5 Ways Philadelphia Phillies Can Fix Their Bullpen This Offseason

In hindsight it probably wasn’t a smart decision for the Philadelphia Phillies to head into this season with a bullpen featuring primarily young and inexperienced pitchers.

Injuries to Michael Stutes and David Herndon weren’t expected to cause them to miss nearly the entire season, and players such as Antonio Bastardo and Chad Qualls were supposed to provide a seamless late-inning transition to closer Jonathan Papelbon.

Instead, the Phils’ bullpen in the second-half features players such as Michael Schwimer, Jeremy Horst and B.J. Rosenberg.

Not quite what was expected for a team whose top major league ready prospects primarily consist of relief pitchers.

As David Murphy wrote on Philly.com in June, the Phillies spent approximately 11.68 percent of their entire Opening Day payroll on the bullpen for this season. From 2008-2010, the percentage was above 19 percent. Murphy also points out that approximately $17 million of the nearly $20 million paid to the bullpen goes to Papelbon, Jose Contreras and Kyle Kendrick. The team’s plan to use young and inexpensive relievers this season has not worked out the way it might have hoped.

However, because these players are still young and considered to be some of the team’s best prospects, there’s a chance that having a year of experience under their belts will be all they need in order to have improved performances next season.

But with only two relievers who currently have an ERA under 3.50, the Phils must still look at ways to address their bullpen, in addition to the other tasks on their to-do list after this season.

Here are five different ways the Phillies can fix their bullpen this offseason.

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