Orion

Kerkering

Kerkering is getting the start, but won’t work anywhere near deep enough to qualify for a win. The 23-year-old shouldn’t be streamed, even against a not-so-great Oakland lineup.

Kerkering came on to strike out Francisco Lindor to end the sixth inning, stranding a pair of inherited runners in the process, before coming back out to work a flawless seventh inning as well. The 23-year-old righty opened the season on the injured list, but has been phenomenal since returning, posting a sublime 1.19 ERA, 0.84 WHIP and 24/4 K/BB ratio across 22 2/3 innings (21 appearances).

Kerkering has missed the start of the season while dealing with a forearm strain. The right-hander will provide multi-inning relief while he’s with the club. Nick Nelson was already optioned to Triple-A Lehigh Valley to make room for Kerkering.

With Orion Kerkering set to return from the injured list on Sunday, someone needed to get the boot from the Phillies’ bullpen and unfortunately Nelson drew the short straw this time. The 28-year-old hurler posted a 5.40 ERA, 1.80 WHIP and a 5/0 K/BB ratio over 3 1/3 innings in three appearances with the Phillies. He’ll assuredly get another opportunity to work out of the Phillies’ bullpen again before the end of the season.

Walker we’ll be accompanied by Orion Kerkering in Florida, but it sounds like Walker will need more time to get ramped up compared to Kerkering before he is back with the Phillies. The 31-year-old was placed on the injured list prior to the regular season with shoulder soreness. It’ll be interesting to see what the Phillies decide to do when Walker is eligible to return because Spencer Turnbull, who stepped in to replace Walker in the rotation, has had an excellent start to the season with a 0.00 ERA and a 13/1 K/BB ratio in his two starts.

Kerkering will require a couple additional rehab appearances before he’s ready to rejoin Philadelphia’s bullpen mix. The 23-year-old righty opened the season on the injured list with a right forearm strain after missing time during spring training due to illness.

It was reported that Kerkering was sick last week and that was going to be the reason he opened up on the injured list, but now his designation is a forearm. There appears to be some grey area with the designation because Kerkering recently pitched in a minor league game, so they could be using the designation as a way to give him some rest. Phillies manager Rob Thomson expects the 22-year-old to pitch at Triple-A this weekend and be called back up on April 9.

Kerkering has been sidelined for the last few weeks due to an illness, which will require a trip to the injured list at the outset of the regular season. It’s a bit unclear when he’ll be ready to make his season debut.

Three weeks with the flu sounds more than just the flu, but we’ll have to wait and see if the 22-year-old will be ready to go for the Phillies opener. Thomson added that Kerkering is scheduled to throw at the team complex sometime this week, but didn’t give a specific time or date.

Lorenzen was a surprise exclusion from Philadelphia’s NL Wild Card Series roster as the club opted to go with some extra relief depth and bench bats. The veteran right-hander is back for the extended series as an extra long relief or spot starting option with versatile Weston Wilson being left off the roster. It’s also worth noting that dynamic rookie fireballer Orion Kerkering has made the Phillies’ postseason roster for the second straight series.