Dombrowski has Hands Full Trying to Fix Phillies Bullpen

We all know the Phillies had a historically bad bullpen in the 2020 season, but can new Phillies President of Baseball Operations, Dave Dombrowski come in and fix that in just one offseason?

The team posted a 7.06 ERA during the 60 game stretch, and its something Phillies manager Joe Girardi know needs to be addressed this offseason.

"I really believe that we could have told the hitters what was coming and it wouldn't have turned out as bad as it did," Girardi said during a zoom call. "It was just one of those years where nothing seemed to go right. It wasn't like we had a bunch of inexperienced kids.  These are guys that experienced and had success and it just didnt go right."

Girardi is right.

The Phillies made multiple trades to bring in some experienced arms, none of which worked out. They got David Hale from the Yankees, Brandon Workman and Heath Hembree from Boston and David Phelps from Milwaukee and none of them performed to the level that they once did in their recent past.

Fixing this bullpen will not be easy, it needs to be completely made over, from the closer on down.

Of the young arms, Connor Brogdom seems to have the most promise. In nine 2020 appearances at the major league level, Brogdon showed a good fastball with 17 strikeouts in 11.1 innings pitched. After struggling early, he settled in with a 3.97 ERA and 0.88 WHIP and gives the team something to build on in 2021.

Another arm that will be back in the bullpen is veteran Hector Neris. The Phillies need to replace Neris in the closer's role, but he was worth bringing back at the one-year, $5 million deal they got him at this offseason. In 24 games in 2020, he was very up-and-down, finishing with a 4.57 ERA and five saves.

Other than those two names, its quite possible that the Phillies could see an entirely new bullpen in 2021, either way, Dombrowski will have his hands full in fixing this.