Every Major League Baseball team can always use bullpen help, and the Philadelphia Phillies might need it more than most.
After waving goodbye to Carlos Estévez and Jeff Hoffman in the offseason, the Phillies were counting on Jordan Romano and Orion Kerkering to step up and anchor the right-handed side of their bullpen. That simply hasn’t gone according to plan.
Romano owns an 8.22 ERA through his first 17 outings as a Phillie, while Kerkering carries a 4.32 mark through 19 appearances. Joe Ross and Carlos Hernández both have mid-four ERAs as well, so there’s frankly no righty that manager Rob Thomson can trust these days.
If the Phillies want to be serious World Series contenders, they’ll have to make a move to upgrade their bullpen with a more reliable righty. And one baseball writer has a specific trade idea to address the issue.
On Wednesday, Joel Reuter of Athlon called the bullpen the Phillies’ “biggest roster hole” and suggested that they could trade for Tampa Bay Rays closer Pete Fairbanks, given the Rays’ willingness to deal away their veterans at seemingly any time.
“Hard-throwing Pete Fairbanks is in the final season of a three-year, $12 million deal with the Tampa Bay Rays, though with a $7 million club option for the 2026 season, he also has the potential to be more than just a rental pickup,” Reuter wrote.
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“The 31-year-old is earning $3.8 million this year, which might not sound like much to a major market club like the Phillies, but is enough to make him the sixth-highest-paid player on the Tampa Bay roster, and cutting costs is a perennial focal point for the front office.”
So far this season, Fairbanks has a 2.65 ERA over 18 appearances, saving 8 out of 9 opportunities. The only slight concern is that he’s oddly been much better against left-handed batters than righties, but the opposite has been true throughout the vast majority of his career.
There will surely be plenty of teams in on Fairbanks between now and the deadline, but the Phillies might have the desperation required to win the sweepstakes, given their obvious need.
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