{"id":580606,"date":"2026-02-10T20:15:22","date_gmt":"2026-02-10T20:15:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/580606\/"},"modified":"2026-02-10T20:15:22","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T20:15:22","slug":"are-the-phillies-really-at-all-deep-in-their-rotation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/580606\/","title":{"rendered":"Are the Phillies really at all deep in their rotation?"},"content":{"rendered":"

I read a lot of baseball writing, either by book or some online article that happens to catch my eye. Sometimes the writing will say something that makes me perk up a bit, particularly when it involves the Phillies. So when I read this article from The Athletic ($),<\/a><\/strong> there was a note here that made me pause.<\/p>\n

\n

With respect to the Skubal-and-Valdez Tigers, depth matters. And the Phillies, Dodgers, Red Sox (the\u00a0depthiest of the rotations, imo), Blue Jays and Reds (yes, the Reds) can all make a claim that their rotations, one through five (or in some cases, six) are the best in the game.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Huh. One through five as the best in the game.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

It got me thinking about this rotation and whether that claim can be made any longer.<\/p>\n

Of course, we need a full season\u2019s worth of recent statistics to talk about it, but with the season not having started yet, it\u2019s just conjecture. It\u2019s one person\u2019s opinion matched up against another\u2019s. Last season can be used for teams that haven\u2019t had a lot of turnover, but as it stands right now, the Phillies will likely have two, maybe three, different members of their initial five that are new compared to 2025.<\/p>\n

So comparing the Phillies\u2019 rotation as is to the others around the game before spring training happens seems foolhardy, but another question pops up when looking at that quote, at least to me.<\/p>\n

Do the Phillies even have a deep rotation? That\u2019s something that can be debated.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

Right now, were the team to have their druthers, the rotation would look like this on Opening Day:<\/p>\n

    \n\n\n\n\n<\/ol>\n

    The top two that the team will trot out in the first series are as good as it gets around the league. Even with Sanchez\u2019s 2nd place finish in the Cy Young voting, it still feels like he\u2019s underrated around the game. Luzardo finally capitalized on his immense potential to have a great season in 2025 and will be pitching to hit it big in free agency following this season. It\u2019s as good a start as any to filling out a rotation.<\/p>\n

    After that, things get murkier. We aren\u2019t really sure what Aaron Nola we are going to get this coming season. One could believe in the even year Nola conspiracy theory, but until it is actually shown in action, one has to wonder if the toll of all the innings he has pitched over the years without missing starts has begun to affect Nola and his health. Walker\u2019s role as end of the rotation pitcher\/first choice to get bumped to the bullpen is well documented by this point. If he can give the team even league average production in 4 or 5 inning bursts each outing, that\u2019s a win for the team. What Painter gives the team this year is one of its biggest question marks and one of the reasons for concern. What if Painter has a bad spring and shows he\u2019s still not ready for the major league spotlight? That would obviously go against the team\u2019s plans, but there have to be some contingencies in place in case this actually comes to fruition.<\/p>\n

    We\u2019ve gotten this far and haven\u2019t even mentioned Zack Wheeler, but with the latest update provided,<\/a><\/strong> he won\u2019t be ready for Opening Day.<\/p>\n

    Advertisement<\/p>\n

    Which brings us back to the depth that this team has accrued. Is it actually enough? Wheeler\u2019s injury has laid bare the fact that they have not backfilled as much as maybe they should have. Right now, there is Tucker Davidson and Bryse Wilson on the depth chart behind Painter, maybe even Jean Cabrera is you\u2019re feeling generous. Alan Rangel and Yoniel Curet are technically options, but who are we kidding. Are those the kinds of guys the team is going to want to rely on if something were to befall one of their current rotation members?<\/p>\n

    A lot of this is of their own volition. There hasn\u2019t been much of an effort to add these kinds of starters to their minor league stable, instead having the focus on making sure that the bullpen was full of viable options in case harmful events befall someone. That will mean a lot of breath holding each time one of those five takes their start this spring, be it in Florida or in the World Baseball Classic.<\/p>\n

    It\u2019s easy to criticize them for not getting players to join them in free agency, but it\u2019s also easy to forget it take two to tango. Players have to be willing to come to Philadelphia and usually, if a player is going to take a minor league (their likely best offer), they\u2019re going to want to see a clear path to being able to pitch. That path isn\u2019t exactly crystal clear with the Phillies. They have had a pretty remarkable string of being able to keep their starters on the field, which means free agents would probably look elsewhere. It is something of a curse, where the Phillies need starters to bide their time in the minor leagues in case of injury, but a lot of times, those injuries never come. So, convincing someone who has veteran status to join the team, likely on a minor league, is always going to be something of a challenge. If there is something to compare the Phillies to the Dodgers, it\u2019s in this fashion. Both rotations are theoretically blocked with pitchers already that getting someone to join them is tough.<\/p>\n

    However, it would behoove the team to convince someone, be it a veteran or a pitcher with a checkered history, to take a minor league deal during spring training. They have avenues of doing so, financially speaking. Kolby Allard was given a decent chunk of change to spend his time in Lehigh Valley on a minor league deal before he was eventually called up for a few starts in 2024. Giving someone a larger than normal guaranteed amount of money to spend time in the minors is one way to flex that financial muscle we always hear about.<\/p>\n

    Advertisement<\/p>\n

    The top part of the starting rotation is good, something on which we can all agree, but there needs a bit more backfill at the end of it. Dombrowski would seem to agree as he acknowledged the team is still chasing down options to help create that depth. It\u2019ll be something to follow as the team heads down to Florida to begin their preparations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I read a lot of baseball writing, either by book or some online article that happens to catch…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":580607,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[41],"tags":[43019,251894,22896,204692,2442,62559,8740,251896,1266,5055,20414,3959,11636,62,3698,3007,251895,67,132,68,3683],"class_list":["post-580606","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-aaron-nola","tag-alan-rangel","tag-blue-jays","tag-bryse-wilson","tag-dodgers","tag-j-t-realmuto","tag-jesus-luzardo","tag-kolby-allard","tag-mlb","tag-oakland-athletics","tag-phillies","tag-red-sox","tag-rotation","tag-sports","tag-taijuan-walker","tag-team","tag-tucker-davidson","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us","tag-zack-wheeler"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116048175103036318","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580606","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=580606"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580606\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/580607"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=580606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=580606"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=580606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}