Phillies place Dominguez on IL, lose Knebel for the season

The Phillies got some bad news with their bullpen today.

The big news is Seranthony Dominguez being lost since we didn’t really know he was hurt until last night. Any time that a pitcher has triceps issues, that can be alarming as it can be a portend to more serious things. He’ll have an MRI soon, one that hopefully alleviates some of those concerns. They can weather a few weeks without him, not as easily as having him of course, but it can be done.

Tyler Cyr joins the team in place of Dominguez, coming here with some solid numbers overall, but nothing like what Dominguez can provide.

Knebel being lost for the season was probably assumed, but now that it’s official, it’s kind of a mixed bag. His loss of the closer’s job earlier in the season probably cost the Phillies a few wins, but once he was given a different role, one that was, with hindsight, more suitable to his skillset, he actually did quite well. Since June 17th, he pitched in 19 ²⁄₃ innings over 20 games, allowing seven runs, striking out 18 and walking 12. Included in that stretch was a game where he allowed five earned runs against the Braves in ²⁄₃ of an inning, so if that gets taken out, his ERA in that time period drops to 0.95. Perfectly acceptable for someone in the 6th/7th innings and one that is worth bringing back next year on a smaller contract to see if he can repeat it.

The bullpen luckily does have some depth to it right now, so the Phillies should be ok for a while. Getting Dominguez back healthy would be great, especially in the playoffs, but we’ll just have to wait and see.