Phillies should piggyback Aaron Nola with Cristopher Sánchez, and Taijuan Walker with Ranger Suárez

Only Zack Wheeler has earned the right to face a lineup three times. Suárez is a good starter, but he's the best swingman they've got. With this bullpen, it's their best chance to beat the Braves.

by Marcus Hayes | Columnist

Published Sept. 19, 2023, 5:00 a.m. ET

The Phillies entered the 2022 playoffs with three starters pitching like demons. On a team full of bombers, it was Zack Wheeler, Aaron Nola, and Ranger Suárez who pushed the Phillies down the September stretch and into the playoffs with the third and final wild-card slot.

This year, not so much. The Phillies have six starters muddling in mediocrity.

Fortunately for them, they stand atop the wild-card standings and entered Monday night in Atlanta with a four-game lead in the loss column over the Diamondbacks, Marlins, and Cubs, the last of whom have turned into a 2-8, Windy City tire fire. Ten of the Phillies’ final 13 games are against the Mets and Pirates, who stink.

Their position in the standings gives them wiggle room to try some things with the rotation. Manager Rob Thomson already plans to consolidate Cristopher Sánchez and Michael Lorenzen on Tuesday in Atlanta; Sánchez starting, Lorenzen coming in as a long reliever.

This is wise. This is a start.

The Phillies should use a full-on, starter-by-committee approach this postseason. Only Wheeler eats until he’s full.

I’m not a huge fan of analytics, but I can see what’s in front of me in the moment. In this moment, besides Wheeler, the Phillies lack a dependable starter. In this moment, the Phillies lack a single reliable bullpen component.

They should use the piggyback concept with Nola and Taijuan Walker. Let Nola start, face the lineup twice, then bring in Sánchez. Let Walker start, face the lineup twice — or maybe even once — then bring in Suárez. Lorenzen acts as a wild card, available for long relief, a spot start, a high-leverage situation in the middle innings, or extra innings.

This approach would minimize fatigue, incorporate all six starters, and relieve the relievers. These are the issues plaguing the staff now.

Sánchez and Lorenzen already have reached career highs in innings. Nola and Wheeler are coming off career-high usage after last year’s playoff run, and they’re showing signs of wear. So is Walker, who, at 31, has pitched 159⅔ innings, 10 shy of his career high, which he reached when he was 22. Suárez is at 113⅔ innings, but that’s because he’s missed about nine starts with elbow and hamstring injuries.

None of the six has pitched poorly enough to be unusable in the playoffs. The Phillies’ bullpen is leaking oil, too; most alarmingly, back-end cornerstones Seranthony Domínguez, José Alvarado, and 35-year-old closer Craig Kimbrel.

The biggest flaw in this argument lies in the perceived diminishment of Suárez.

He’s probably not tired. He pitched great in the postseason last year; the Phillies won all five games in which he pitched, and he gave up just two earned runs in 14⅔ innings. At 3.31, Suárez has the lowest ERA of the six starters in September.

But his gift is his worst enemy in this argument.

After starting twice in the playoffs, Suárez saved Game 5 of the NLCS. He got three outs late in a tied Game 1 of the World Series. Of the starters, he’s clearly the best bullpen option.

Next: Why forsake Sánchez as a starter? He’s been remarkably consistent in his 15 starts since returning from a triceps strain that limited him to just one start before mid-June. Here’s why.

Sánchez has pitched in 38 big-league games. He has come out of the bullpen in almost half of them. Walker has pitched in 197 major league games, counting the playoffs. He has come out of the bullpen just three times (not counting when he pitched the first part of a resumed suspended game in 2021), and all three of those instances were in 2014.

It shouldn’t be a difficult adjustment for the players.

Sánchez and Nola already pitch on consecutive days; Nola starts in Atlanta on Wednesday. Suárez and Walker ostensibly will start Thursday, then Friday, when the Mets visit.

Getting seven or eight innings from two co-starters means less exposure for an exposed bullpen.

After missing six weeks with an oblique strain, Domínguez enjoyed a dominant 14-game stretch from Aug. 1 to Sept. 6, but he had blown a save and suffered two losses in his last five games before Monday. Alvarado has been relatively dependable since returning from a second IL stint due to elbow issues, but he has allowed 14 baserunners in his last seven outings; he’s a time bomb. In 23 games since July 23, Kimbrel, who saved the All-Star Game for the National League, has five losses and has blown three of 10 save opportunities. He hasn’t pitched as many as his 63 innings since 2017, when he was 29. His six-save playoff run when his Red Sox won the 2018 World Series was fraught with drama; he had a 5.91 ERA.

Jeff Hoffman has emerged lately, but he has never pitched in the playoffs. Matt Strahm pitched 2⅓ playoff innings for the Padres in 2020 in low-leverage situations, and he seems to have supplanted Gregory Soto as the high-leverage lefty of preference.

Minimizing this bullpen’s exposure to a playoff lineup would be the wisest thing the Phillies could do in their quest to return to the World Series.

Especially is if that lineup wears a tomahawk across its chests.