Phillies' Dominguez Struggles: Time to Relegate Reliever?

The 2023 season has been a struggle for Seranthony Dominguez and the Philadelphia Phillies bullpen. The hard-throwing 29-year-old right-hander entered the year expected to be a key late-inning reliever, but he’s pitched his way out of high-leverage situations with an alarming lack of control and effectiveness.

Dominguez’s latest meltdown came Wednesday night against the Cincinnati Reds. With the Phillies leading 3-1 in the 6th inning after a strong start from Spencer Turnbull, manager Rob Thomson turned to Dominguez to keep the lead. But he immediately walked the leadoff batter, and the outing quickly unraveled with a double, single, and another walk allowing the Reds to tie the game before he could record an out.

Matt Strahm relieved Dominguez but couldn’t stop the damage, allowing the two inherited runners to score as the Reds took a 5-3 lead on their way to a 7-4 victory. Dominguez’s final line: 0 IP, 2 H, 3 R, 2 BB, sending his season ERA ballooning up to an unsightly 9.72.

“He’s just really battling himself out there and not giving us a chance to win games when he comes in,” a visibly frustrated Thomson said of Dominguez. “At this point, we’re going to have to take a hard look at limiting his exposure to just low-leverage situations until he can get things figured out.”

Dominguez burst onto the scene as a top reliever for the Phillies in 2018, posting a 2.95 ERA and striking out 74 batters in just 58 innings while reaching 100 mph with his electric fastball. But Tommy John surgery and setbacks have prevented him from replicating that success over a full season.

Last year, his numbers declined to a 4.84 FIP and 1.40 WHIP as he battled occasional bouts of wildness. This season, the control problems have become untenable with 9 walks in just 8.1 innings along with an unsightly 1.92 WHIP.

“The stuff is still there, the velocity is there, but he’s just not commanding anything right now,” Thomson said. “He’s putting too much stress on the bullpen when he comes into close games because we can’t let him go very long.”

While the Phillies desperately need Dominguez to regain his 2018 form to solidify the back-end of their bullpen, they may be at the point where they can’t keep running him out there in high-leverage spots. His inability to throw strikes is routinely putting the team in difficult positions to win games.

The Phillies have already been linked to bullpen reinforcements ahead of the trade deadline. But they may need to explore external options even sooner if Dominguez can’t get straightened out and force Thomson’s hand to relegate him to mop-up duty until he rediscovers his command.

With Philadelphia battling to stay in playoff contention, they can’t afford to keep digging these self-induced holes created by wildness from their relievers in close games. If Dominguez is unable to harness his elite stuff, the Phillies may have to look elsewhere for their high-leverage solutions out of the bullpen.