Phillies Mailbag: Bullpen, Bohm, Return of Suarez

We open up the Phillies mailbag once again. Each week we take your questions and talk about them on the Sports Bash with Mike Gill every Tuesday during the Phillies season. Send your questions anytime on Twitter to @FrankKlose or send a text to the text board at 609-403-0973.

Can someone please ask Joe Girardi why some of the young electric arms like Brogdon are still at Lehigh Valley?
~Benjamin

You may get your wish, Benjamin.  The Phillies bullpen has been frustrating, if "frustrating" is the right word.  Ok, maybe you have thrown some things in your house and caused some damage to walls and unsecured objects.

After Monday night's 13-8 win, which was a 13-1 lead heading into the ninth inning, I think the bullpen issue really hit a head.

I reported earlier that I hear a Phillies bullpen move is imminent.  And just as I posted my Tweet, Jim Salibury of NBC Sports Philadelphia mentions a move in the works, possibly concerning prospect Connor Brogdon, whom you name specifically.  I personally feel like Damon Jones could be ready soon, too.  A name that was in Philadelphia last year that I think could come as soon as today is Blake Parker.

There are not a lot of options now that the season is underway.  There's a trade deadline in less than three weeks, but there will be little available with so many teams in.  I think the Phillies will have to make full use of their 60-player pool and see who steps up.

When do you think they will call up Alec Bohm?
~Kevin

The Phillies do have top offensive prospect Alec Bohm on their radar.  But despite the ability to call him up and not burn a year of service time, I see that there is no real rush to add him now.  The reason? It's early for some of the bats, and for others, it's hard to keep them out.

Right now on a 28-man roster, up from the 26 that is the new roster size, the Phillies have 15 pitchers.  Without reducing that number of pitchers - something hard to do right now given the Phillies bullpen woes, there might not be an obvious place for Bohm at this time.

The Phillies have the following position players on the bench:

• Roman Quinn
• Neil Walker
• Phil Gosselin
• Jay Bruce

So that's two outfielders and two infielders.  Of these four, none of them seem like obvious subtractions.  All four have been very productive to this point.  So there is not really a hurry to get a roster spot open for him.

Granted, there have been offensive struggles.  Rhys Hoskins and Andrew McCutchen have had some struggles.  More notably, as Joey asked in a separate mailbag question, Scott Kingery has struggled so far.

Kingery battled COVID in Summer Camp and i would give him time to get things together.  But that's not imminent.

Would you look to stretch Ranger Suarez out and get him in the rotation to bump Vince Velasquez or hope he can aid the bullpen himself?
~Paul

I think right now the deal is just to get Ranger Suarez healthy.  The bullpen really could use him right now.  But when he is healthy, it might be better to see what the team needs and if Spencer Howard is able to claim a rotation spot right now.

But right now, let's see him get healthy.  Jim Salisbury just reported that both Suarez and David Robertson are headed to Clearwater to work out en route to a hopeful recovery.  But that might take a while.

The news is encouraging, however.