PHILADELPHIA — The Phillies are progressing toward a healthy rotation for the first time in nearly two months. Eventually, that’ll force decisions of manager Rob Thomson. But given the uncharacteristic shuffling of late, he’ll be willing to trade the current problems for that future challenge.
Taijuan Walker was activated from the injured list Tuesday. He’d been on the shelf with right index finger inflammation since June 22 and has been limited to 10 starts this year after shoulder soreness in April.
Getting Walker back to a point where he can steadily eat innings – he threw 172.2 last year, a career-high – would go a long way toward relieving strain on the bullpen. Thomson said Walker would not be at full pitch count Tuesday against Miami.
“He can be a force when he’s on,” Thomson said. “We saw that for a period of time last year, and hopefully we get that back. Early in the year, he really didn’t have his good stuff, and he was giving us five innings just on guts. So that’s who he is. He’s a competitor, and he goes out every day and gives us his best and he fights through it.”
Walker would only go four innings Tuesday for a punchless Phillies team in what became a terrible 5-0 loss to the Miami Marlins.
Meanwhile, Ranger Suarez (back soreness) threw 60 pitches over two innings Tuesday in live batting practice and a bullpen. Thomson is encouraged by how April’s National League pitcher of the month has progressed.
“Curveball and changeup were both real good,” Thomson said. “Command in the first inning was a little off, but it got a lot better in the second inning.”
Suarez will have another rehab exercise Sunday. It could be at Triple-A Lehigh Valley or in Philadelphia. If it’s the latter, it would be so the Phillies can stretch out his pitch count and eschew another rehab outing.
The fifth Phillies starter to begin the season, Spencer Turnbull (lat strain) is due to resume throwing this week. He’s still a few weeks away from a potential return if all goes well, and the most likely path would be as a postseason reliever.
Walker and Suarez being healthy would give the Phillies six starting options, with Tyler Phillips earning his spot in the rotation. It opens the door to a six-man rotation, which would leave fewer innings on Aaron Nola, Zack Wheeler and especially Cristopher Sanchez for when October rolls around.
That tactic would leave the bullpen an arm short. But that’s a balance the Phillies will try to strike when the need arises.
“It’s always there, but we’ve got some options in Lehigh that we can flip guys if we need to,” Thomson said. “So we’ll tackle that when we get there.”
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Austin Hays (hamstring) is progressing in his rehab. Thomson said he hit in the cage and is progressing through his throwing program. He also was due to perform some light defensive work.
Hays went on the IL on Aug. 9, retroactive to Aug. 8. He was acquired from Baltimore at the trade deadline.
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To accommodate Walker’s return, Yunior Marte was optioned to Triple-A Lehigh Valley.
It’s been a struggle for Marte in three stints in the bigs this year, averaging out to a 7.13 ERA in 24 innings. Since his last call on July 21, he has allowed 16 hits, 13 earned runs, three homers and eight walks against eight strikeouts in 7.2 innings. Even before seven earned runs in two-thirds of an inning in Arizona Saturday, things were trending the wrong way for the hard-throwing but erratic righty.
Max Lazar, who has retired seven of the eight batters he’s faced as a big-leaguer without surrendering a hit, didn’t have the highest bar to clear to stick around. But he’s done so nonetheless.
“He threw strikes, got people out, no heartbeat,” Thomson said. “It was really good.”
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NOTES >> Orion Kerkering has allowed runs in five of his last 10 outings, seeing his ERA nearly double from 1.26 to 2.42. He has a 7.00 ERA over his last nine innings. Thomson’s level of concern is low, but he’s cognizant of dips in the righty’s velocity. Kerkering threw 62 innings last year between the regular season and playoffs and is already at 49 this year. “This is first full season in the big leagues, so now we’re trying to give him some extra days in between just to make sure that we don’t put him in harm’s way,” Thomson said. “The velo’s ticking down a little bit, so that makes the other stuff tick down a little bit. So we want to make sure that we keep him fresh and keep him healthy.” … In the minor league accounting last week, Nick Nelson cleared waivers and has been outrighted to Lehigh Valley. Darick Hall and Max Castillo did the same Sunday, though Castillo was released Monday, as was Ricardo Pinto. … Phillips (4-1, 4.83 ERA) takes the mound Wednesday against Miami’s Edward Cabrera (2-3, 5.20) to cap the truncated series. The Phillies follow with four against Washington.
Source: Berkshire mont
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