series loss, there were a few glaring issues that needed to be addressed, and the Phillies seemingly did that this winter.

However, some of those issues that plagued them in 2024 have popped back up in 2025.

Now, Philadelphia is facing some stiff competition early on in their division and are hovering around .500.

Even though there is a lot of talent on the roster, there are now all of a sudden a lot of concerns about the outlook for the team.

Jim Bowden of The Athletic (subscription required) recently wrote about the Phillies' bullpen as the most significant reason to be pessimistic about the team this season.

“The Phillies need to improve their bullpen between now and the trade deadline. Offseason acquisition Jordan Romano is off to a slow start, posting a 13.50 ERA over 11 appearances," he wrote.

The bullpen has been an issue for Philadelphia the last number of years, and that trend has unfortunately continued.

This winter, the Phillies made the decision to let both Jeff Hoffman and Carlos Estevez leave in free agency. As two of their best relief pitchers last campaign, they replaced them with, most notably, Jordan Romano.

The two-time All-Star from the Toronto Blue Jays had a tough year in 2024 with injuries seemingly holding him back, but the results early on with Philadelphia have not been good.

With their closer struggling, the Phillies once again have a massive issue in the backend of their bullpen.

Romano was supposed to come in and be a shutdown pitcher for the team in the ninth inning. Now, he has already lost his job as the closer and is trying to figure out how to bounce back.

As the season progresses, Philadelphia is likely going to have to once again address the bullpen at the trade deadline. This will potentially be very costly to the team, with relief pitchers at the deadline always coming at a premium with contenders looking to bolster their bullpens.

Since Philadelphia is clearly in a win-now mode this year, they will likely have to pay a steep price to acquire a talented reliever at the deadline. It unfortunately doesn’t seem like Romano is going to be turning it around anytime soon, and the bullpen has become a big issue once again.