{"id":766147,"date":"2026-07-16T11:31:15","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T11:31:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/766147\/"},"modified":"2026-07-16T11:31:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T11:31:15","slug":"phillies-storylines-to-watch-as-team-hones-trade-deadline-focus-pushes-for-playoffs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/766147\/","title":{"rendered":"Phillies storylines to watch as team hones trade deadline focus, pushes for playoffs"},"content":{"rendered":"

As dozens of All-Star players scrambled Tuesday night to escape Citizens Bank Park so they could enjoy whatever was left of their midsummer break, the real race was beginning in the bowels of the ballpark. Philadelphia Phillies employees had less than 48 hours to reclaim their home from Major League Baseball, which commandeered the whole place. The league has scheduled the Phillies and New York Mets for a standalone game Thursday night; every other team returns Friday.<\/p>\n

There is no rest. The upcoming nine-game, 11-day homestand for the Phillies includes visits from the Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Yankees. Then, it\u2019s a six-game trip to Miami and Baltimore right into the Aug. 3 trade deadline.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a 65-game sprint now.<\/p>\n

The Phillies have a .303 on-base percentage. That ranks 29th in baseball. All pitchers they\u2019ve used not named Cristopher S\u00e1nchez, Zack Wheeler or Jes\u00fas Luzardo have a 5.14 ERA. It\u2019s fortunate, then, that those three pitchers have logged 38 percent of the team\u2019s innings.<\/p>\n

Maybe it feels too top-heavy, but that\u2019s better than feeling nothing at all. Here are three second-half storylines to monitor.<\/p>\n

How Philly landed the All-Star Game for America\u2019s 250<\/p>\n

Tyler Kepner and more<\/p>\n

Brad Keller and the late-inning bullpen mix<\/p>\n

There is concern for Keller, who has pitched one time for the Phillies in the last 32 days. He\u2019s missed time with right elbow inflammation. He is their highest-paid reliever, and though he\u2019s not the most important one, he is integral to the whole thing. The Phillies envisioned him as a lockdown setup man for Jhoan Duran.<\/p>\n

Keller was activated July 8, pitched a scoreless inning in a blowout loss that night, and then did not appear again for the next four games. There were obvious spots to use Keller, but interim manager Don Mattingly never went to him.<\/p>\n

Mattingly told reporters after last Sunday\u2019s game that he was \u201cstaying away\u201d from Keller. Any further setback would have significant ramifications for how the Phillies approach the trade deadline. It\u2019s possible another trusted late-inning reliever would become the team\u2019s top need.<\/p>\n

Even if Keller is healthy, he has only two weeks to prove to the Phillies that he can be the piece they expected. Keller had pitched with the soreness for weeks, he said, and it affected him. He hasn\u2019t had pristine command. He has been hittable.<\/p>\n

Jonathan Bowlan has ascended Mattingly\u2019s trust tree, and he is intriguing. He has a fastball<\/a> that models grade as one of the best in the sport. He has a bunch of secondary weapons that have been effective enough. But the Phillies have tried to avoid using him often on back-to-back days, and he\u2019s seen fluctuations in fastball velocity when pitching with less rest. Can he be trusted as the main setup man in a pennant race? The Phillies might have no better choice than to see.<\/p>\n

Jos\u00e9 Alvarado has fallen out of favor with Mattingly. Lefties Tanner Banks and Kyle Backhus have been demoted to the minors. Orion Kerkering has a 2.43 ERA, but he\u2019s carrying a career-worst 12.7 percent walk rate. The Phillies need things to settle in their bullpen.<\/p>\n

Three horses, pray for rain<\/p>\n

The Phillies are 40-14 whenever S\u00e1nchez, Wheeler or Luzardo starts. That is a 120-win pace over 162 games. It\u2019s a trend that bodes so well for October, when teams can whittle their pitching staffs.<\/p>\n

But it means the Phillies are 14-29 in all other games. They have to find a way to raise the bar, even just a little bit, from the fourth and fifth spots in the rotation. Aaron Nola will start Thursday night\u2019s series opener, with rookie Alan Rangel on Sunday. Luzardo is sandwiched between them. This way, Wheeler and S\u00e1nchez will pitch against the Dodgers next week.<\/p>\n

Rangel is a placeholder; he\u2019s walked seven batters in his last two outings. The Phillies are waiting on Andrew Painter<\/a>, who has made three starts at Triple-A Lehigh Valley with some good and bad. He\u2019s leaned on his fastball more in an attempt to correct some issues. The Phillies might have to make rotation decisions before the deadline without having clarity on whether Painter can return as even a semi-competent fifth starter this season.<\/p>\n

Nola is less important to the whole operation than he once was, but he could help lessen the focus on the back of the rotation and ease some bullpen concerns with more consistent outings. It\u2019s been better; Nola has permitted three runs or fewer in seven of his last nine starts. He struck out 15 and walked two in 12 innings over his final two starts before the All-Star break.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s no coincidence that Nola used his changeup more than he has all season in those two starts. He\u2019s become more curveball-changeup heavy while using his sinker less. The changeup has helped him back into counts. It\u2019s a weapon against lefties.<\/p>\n

Aaron Nola changeup to Kerry Carpenter<\/p>\n

More than anything, the Phillies have to do whatever it takes to keep S\u00e1nchez, Wheeler and Luzardo healthy and pitching every five days.<\/p>\n

The double-play tandem<\/p>\n

Quick: Who has the third-highest on-base percentage on the Phillies over the last 45 days? Bryson Stott\u2019s .361 mark reflects a steady climb for the second baseman. His season numbers (a .700 OPS) are weighed down by a horrendous first month. Since May 1, Stott has been hitting .265\/.326\/.436. He is hitting the ball harder and pulling it in the air more than ever. It\u2019s not perfect, but it has been better.<\/p>\n

Stott\u2019s defense has taken a hit; he\u2019s somewhere around average, which splits the difference between two of the leading defensive metrics. It should be better. He is not the chief defensive concern up the middle. That is Trea Turner, the shortstop.<\/p>\n

Turner has 2 1\/2 months to salvage his season. It can start, at the very least, on defense. He\u2019s regressed in a major way. The 33-year-old veteran has won a World Series and signed a $300 million deal, but he\u2019s still guilty of carrying offensive struggles into the field. Separating those two things is paramount, especially if Turner has accepted the reality that his season-long offensive numbers won\u2019t look the way they should \u2014 no matter what he does to finish this season.<\/p>\n

It is more complex than this, but Turner is better when he does not chase. The blue line in the graph below is his wOBA, while the red line is his rate of swings outside the strike zone.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/<\/p>\n

In the short term, the Phillies have no other choice. Turner is their shortstop. If he does not show improvements in the field over the last 65 games, the long-term implications are real. It would be malpractice for the Phillies not to consider a position switch in the offseason.<\/p>\n

Turner takes pride in his work and his status as the shortstop. It\u2019s where he wants to be. But it is not a stretch to suggest he\u2019s playing in August and September for his future at that premium position.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As dozens of All-Star players scrambled Tuesday night to escape Citizens Bank Park so they could enjoy whatever…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":766148,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[363,480,99],"class_list":["post-766147","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-mlb","tag-philadelphia-phillies","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/766147","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=766147"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/766147\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/766148"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=766147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=766147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=766147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}