The Philadelphia Phillies’ bullpen took a step forward down the stretch in 2025, but remains a question mark for the team heading into the 2026 season.
Philadelphia finished the 2025 regular season with the 20th-ranked bullpen ERA at 4.27. The bullpen has been a weakness over the last few seasons. In 2024, Philadelphia finished 14th in the league with a 3.94 ERA. The bullpen was the biggest reason why the club was knocked out of the playoffs that year, and then lost pieces heading into 2025, including Jeff Hoffman. On the bright side for the Phillies, they brought in Jhoan Duran who will be a big piece moving forward.
With that being said, who else could be back in 2026? Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski said he would be “surprised” if José Alvarado was not back, as transcribed by The Athletic’s Charlotte Varnes.
“(Matt Strahm) did solid,” Dombrowski said. “He made a couple bad pitches in the postseason, but he had a good year for us. (Tanner) Banks did a good job for us from the left-hand side. Alvarado — I’d be surprised, without making any announcements, that Alvarado’s not back with us. But we’ll see what ends up happening.”
Alvarado has a $9 million club option for the 2026 season, which Varnes noted could be declined and replaced by a new deal.
“Alvarado has a $9 million team option for 2026, which Dombrowski said the club has not made a decision on,” Varnes wrote. “The Phillies could decline the option, then work out a new deal with him.”
He’s a nine-year MLB veteran, including the last five seasons with Philadelphia. Alvarado has a career 3.47 ERA in 408 total appearances. He only appeared in 28 games in 2025 due to an 80-game suspension for a performance-enhancing substance.
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