{"id":854579,"date":"2026-09-20T18:18:15","date_gmt":"2026-09-20T18:18:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/854579\/"},"modified":"2026-09-20T18:18:15","modified_gmt":"2026-09-20T18:18:15","slug":"phillies-demote-orion-kerkering-mlb-trade-rumors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/854579\/","title":{"rendered":"Phillies Demote Orion Kerkering – MLB Trade Rumors"},"content":{"rendered":"

TODAY: The Phillies officially announced that Kerkering has been optioned to Triple-A Lehigh Valley. Right-hander Max Lazar<\/a> was recalled from Triple-A in a corresponding move.<\/p>\n

September 19: The Phillies are optioning Orion Kerkering<\/a> to Triple-A, reports Matt Gelb of The Athletic<\/a>. Kerkering has been a key reliever for Philadelphia in recent seasons, but he\u2019s struggled mightily since the All-Star Break. The final straw was a four-run outing tonight against the Mets.<\/p>\n

Kerkering leads the Phillies with 17 holds. He\u2019s also chipped in two saves. The righty has functioned as an important setup option ahead of closer Jhoan Duran<\/a> for much of the year. Only Jose Alvarado<\/a> has appeared in more games out of Philly\u2019s bullpen.<\/p>\n

The struggles for Kerkering began in the second half. He carried a strong 2.43 ERA into the break. In 22 games since then, he\u2019s posted an 8.10 ERA. Kerkering has been scored upon in half of those appearances.<\/p>\n

Kerkering\u2019s velocity is slightly down during this recent skid. He\u2019s sat at 96.9 mph with the four-seamer in the second half. That number was 97.5 before the break. Kerkering\u2019s slider is also down a bit. His strikeout rate has fallen to 20% in the second half. He\u2019s maintained a double-digit walk rate.<\/p>\n

Philadelphia\u2019s 2025 season ended on a Kerkering error. He made an errant throw on a comebacker in Game 4 of the NLDS to hand the Dodgers a series-clinching win. Kerkering seemed to have shaken off the miscue with his strong start to the 2026 campaign. Unfortunately, those early results didn\u2019t last. Manager Don Mattingly said he had \u201ca pretty high degree of worry\u201d about Kerkering when asked about the pitcher\u2019s confidence moving forward.<\/p>\n

The Phillies have been able to cover for Kerkering\u2019s struggles with the emergence of Jonathan Bowlan<\/a>. The former Royal has become Mattingly\u2019s go-to eighth-inning guy. Bowlan has compiled a 3.36 ERA across 59 appearances. He has 14 holds and two saves.<\/p>\n

Mattingly will have to figure out another route in the eighth inning for now. Bowlan is currently unavailable while he deals with what Mattingly referred to as a mild groin strain, per Gelb<\/a>. The Phillies aren\u2019t putting Bowlan on the injured list as he attempts to work through the injury. It\u2019s unclear when he\u2019ll be healthy enough to pitch.<\/p>\n

Photo courtesy of Eric Hartline, Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TODAY: The Phillies officially announced that Kerkering has been optioned to Triple-A Lehigh Valley. Right-hander Max Lazar was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":854580,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[25921,28634,99],"class_list":["post-854579","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-jonathan-bowlan","tag-orion-kerkering","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/854579","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=854579"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/854579\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/854580"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=854579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=854579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=854579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}