After Philadelphia Phillies manager Rob Thomson said they were looking at interesting ways to keep their starter involved, his future seems to be a bit murky.
With the Philadelphia Phillies winning their second series in a row after beating the Los Angeles Angels 2-1 on Wednesday, they now get a day off before welcoming in the San Francisco Giants to start a six-game homestand.
The time off will be welcomed after the last day they weren’t in game action came on April 18.
The start has been remarkable for the Phillies as they were the first team to reach the 20-win mark after their comeback victory on Tuesday that saw two of their highly-criticized hitters turn into heroes.
Among all the great storylines that are taking place right now, including one of their young players emerging into a star, perhaps there hasn’t been a more interesting one than what Spencer Turnbull has done every time he’s taken the mound.
After joining Philadelphia this offseason on a one-year, $2 million contract, he wasn’t expected to be in their starting rotation with Zack Wheeler, Aaron Nola, Ranger Suarez, Taijuan Walker, and Christopher Sanchez initially getting that nod.
But when Walker had to be placed on the injured list during Spring Training, the Phillies turned to Turnbull to be their fifth guy despite him only pitching seven times over the last two years because of Tommy John surgery.
The former second round pick has been sensational this season.
Across his six starts, he has a 1.67 ERA with 36 strikeouts over 32 1/3 innings pitched.
But, with Walker back in the mix, it looks like Philadelphia will be searching for a new role that Turnbull can occupy.
Manager Rob Thomson and his coaching staff are still kicking around ideas on what that might look like. When Todd Zolecki of MLB.com asked him if that could be piggybacking behind another starter, he said, “Absolutely. It’s TBA, but I think it makes some sense.”
Who Turnbull would be paired with seems to be the left-hander Sanchez.
One of them would start the game while the other would finish it, putting their splits roughly around 50 pitches and the five inning mark.
There are certainly benefits to this, even though it’s unorthodox.
It would build in a rest days for the Phillies’ bullpen. It would also keep two of their top arms with the team and have them maintaining a throwing schedule against Major League competition.
What comes out of this will be seen, but it according to Zolecki, there was a hint that Thomson might have his mind made up by Friday with an announcement potentially coming.
