What started this week as a bullpen bolstering ended as a wholesale rethink by the Philadelphia Phillies. Given what that unit has done the last two postseasons, there may not be much to hold precious among the relief corps.
Thursday brought the arrival of Brad Keller, a high-leverage right-hander to plug a hole that persisted last year.
Friday ushered in a flurry of moves, trading Matt Strahm to Kansas City for righty Jonathan Bowlan and acquiring lefty Kyle Backhus from Arizona in exchange for minor league outfielder Avery Owusu-Asiedu.
“We just like the overall mix,” Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski said via a Zoom call Friday. “We love Keller, really. We think he’s one of the best in the business, the way he stepped up last year as a reliever with the Cubs. So we really like the way the bullpen now shapes up.”
The moves freed up salary, with Strahm owed $7.5 million in the final year of his contract. Bowlan and Backhus are both pre-arbitration. Bowlan is out of minor-league options.
It also shifts the left-right balance in high-leverage arms. The Phillies have a set closer in Jhoan Duran for the first time in ages. Orion Kerkering was the only high-leverage righty before the arrival of Keller, on a two-year deal worth $22 million, while the Phillies felt they had three high-leverage lefties in Strahm, Jose Alvarado and Tanner Banks.
Dealing Strahm evens it out at two lefties and two righties. Backhus could back-fill Banks’ third-lefty role. Bowlan, Rule 5 pick Zach McCambley, newly acquired Yoniel Curet and a handful of other candidates held over from last year (Max Lazar, Nolan Hoffman, Seth Johnson) will vie to fill out the bullpen.
Dombrowski penciled in Bowlan as the sixth guy. He and McCambley, given the risk of losing them if they’re not on the active roster, have the inside lines on the last spots in the eight-man bullpen.
It’s a lot of moving pieces, but Dombrowski hopes it’s the making of a competent bullpen.
Keller is the main piece. The 30-year-old has been in the big leagues since age 22. He had glimmers of success as a starter, going 38-53 with a 4.14 ERA over parts of six seasons with the Royals.
After bouncing to two teams in 2024, the Cubs turned him into a reliever, and he became a shutdown guy – 4-2, 2.07 ERA in 68 appearances, 0.962 WHIP, 75 strikeouts, .182 BA against. His stuff rocketed up – the fastball from an average of 93.8 mph in 2024 to 97.2 with a devastating sweeper that opponents hit .067 against.
“There’s always a chance that you take because it’s only one year,” Dombrowski said. “But he’s always been a good big league pitcher. He took another step forward last year. He was dominant with his stuff. He picked up three miles per hour or so with his velocity. His other pitches are good, too, that we really like.
“So all of our scouting work, our analytical work, our pitching people that have taken a look at him, everybody thinks, OK, this is him now.”
Strahm has been one of the best lefties in baseball over the last three years, going 17-10 with 11 saves and a 2.71 ERA in 188 appearances with the Phillies. His move from a spot starter to high-leverage lefty in 2024 worked beautifully, leading to an All-Star appearance from a first half in which he was unhittable (4-1, 1.49 ERA, 0.798 WHIP in 39 games).
But he was a disaster in the postseason, allowing four runs in two innings over three games. He was solid in 2025 with a 2-3 record and 2.74 ERA in 66 appearances, despite plummeting velocity.
Dombrowski didn’t say that the cost saving was a contributor. He also tamped down on tension between Strahm and the organization, highlighted by comments about not doing pitcher’s fielding practice before a postseason that ended on Kerkering’s error in Los Angeles that drew pushback at the time from Dombrowski and others.
“Matt’s done a good job for us,” said Dombrowski, who added that he would’ve been “very comfortable” with Strahm returning. “I thanked him when I talked to him today for everything he’s done. He’s done a nice, solid job for us. He’s been a good, good part of our ballclub.”
They’re exchanging him for Bowlan, who pitched three games for the Royals in 2023 and 2024 before an established role in 2025. In that niche, he went 1-2 with a 3.85 ERA in 44.1 innings over 34 games.
The 6-6 righty struck out 46 against 17 walks. He throws a sinker that averages 96.1 miles per hour and a four-seam fastball at 95.5. Righties slashed just .182/.255/.250 against him last year.
Backhus is even more of a specialist from the left side, a 27-year-old side-armer. The 6-4, 185-pounder got in 32 games for the Diamondbacks last year, going 0-3 with a 4.62 ERA in 25.1 innings with two saves. Lefties hit just .139 off him, but righties walloped him at a .988 OPS.
Owusu-Asiedu is a native of Canada drafted in the ninth round in 2023. He reached High-A last year, batting .247 with two homers and 21 RBIs in 49 games at Jersey Shore. He isn’t among the Phillies’ top 30 prospects, according to mlb.com, a list that includes four outfielders in the top 12.
Much of the composition of the bullpen revolves around Alvarado returning to form. He struggled last year around an 80-game suspension for performance-enhancing drug use, then felt forearm tightness upon returning in September. There are no lingering injury concerns for the hard-throwing lefty, though, Dombrowski said.
“We think he’s going to be the normal Alvarado,” he said. “We’ve been in contact with him this winter. He’s feeling good. So we feel like he’s going to bounce back and be the same guy. We’re not injury concerned.”
The Phillies have a framework of what they want to do with their bullpen. Last year, they cycled through Jordan Romano, Joe Ross, Carlos Hernandez, Tim Mayza, David Robertson and Lou Trivino, yet still with the season on the line in the National League Division Series rode Jesus Luzardo on two day’s rest.
The organizational cupboard isn’t exactly bare, but it’s in need of replenishment. Live arms early in their careers are a safer bet than the veteran set of ex-closers (Robertson, Craig Kimbrel, Corey Knebel, Archie Bradley) that the Phillies have tended to gravitate toward.
