Phillies put reliever Brad Hand on 15-day injured list

The Phillies’ bullpen has taken its fair share of hits over the last few months, between Seranthony Domínguez undergoing a lengthy stint in the injured list and Corey Knebel being out for the season with a right shoulder injury. It added another pitcher to that list on Sunday when left-hander Brad Hand was placed on the 15-day IL with left elbow tendinitis (retroactive to Sept. 22).

According to interim manager Rob Thomson, Hand has no structural damage and would be eligible to pitch in the first round of the playoffs, because his IL stint is backdated. Whether that’s realistic remains to seen. As a corresponding move, the Phillies designated infielder Johan Camargo for assignment and selected the contract of 31-year-old right-hander Chris Devenski.

Devenski is a seven-year MLB veteran who brings some postseason experience with him. He has a 3.61 ERA over 327 career innings and a 7.59 ERA with Arizona in 10⅔ innings this season. Because he was in the Phillies organization before Aug. 31, he’ll be eligible for the postseason.

Devenski underwent Tommy John surgery in 2021 and told Thomson that he was just starting to feel as if he was getting back to his old self when the Diamondbacks designated him for assignment. Since he was signed by the Phillies to a minor league contract on Aug. 29, Devenski has pitched to a 1.04 ERA over 8⅔ innings at triple-A Lehigh Valley.

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Even though he’s right-handed, Devenski’s splits against lefties are good (left-handed hitters are batting .211 against him for his career and .100 this season), which Thomson thinks will complement the rest of the bullpen.

“[Saturday] night was a good night for our bullpen,” Thomson said, referring to the Braves’ 6-3 victory. “We got a back-to-back from [Connor] Brogdon that was really good. We saw Seranthony a lot better, his slider was better, he was throwing more strikes. [David Robertson] had a good inning. And now we get Devenski.

“Devenski might be a guy. He’s really been throwing the ball well. His velocity is up there pretty good. And it’s a really filthy changeup, and you get left-handers out with it. [José] Alvarado is not really a left-handed specialist. He’s more of a late-inning, high-leverage guy. If Brogdon can do what he does and Devenski can do what he does, you’ve got essentially two lefties in the bullpen.”

Thomson said that calling up pitching prospect Griff McGarry, who is at Lehigh Valley, wasn’t really a consideration.

“He’s still an emergency-type guy,” Thomson said of McGarry. “Just depth. We’ll see him in spring training. Somebody will see him in spring training.”

Right fielder Nick Castellanos took batting practice on the field Sunday afternoon, and the results were promising. Thomson said that Castellanos, who has been on the 10-day injured list since Sept. 3 with a oblique strain in his right side, is still on track to rejoin the team in Chicago for this road trip.

“He was unbelievable,” Thomson said of Castellanos’ batting practice on Sunday. “Was he not unbelievable? He was just peppering the batter’s eye back there; it was pretty impressive.”

Castellanos will hit again Monday at Wrigley Field.

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The Phillies did some reshuffling in their rotation with Monday’s off-day ahead of their three-city road trip. They swapped Aaron Nola and Ranger Suarez’s starts, which allows both of them to stay on regular rest. Nola is schedule to start Wednesday against the Cubs and Suarez is scheduled to start on Thursday.

This lines up Nola to pitch Game 2 in an NL wild-card series and Suarez to pitch Game 3. If the Phillies clinch in Washington, Thomson said that Nola will make a shorter start — something more akin to a bullpen session. Noah Syndergaard is still lined up to piggyback behind Zack Wheeler on Tuesday, and will come back on three days’ rest to make his next start. If Wheeler doesn’t need a piggyback on Tuesday, Syndergaard will just do a heavy bullpen session to get ready for his next start.