Phillies Starting Pitching Depth will be Tested in 2022

In a hectic first month of baseball, the Philadelphia Phillies will turn to their pitching depth for some important innings.

Alex Carr | Apr 3, 2022

Jonathan Dyer-USA TODAY Sports

The Philadelphia Phillies announced on Saturday that ace, Zack Wheeler, would not make his preliminary spring start against the Toronto Blue Jays due to inclement weather–meaning he may not face hitters in a live, in-game scenario until his first start of the regular season.

In what is sure to be a chaotic month of April, each and every team across Major League Baseball will have their pitching depth tested as many arms, rotations and bullpens alike, will still need some time to ramp up thanks to delays set upon them by MLB's lockout.

Philadelphia's rival the New York Mets are already feeling the heat, as they announced both Jacob deGrom and Max Scherzer are battling varying levels of injury–forcing the Metropolitans to look elsewhere for some rotation help.

The Padres and the Mets have discussed a trade concept involving Eric Hosmer, Chris Paddack and Dom Smith, sources tell ⁦@TheAthletic⁩. With ⁦@Ken_Rosenthal⁩ and ⁦@ByMcCullough⁩: https://t.co/qkk4InOMxk
— Dennis Lin (@dennistlin) April 2, 2022

The Phillies are lucky enough to have some decent depth rotation options waiting in the wings, most of which are slated to begin the season with the big club, thanks to expanded 28-man rosters.

Bailey Falter, whose unique delivery and stride adds a deceptive quality to his repertoire, stands atop of the Phillies starting pitching dept depth chart. He saw a velocity jump during the lost Minor League year, thus leading him to the Majors in 2021, where he was exceptional before a rough bout with COVID-19.

Prior to his unfortunate diagnosis, Falter recorded a 4.50 ERA (3.34 FIP) across 18 innings of work–but those numbers were heftily inflated thanks to a singular blowup appearance versus the Chicago Cubs, in which Falter was put on inning-eater duty with the good guys up 15-4. Upon subtracting that singular misstep, Falter's ERA sinks to a 2.00 flat.

The poor timing of Falter's encounter with COVID limited him to a bullpen-only capacity for the remainder of the season, (when the Phillies really could've used another starter) but Falter's true place lies in either the backend of a rotation or a long-relief role. He'll find that with the Phillies early in 2022, and has made his case this spring thanks to a strong 1.29 ERA across seven innings of work.

Nick Nelson is seemingly next as far as the depth chart goes–and boy, has he been impressive this spring.

When the Phillies traded for Nelson and catcher Donny Sands in late 2021, they seemed to be following their typical strategy. Over the last three years especially, the Phillies have set their sights on hard-throwing, high-spin, control-lacking pitchers–and Nelson is just that.

They've found success in this strategy too. Sam Coonrod has vastly improved under the Phillies' watch, while José Alvarado is still a bit of a work in progress. Nonetheless, the team must feel confident in their ability to turn these guys around, because they continue to pick them up.

Nelson, who they've decided to stretch out into either a long-relief or starter role, could very well be their next success story.

Across 35 major league innings in his career, the hard-throwing righty has walked 27 batters. Not great.

This spring, Nelson has tossed seven innings, and has yet to walk a single hitter. In fact, he's only allowed three guys to reach the basepaths period, and has K'd ten.

His fastball, typically averaging 96 miles-per-hour and above, is settling more at 94-96 this spring, though that may be a factor of it being early in the year, or that they're stretching him out, or a bit of both. Either way, it's working. His changeup builds quite well off of the fastball, and his other breaking pitches have also impressed–racking up copious amounts of whiffs and inducing some ugly swings.

Cristopher Sánchez is also a name to look for this season but it seems the org is looking to transition him toward more of a multi-inning bullpen role. He's had a good spring, though his most recent appearance was cut short by rain. The lefty has punched out seven across seven innings of work.

Hans Crouse will also likely be under consideration, though he has a long way to go. His breaking pitches haven't proved as dastardly as they were once thought to be, and he hasn't hit his spots consistently enough for him to be ready for the bigs just yet.

One would expect he'll lead the Iron Pigs' Triple-A rotation this year. There will be quite a few eyes on him.

Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, the Phillies have three blue-chip-potential arms at the peak of their system, any of which they could choose to fast-track to the major league level, providing immediate impact.

Mick Abel, the team's top prospect and 2020 first rounder, could move quickly throughout the system. Same can be said for the 2021 thirteenth overall pick in Andrew Painter.

But the real guy to look out for is Griff McGarry, last year's fifth round pick.

USATSI_16294541 — George Walker IV / Tennessean.com via Imagn Content Services, LLC

McGarry undoubtably has the nastiest pure stuff in the Phillies' system, and folks around the league believe they pulled off a heist when they drafted McGarry as low as they did in 2021. His makeup suggests he could move through the minor league levels at blazing speed.

The only real question mark when it comes to Griff is his control. If he can iron out some of those kinks, one certainly shouldn't rule him out for making an impact in 2022–whether out of the bullpen, or perhaps even the starting rotation.

Overall, the Phillies' starting pitching depth isn't as deep as that of, let's say, the Dodgers, but it certainly isn't to be overlooked.

With some less flashy, but steadier options like Falter and Crouse leading the way, and exciting ones like Abel, Painter, and McGarry in the wings–it's going to be interesting to see what the 2022 season has in store for the Phillies pitching staff.

More From SI's Inside The Phillies:

Make sure to follow Inside the Phillies on Facebook and Twitter!

Published Apr 3, 2022

ALEX CARR

Alex Carr is a writer, editor, and podcast host for Sports Illustrated and FanNation's 'Inside The Phillies'. Previously, his work has been featured on SBNation's 'TheGoodPhight'. He/him.