Philadelphia Phillies Promoting Promising Prospect for MLB Debut

It has been a whirlwind of a year for one of the Philadelphia Phillies' top prospects.

After starting the season with the Phillies' Single-A affiliate, Orion Kerkering worked his way up through the minor league ranks and finished the year with the Triple-A Lehigh Valley team.

Or so he thought.

Matt Gelb of The Athletic reported that Philadelphia is promoting the promising young reliever to their Major League roster on Friday, with him set to make his debut at some point during the weekend slate.

Kerkering only made one appearance in Triple-A, throwing one inning and allowing two hits but zero runs.

That promotion came after throwing 22 innings at the Double-A level where he recorded a 2.05 ERA and struck out 33 batters.

Now, the Phillies want to see what he can do at the Major League level.

This comes on the heels of Philadelphia's bullpen struggling down the stretch of the season. After starting the year off strong, some of the issues that have plagued that unit in the past are back at the worst time of the year.

It's been a struggle for manager Rob Thomson to know what type of performances he's going to get in late innings of games.

Now, he'll have another weapon he can go to during the final nine games of the season.

Kerkering was a fifth round pick of the Phillies in the 2022 MLB Draft. He's ranked as the No. 7 prospect in their pipeline and was originally projected to make his debut at some point during the 2025 season.

His impressive play so far this year has catapulted him through the minor league ranks and now he's getting an opportunity to show what he can do at the Major League level.