Author: Lochlahn March

CLEARWATER, Fla. — If the idea had never been floated last year at Chicago Cubs camp that Brad Keller could make the switch from starting to relieving, his life today would probably look completely different.

“I was basically destined to go to Iowa and just be kind of a bulk starter down there and kind of see what happens,” he said. “Definitely a career changer.”

But instead of pitching for the Cubs’ triple-A affiliate in Des Moines, Keller tried out the bullpen. The switch revitalized his career, as he developed from journeyman starter to key reliever for a team in a playoff race, and then signed a two-year, $22 million deal with the Phillies this winter to be a high-leverage arm.

Keller pitched the first inning of a Phillies bullpen game on Wednesday, a 5-3 win over the Detroit Tigers. He needed just 11 pitches to retire the side in order.

“It was good to get in there and face hitters, get in front of the stadium instead of just the live backfields and stuff like that. So it was good. Felt good,” Keller said.

Keller’s fastball jumped from 93.7 mph in 2024 to 97.1 mph last season after his move to the bullpen. In his first Grapefruit League outing, he blew two fastballs by Colt Keith clocking 97.3 mph and 96.9 mph to strike him out swinging.

“High velocity, and the slider was really good,” said manager Rob Thomson. “He looked great.”

Rather than paring down his starter’s arsenal when he made the switch to the bullpen, Keller actually added a pitch — a sweeper. He typically uses it as a weapon against righties, throwing one Wednesday to Gleyber Torres that he fouled off, before getting him to ground out on his sinker.

Keller, who will join Team USA to prepare for the World Baseball Classic on Saturday, said he always knew he had the potential for higher velocity.

“I knew it was always in there,” he said. “It’s just my mentality was always starting. I started my whole career, minor leagues and most of the big leagues. And so I just never really reached back for anything. Last year was a little bit of a surprise, because I feel like I didn’t ever have to reach back. It was just there, which was nice.”

Who stood out

Edmundo Sosa hit a ground-rule double to left field in the third inning.

Alec Bohm made a nice play on a sharply hit ground ball at third base, and turned a double play to end the top of the fourth. Bohm finished 2-for-3 with two RBIs.

“He’s in really good shape this year, and he’s a little bit stronger. He’s done a lot of work, so he’s ready for this,” Thomson said. “He’s been swinging the bat well and hitting the ball the other way. I thought our at-bats today were good.”

Otto Kemp hit a home run onto the center-field berm, and Bryce Harper doubled to right to drive in a run in the fifth inning.

Justin Crawford also made a big defensive play, leaping to catch a deep fly ball from Matt Vierling on the center-field warning track.

On the mound

Following Keller, Zach Pop, Kyle Backhus, Zach McCambley, Tim Mayza, Trevor Richards, and Génesis Cabrera each pitched an inning. Those six are competing for the final two bullpen spots.

Pop, Backhus, and Richards each sidestepped a single for a scoreless frame. McCambley allowed a run on a walk and two straight singles, but induced a double play to escape the jam. A run scored on Mayza after two singles put runners on the corners and a wild pitch went to the backstop.

Cabrera tossed a 1-2-3 seventh.

Injury check

Infield prospect Aidan Miller (sore back) has continued to get treatment and has begun to ramp up in the weight room. The Phillies are being cautious with him and do not have a timeline for when he will start swinging a bat.

Outfielder Brandon Marsh jammed his hand during sliding drills on Tuesday and has some inflammation and soreness. To be cautious, Thomson said Marsh likely won’t play until after Monday’s off day.

Quotable

“He’s been throwing strikes and the slider’s good,” Thomson said of Pop. “He’s got a bowling ball fastball, heavy sink to it. It’s a mid-90s fastball. He’s throwing the ball well. Backhus, again, threw the ball well today. So yeah, we’re going to have some tough decisions at the end of this thing.”

On deck

The Phillies host the Nationals at 1:05 p.m. Thursday at BayCare Ballpark, with Taijuan Walker set to start.

CLEARWATER, Fla. — After Jhoan Duran finished his throwing program in the BayCare Ballpark outfield, he didn’t head straight for the mound, where he was scheduled to throw live batting practice.

First, he stopped by the empty bullpen.

Duran wanted to reenact the jog he will make every time he comes in to close games for the Phillies this season, to help get in the right head space for facing hitters the first time all spring.

“That’s what I do in the game,” Duran said. “So I wanted to go in live, too.”

It was shortly before noon on a clear Florida day, so Duran wasn’t accompanied by his traditional light show, flames, or crawling spiders on the video board. But it didn’t really matter, because Duran got the results he was looking for on the mound with the 17 pitches he threw.

“I feel good,” he said. “My command is there. I feel it’s there. My breaking ball pitches are moving good. So that’s good.”

The last time Duran had jogged from bullpen to mound, in Game 4 of the National League Division Series, things had not gone so according to plan.

With the Phillies protecting a 1-0 lead over the Dodgers, manager Rob Thomson called on his closer with two runners on in the seventh inning. He intentionally walked Shohei Ohtani to load the bases for the more advantageous right-on-right matchup against Mookie Betts. But Duran issued his first career bases-loaded walk after Betts held off on an elevated fastball, which tied the game.

After the Phillies were eliminated in extra innings, Duran said he didn’t dwell on the walk or the game at all over the winter. He has learned to have a short memory.

“I don’t think about it too much,” he said. “Because that’s the past. I learned in the minor leagues, if you throw one inning and you do it bad, the next day, you think about that, you don’t throw good that day. So if I do it bad, I forget. I’m ready for the next day. That’s me.”

With 2025 in the rearview, Duran said the number of outings he has each spring can vary, and will depend on how he feels. He doesn’t have the added complication that some of his teammates have, of factoring in preparation for the World Baseball Classic, which will start pool play in less than two weeks.

He was asked to pitch for the Dominican Republic but opted not to participate. He wanted to focus on being ready for the regular season instead.

When he does make that jog for the first time with the lights, it will also mark the Phillies’ first time starting a season with a bona fide closer under Thomson. And having a dedicated ninth-inning pitcher will also impact how the manager deploys the rest of the bullpen this year.

Thomson is leaning toward having designated roles for his other high-leverage arms, rather than just piecing things together based on matchups. Lefty José Alvarado and righty Brad Keller are both potential setup men for Duran.

“When you have a true closer like Duran, that’s the way you should set it up,” Thomson said. “And especially when we have the type of arms that we have. But again, if you give a guy a fifth- or sixth-inning role, and the seventh- and eighth-inning guys aren’t available, well, they’re going to have to pitch in the seventh or eighth.”

In any case, Thomson likes his options.

“I think it’s probably the best group of arms we’ve had here since I’ve been here,” he said.

Keller signed a two-year, $22 million deal with the Phillies this winter after a breakout season as a Cubs reliever last year. He and Duran coincided in the Diamondbacks organization as minor leaguers between 2015 and 2018. At the time, they were also both starters.

Now their careers have taken them to the back end of the Phillies’ bullpen.

“I think that’s what makes a fun bullpen, right?” Keller said on a recent episode of Phillies Extra, the Inquirer’s baseball interview show. “All different backgrounds, all different personalities, and just all come together, just be a bunch of grinders and a bunch of dogs down there. That’s kind of the mentality that a bullpen takes over. And it’s so fun getting to know these guys and watching.”

Duran is excited for the unit that is shaping up. Also in the group are returning lefty Tanner Banks and righty Orion Kerkering, plus newcomer Jonathan Bowlan, a righty acquired from the Royals in exchange for Matt Strahm. There are several contenders in camp for the final two spots, including Rule 5 pick Zach McCambley and sidearmer Kyle Backhus.

“We talk a lot together, we practice together, too, more and more times,” Duran said. “And it’s great, these guys in the bullpen; great arms, great talent. We have everything in the bullpen.”

DUNEDIN, Fla. — Before Otto Kemp started in left field on Saturday, Rob Thomson warned him about his nickname there at Toronto’s TD Ballpark: “Satan’s Corner.”

The Phillies manager has seen many misplays in that part of the outfield, because of a combination of the wind, the sun, and the typically cloudless sky above Dunedin.

“I didn’t want to ask right before I started about why he called it that,” Kemp said. “But I felt pretty comfortable out there.”

Kemp didn’t get a ton of action in the spring opener — a 3-0 Phillies loss to the Blue Jays on Saturday — and caught the only fly ball hit his way in the first inning. But his outfield education this spring will continue to be put to the test, as Kemp gets more innings in left field during Grapefruit League games.

The 26-year-old learned left field on the fly last season in the majors, after being an infielder throughout the minor leagues. The Phillies believe that Kemp could be a platoon bat in left field for Brandon Marsh and want him to get as many reps as possible.

Throughout camp, Kemp has been juggling keeping his infield skills sharp with a lot of additional work on his outfield fundamentals, particularly his footwork. He works with infield coach Bobby Dickerson in the morning, and then works with outfield coach Paco Figueroa for most of the day after that.

“Seeing the ball off the bat and just trying to power shag as much as I can,” Kemp said. “Getting my reads down and getting my first step right. … I feel like I’ve worked a lot already, and it’s been great work so far. So I’m starting to feel really comfortable out there.”

On Saturday, Kemp also shared the outfield with Justin Crawford, who started in center and had a 2-for-3 day at the plate.

“He’s a dynamic player, and he covers a lot of ground, so it’s fun to just be out there,” Kemp said. “And I feel closer to him now being in the outfield, because I’ve been in the infield pretty much the entire time throughout our minor league career. So it’s fun to kind of work a little bit more side-by-side with him, and even learn from him. He’s a great outfielder. He tracks balls down better than I’ve seen a lot of people do.”

Who stood out: Crawford led off the game with a double to center field off Toronto lefty Eric Lauer, after hitting a laser down the right field line that just stayed foul earlier in the plate appearance. He also singled in the fifth inning and made several solid defensive plays.

“Definitely feels good getting the first one in the first at-bat like that,” Crawford said. “So it’s kind of nice to be able to get that early and then just trying to hopefully build off of that.”

Keaton Anthony made a diving stop at first base, and was a part of three double plays turned by the Phillies infield.

On the mound: Bryse Wilson pitched two innings for the Phillies, allowing three hits, a walk, and zero runs.

Zach McCambley, a Rule 5 pick this offseason who is in competition for the final two bullpen spots, sidestepped a walk to Ernie Clement for a scoreless inning. He induced a groundout from Andrés Giménez and a lineout from Vladimir Guerrero Jr.

“He’s got a good arm,” Thomson said of McCambley. “He’s working on cutter today, so it got away from him a little bit. But the slider, he can spin it, the fastball is really good and it plays. I like the kid.”

Max Lazar tossed a scoreless frame. Seth Johnson and Nolan Hoffman each pitched an inning, and both gave up a home run.

Quotable: “He acts like a like a professional. He acts like he deserves to be here,” Thomson said of Crawford.

On deck: The Phillies return to BayCare Ballpark Sunday for their spring home opener against the Pirates (1:05 p.m., NBCSP).

CLEARWATER, Fla. — For the first few drills that infield coach Bobby Dickerson often runs each day in Phillies camp, no gloves are necessary.

The early days of spring training are an opportunity for players to work on fundamentals and reactivate their muscle memory before the 162-game grind. Some of Dickerson’s tactics for his infielders might look unconventional, but there’s a method to the madness.

In one drill, the infielder wears a softball mask, and Dickerson tosses tennis balls at him, which he then “catches” with his face. In another, the infielder uses a paddle to field tennis balls that Dickerson hits toward him with a fungo bat.

Both drills are designed to help with ball security. The idea behind the mask drill is to practice getting a player’s face in the path of the ball. That way, when a glove enters the equation, he will be more likely to watch the ball all the way into it.

“You hear it all the time, ‘Watch the ball in,’ ‘See the ball to catch it.’ ‘Don’t take your eye off the ball,’ all these things,” Dickerson said. “But yet, if you pay attention and you really watch the game like, fortunately, I have for 40 years, and watching every little detail, you’ll see even great players, they’re so good they lose sight of the ball, the last six inches to 10 inches.”

If an infielder forgets to watch a ground ball all the way into his glove, he still could make the play. But once in a while, he also could make a mistake that a bit of concentration may have prevented. Dickerson wants to eliminate those mistakes.

“This is a drill to get them to really focus. You’d be surprised how many times when you first do it to a guy, they don’t realize that their face is that far away from the ball, that they’re not really looking it in, looking at the ball,” he said.

The paddle drill is intended to help with glove action. Dickerson said some infielders have a tendency to retreat their glove at the last second as the ball enters it, which can allow the ball to stay alive.

Using the paddle helps reinforce better habits. Using a tennis ball, which bounces more, helps players work on timing.

“It reinforces good glove presentation,” Dickerson said. “The face of that glove should be looking at the ball the whole time, and the last move to catch it is toward the ball.”

For players who have fielded thousands of ground balls in their lifetime, drills that take them out of their comfort zone can help them get back to basics. Dickerson likes incorporating them early in camp as a way to wake players’ gloves up. He also often tells them to do other activities at home with their nondominant glove hand, like using a fork.

When Dickerson, 60, started incorporating these drills earlier in his career, he had to earn trust from players for some of his seemingly unorthodox instruction methods.

But now, the results speak for themselves. Dickerson credits some of Trea Turner’s defensive improvements at shortstop last year to the work he put in with these drills. Turner went from minus-3 outs above average in 2024 per Statcast to plus-17 in 2025.

“He had a little retreat to his glove. And there would be times where his glove was behind his face,” Dickerson said. “And I think both those drills — both the tennis ball with the paddle glove and the face mask — I think both of those helped him with just some cues to get the ball out in front of his face, see it in. … And his glove hand has woke up a lot in the last year.”

Dickerson recently introduced the drills to 21-year-old Aidan Miller. The shortstop prospect, who is also getting work at third base this spring, said he found the mask drill fun.

“At first, it was hard,” Miller said. “I sucked at it, but I really get the point behind it. It’s all about just keeping your eyes behind the ball, getting your head behind it. So it’s really good in that way.”

Dickerson has been impressed with what he’s seen from Miller.

“They’ve done a lot of great stuff in the minor leagues with him,” Dickerson said. “I can see he’s already ahead of a lot of guys I’ve had at some point that have come to big league camps in my past and were highly touted players, but he’s ahead of that right now, for me. They’ve done a great job. His glove hand works great. His glove presentation is really good. His glove action is really good, and all these things. …

“If I didn’t do the drill, he’d probably play great. And by doing the drill, maybe we can get him to play a little greater, just a little bit.”

Extra bases

Zack Wheeler (thoracic outlet decompression surgery) threw out to 120 feet on flat ground on Wednesday. … Orion Kerkering (hamstring strain) threw 10 pitches from the mound and was “fine,” Rob Thomson said. … Aaron Nola, Jesús Luzardo, and Andrew Painter pitched in live batting practice on Wednesday. … Bryse Wilson will start the Phillies’ Grapefruit League opener against the Toronto Blue Jays on Saturday.

CLEARWATER, Fla. — Four innings before Orion Kerkering’s error sealed the Phillies’ fate in Game 4 of the 2025 National League Division Series, home plate umpire Mark Wegner made a call that may have helped tilt the game.

Cristopher Sánchez’s 2-2 pitch to Alex Call in the seventh, which caught the inside edge of the plate, was called a ball. What could have been a strikeout ultimately became a walk, and Justin Dean, who pinch ran for Call, went on to score the tying run in a game the Los Angeles Dodgers won, 2-1, in 11 innings.

In the quiet clubhouse after the Phillies were eliminated, Sánchez said that Wegner actually apologized to him for missing the strike.

“He knows he missed it,” Sánchez said through a team interpreter. “He knows he missed it because he told me, and he apologized to me. But a lot of pressure, important game, important situation, you can’t miss those things. You can’t miss those calls.”

With the automated ball-strike challenge system arriving to MLB in 2026, it’s possible those impactful misses could be a thing of the past. Under the system, each team starts with two challenges, which can be used by the pitcher, catcher, or batter to challenge a pitch call. If a challenge is unsuccessful, the team loses it.

According to the rules, challenges must be made immediately after the umpire’s call, and no input from the bench or manager is allowed. A team without challenges in extra innings will receive an additional one.

The Phillies piloted the system during spring training last year, and they will use this spring as a chance to get further acclimated.

“I think it will change the game a lot late, just making sure those calls are right in the biggest moments,” shortstop Trea Turner said. “Even if a team challenges and they’re wrong, at least you know the call is right. So I think that’s going to be big later on.”

Some critics of the system think that ABS removes the “human element” of baseball in the umpire’s strike zone.

“It’s kind of now that human element’s back on the players,” Turner said. “So that’s kind of interesting. It’s going to be fun to watch.”

The Phillies will eventually develop a strategy for using ABS as the regular season begins. Some teams only allow catchers to challenge, rather than pitchers, since they have a better vantage point. Teams also might prefer to save their challenges for after a certain inning of the game.

But for the first few weeks of spring training, Phillies manager Rob Thomson will have no rules.

“We need to push them to use it, so that they can learn,” Thomson said. “And as the situations come up, we just talk them through it. ‘This might be a situation where you should use it,’ even if they didn’t. ‘No, maybe that’s not the situation.’ But we still want them to try and get some experience with it.”

Turner said that typically, when he has disagreed with umpires’ calls at the plate and then reviewed the footage later, he is often right about pitches he thought were inside or outside, but has been wrong about pitches high or low.

“I think that’s part of this. You’ve got to know what you’re good at, and where you’re good at,” he said. “I don’t plan on challenging too much, but if I do, I’ll probably be on the corners more so than up and down. And I think some guys are good at some things, and you’re going to have to learn.”

Extra bases

Zack Wheeler threw out to 120 feet for the first time Monday as he continues his rehab from thoracic outlet decompression surgery. Thomson said he did not have a date for when Wheeler will get on a mound, but “he’s getting there.” … Kerkering (mild hamstring strain) is running and doing agility drills and threw on flat ground. The next step is a light bullpen session, possibly on Wednesday, according to Thomson. … Brandon Marsh cut his foot off the field and did not fully participate in the workout, although he did glove work and played catch. “It’s minor,” Thomson said. “I wouldn’t be surprised if he was out there hitting [Tuesday].”