Phillies Call Up Orion Kerkering

Cheryl Pursell/Special to The Morning Call

Today the Phillies called up minor league relief pitcher Orion Kerkering who has quickly climbed the ranks. Kerkering who was drafted in the fifth-round last summer has a two-pitch mix. He has an electric fastball that hits the high nineties regularly while also reaching triple digits on a semi-consistent basis. Kerkering has hit as high as 102 mph with his fastball. His second pitch is a devasting slider that sits between 88-90 mph. Kerkering will use his slider in any count but where it’s really effective is as a put-away pitch.

Kerkering started the year in the Florida State League where in nine appearances and ten and a third innings of work he allowed two hits, zero runs, and amassed 18 strikeouts with a zero ERA. After dominating the FSL Kerkering was promoted to the South Atlantic League where he pitched twenty and two third innings. In those innings Kerkering gave up 13 hits, four runs, and collected 27 strikeouts with a 1.77 ERA. Kerkering was then promoted to AA Reading where he pitched 22 innings, allowing 19 hits, 5 runs, and striking out 33 with a 2.05 ERA. Then just last week Kerkering was promoted to AAA so the Phillies could see how he would look throwing an MLB baseball. In his one appearance in AAA he went one inning, allowed two hits, zero runs, and one strikeout.

Now with him being called up to the bigs with nine games to go, the Phillies will likely try to get him some work out of the pen to see how he fairs against major league hitters. If he does well there is a possibility he could be an X-factor to the Phillies bullpen during this upcoming postseason run. It’s unknown how well Kerkering will fair this year, but he definitely has the stuff to become a dominant reliever for the Phillies down the road even if it’s not this season.