By FRANK WARD
DailyPhiladelphian.com Editor
Brad Lidge. JC Romero. Ryan Madson. JA Happ.
The list of injured pitchers goes on and on, and it is killing the Phillies bullpen.
Ruben Amaro, as much as we love your move to bring in Doc Halladay and sign Ryan Howard to the second-richest deal in baseball, the fact that you have ignored the bullpen issues has not gone unnoticed. And, now, it’s time to address it before the season gets away from the two-time defending National League champs.
If Brad Lidge returning to Philly for an MRI isn’t a wake-up call, I don’t know what is.
The Phillies need to make a move to add bodies in the bullpen today.
Yes, the team has $9 million invested in Lidge this year, but at this point, you can’t wait for him anymore. Not when he started the year on the DL. Not when he missed a lot of time last year. Not when he had a 7-plus ERA last year. And, certainly not when he is getting an MRI less than two weeks after making his 2010 debut.
Oh, and the man who held down the fort — Ryan Madson — is out for another month with a broken toe suffered from kicking a metal chair due to a poor outing that ballooned his ERA this year to a Lidge-like 7.00.
If the Phillies don’t make a move now to secure a stud closer, they could be in even deeper dire straights.
Jose Contreras, Chad Durbin and others will likely get the call in the ninth inning. This depletes the set-up guys and long relievers even more. That’s not something the Phillies are equipped to handle. Especially when Romero is still finding his way back, and Kyle Kendrick is part of the starting rotation until Happ returns.
Kendrick could be a lights out reliever as he was last year. In essence, he could be this year’s Chan Ho Park.
For now, the Phillies are short in the bullpen.
The good news it happened early enough for the Phillies to use the trading chips they got for Cliff Lee to address the problem.
The bad news is the Phillies put themselves in this position by counting on too many guys to return from injuries and find their 2008 career year performances. Anyone could see the need to get a guy capable of closing last winter.
Now, Amaro has to make a move. And he has to do it yesterday before the top closers move to other homes.
