Dave Dombrowski says the Phillies’ starting rotation is set. But how could a prospect like Griff McGarry fit into the picture?

NASHVILLE — This week, the Phillies have made it clear that they intend to make incremental improvements in the hope that they will lead to meaningful gains. President of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski has cited the bullpen and the backup outfield spots as areas his team could target, but another could be starting pitching depth.

Dombrowski says his rotation is set. Barring injuries, it’ll be Zack Wheeler, Aaron Nola, Ranger Suárez, Taijuan Walker, and Cristopher Sánchez. But who comes next is tough to forecast. Minor leaguer Mick Abel is an option, but he still needs to get his walk rate down, and the Phillies don’t want to rush him after one game at triple A. Dombrowski has cited Dylan Covey and Nick Nelson as other options not currently in the rotation.

But among the Phillies’ options, the biggest uncertainty is 24-year-old right-hander Griff McGarry. The Phillies’ No. 5 prospect started his season with an oblique injury in his side, was promoted from double A to triple A on Aug. 4, and immediately struggled with his command. His walk rate rose from 15.6% through 54⅔ innings at double A to 40% through 4⅓ innings at triple A.

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He followed a similar pattern last year, when he posted a 15.2% walk rate over 32⅔ innings in double A and a 24.3% walk rate over eight innings in triple A. McGarry hasn’t pitched enough innings in triple A to make any sweeping judgments — and part of his issue could be trouble adjusting to the automated strike zone — but both his double-A and triple-A figures were higher than average. McGarry was put on the development list at the end of the season.

McGarry spent the majority of his college career at Virginia pitching out of the rotation. The Phillies have used him as a starter since they drafted him in the fifth round in 2021, but now his future role is less clear.

“Yes, we’re hopeful that he will be [a starter],” Dombrowski said Tuesday. “But we also have to make sure we get him back to where he was before he went to triple A. So yes, we still think that we can do that, but I can’t tell you … like when I say Mick Abel — he’s a starting pitcher. McGarry, I would also say we think of him [that way], but time will tell.”

For now, McGarry will stay stretched out as a starter. He has spent his offseason working on a change in his delivery at Cressey Sports Performance in Florida. Phillies pitching coach Caleb Cotham, assistant pitching coach/director of pitching development Brian Kaplan, and bullpen coach Cesár Ramos approached McGarry last month about making his arm action a little shorter. McGarry was receptive.

“He’s already got it going in his throwing program,” Cotham said Wednesday. “It looks really good. It looks easy; the ball is coming out clean. It’s about getting a little tighter to your body, a little shorter. Think about Zack Wheeler versus Spencer Strider. Zack is a long-armed guy, but he does a nice job of getting it short when it’s time to throw the ball, and Griff was a little too long and staying long. It was more — what are we capable of?

“He’s very good. The stuff is tremendous. I believe in Griff a lot. He’s done a nice job of nudging his walk rate better, throwing more strikes. But there’s still this thing that I believe he’s capable of — we believe he’s capable of — that’s a really good strike thrower with tremendous stuff. And this is about getting him in a little bit better position to do that.”

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Cotham hopes the change will help McGarry’s control in the long term — regardless of what his role is. In the meantime, the Phillies will continue to keep an eye on starting pitching depth. Dombrowski said Wednesday that he sees options on the market, but that doesn’t necessarily mean a deal will come to fruition.

“The depth isn’t really as important until you get to the season, so we’ve got a lot of time until we start, until the end of March,” Dombrowski said. “But we talked about Covey potentially, let’s see how Abel progresses, we’ve got Nelson, but yeah, ideally, we would continue to add in that regard. But right now we’re not going to have much success in that regard.

“It’s not that it’s not on our agenda, I’ve got the list of names and all that, but I’m hopeful we’ll be able to add more, yes.”