NEW YORK -- It¡¯s still early, but the Phillies think the soreness in Cristopher Sánchez's left forearm is nothing serious.
It would be a bit of good news during a rough stretch for the Phillies, who had lost nine of their past 15 games entering Wednesday¡¯s series finale against the Mets at Citi Field. The offense is struggling to score runs. The bullpen is struggling to get outs. Aaron Nola is 0-5. And then, S¨¢nchez left Tuesday¡¯s game after the second inning because his left arm hurt.
But the Phillies said Wednesday that S¨¢nchez felt good enough that he wanted to play catch before the series finale. Instead, he will play catch on Friday at Wrigley Field.
The Phils haven¡¯t ruled out the possibility that S¨¢nchez will pitch sometime next week.
¡°He feels good, the trainer feels good about it,¡± Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski said. ¡°We¡¯ll wait to see, but right now, I feel very comfortable that he looks like he¡¯s OK. ¡ He was achy with his body yesterday -- his whole body. Afterward, when they checked him structurally, they really didn¡¯t find anything. And today they¡¯re not finding anything, either.¡±
The Phillies have not yet scheduled an MRI for S¨¢nchez. That could change, of course.
¡°We¡¯re going to take it easy,¡± Dombrowski said. ¡°We¡¯re going to be careful. ¡ But right now, they¡¯re telling me, ¡®Dave, he¡¯s fine.¡¯¡±
Phillies left-hander Ranger Su¨¢rez is scheduled to make his fourth, and likely final, rehab start on Sunday with Triple-A Lehigh Valley. When Su¨¢rez is ready to be activated from the 15-day injured list, he will rejoin the rotation. Dombrowski repeated what he said a couple weekends ago in St. Louis: There have been no discussions about Su¨¢rez pitching out of the bullpen, even though he has pitched there in the past.
(Dombrowski also previously ruled out top prospect Andrew Painter being a reliever upon his eventual return.)
Su¨¢rez could take S¨¢nchez¡¯s spot in the rotation, if S¨¢nchez needs more time to rest. He could take the spot of Taijuan Walker, who has pitched well as Su¨¢rez¡¯s replacement.
It is unlikely the Phillies will employ a six-man rotation.
The Su¨¢rez questions keep coming up because the Phillies¡¯ bullpen has struggled in the season¡¯s first 24 games. It had a 5.70 ERA entering Wednesday, which ranked 29th in the Majors.
Only the Nationals (7.09 ERA) were worse.
Newly acquired right-handers Jordan Romano and Joe Ross have struggled at times. So have returning right-handers Orion Kerkering and Jos¨¦ Ruiz.
¡°You have to weigh performance, patience,¡± Dombrowski said about the bullpen. ¡°We discuss it every single day. I try not to go overboard early.¡±
Dombrowski said he might be more concerned if his relievers had lost stuff compared to seasons past. But that isn¡¯t necessarily the case.
But the Phils are looking for solutions. Internally, there aren¡¯t too many in Triple-A. It¡¯s why they recently moved No. 12 prospect Seth Johnson into the bullpen. They think his fastball-slider combination could be effective as a reliever.
¡°You¡¯re always prepared for what you¡¯re going to do next,¡± Dombrowski said. ¡°If they don¡¯t do well, you¡¯re not just going to keep going out there, bullpen after bullpen appearance. It¡¯s something we weigh on a daily basis.¡±
Still, it makes fans think about Jeff Hoffman and Carlos Est¨¦vez, each of whom signed with another team in the offseason.
Hoffman signed a three-year, $33 million contract with the Blue Jays. He has thrived as Toronto¡¯s closer.
¡°We tried to sign Hoffman, very aggressively,¡± Dombrowski said. ¡°They turned down our offer. ¡ At the time, he was still looking for more dollars, and then we had to make a decision on Romano or somebody else. We just didn¡¯t feel that we were going to match the dollars that he was looking to get. But we were very aggressive in terms of signing him.
¡°I can¡¯t tell you that the number he ended up signing was substantially different than the one we ended up offering. But he wasn¡¯t prepared to take that at that time. They just thought they were going to get much more.¡±
Trades might be made closer to the July 31 Trade Deadline. Maybe somebody in Triple-A steps up, like Johnson. In the meantime, the Phillies will need their current relievers to perform better. They will need Nola to get straightened out. They will need the offense to perform better with runners in scoring position.