With how well things have been going for the Phillies lately – and they just completed a three-game sweep of the San Diego Padres to improve to 19-10 – one would think that there aren’t many head scratching decisions to dwell on.

And yet, they’ve sort of created one for themselves at the back of the rotation.

Quite simply, they now have six starting pitchers on the major league staff and only need five – for now.

And while it is a first world baseball problem and a good problem to have, it does run the risk of messing up what’s been working.

And what has been working has been the starting rotation – to the tune that it clearly has had the best numbers of any starting rotation in baseball through the first month of the season.

But that was when it was simply rolling out the same five guys – Zack Wheeler, Aaron Nola, Ranger Suarez, Cristopher Sanchez and Spencer Turnbull.

That all changed Sunday with the return of Taijuan Walker from shoulder stiffness that slowed him down in spring training:


Walker did enough in his first season with the Phillies to deserve a crack at staying in the rotation once he returned from his injury. That and his $72 million contract have a lot to do with it.

But it’s fair to say the Phillies didn’t expect Turnbull to come out of the gate and dominate the opposition through five starts. He’s not only been one of the Phillies best pitchers, but one of the game’s best pitchers – statistically speaking – through the first month of the season.

They’ve been thrilled by his work so far, but they are uber-cautious with their pitchers and the fact that Turnbull hasn’t thrown a lot of innings since 2019 has them concerned about overworking him.

Rob Thomson has said they don’t envision more than 100 innings – or a little bit more than that – out of Turnbull this season. The rationale being that because he’s dealt with arm injuries the past few years, their data and research tells you that they can’t push Turnbull’s arm more than 50-ish more innings than he threw a season ago.

And it’s hard to argue with the Phillies conservative philosophy with their pitchers because it works. While teams are having pitchers drop like flies with arm injuries over the past couple of seasons the Phillies are mostly healthy. They have found a groove with load management of their pitchers and are sticking to it.

But you can tell by just listening to Turnbull that he’s willing to test that theory. He hasn’t come out and said it directly, but he believes in himself, he feels great physically, and he’s pitching better than he ever has in his career. Oh, and he’s 31. Not a young kid.

He’s on a one-year, $2 million contract. He’s pitching for his future, in a lot of ways, and so far, he’s delivered.

So, the Phillies are in a bit of a conundrum.

They don’t believe Walker should lose his job to an injury, but they also don’t want to mess with the vibes in the clubhouse by pulling a guy out of the rotation who has given the team more than they ever could have asked for five starts.

So, they are punting. At least for a few days. Maybe a week.

Thomson announced Sunday that even though Walker was now back, Turnbull would be given another start Tuesday against the Los Angeles Angels.

This, in essence, gives the Phillies a six-man rotation, but it’s only going to be for this week because there is an off day each of the next two Thursdays.

This curious decision pushes everyone back an extra day and Nola back two days because of the off day. It takes them out of a rhythm that they were in and rolling through in the first month.

Maybe it won’t affect them. Maybe they’ll keep plugging along. Maybe an extra day or two doesn’t change anything – it’s not like they haven’t done this before.

But why risk it? Why change what has worked so well?

And then there’s Walker, who had a little more life on his fastball than he had in his rehab outings but was still a couple miles per hour off from what he expects from himself. He also struggled with his splitter – his go-to pitch – and threw fewer of them than usual in his season debut.

But, for six innings, Walker gave the Phillies a solid start. He had allowed three runs, sure, but for a first start of the season, six innings pitched and just three runs allowed would be an encouraging beginning. And he made a hell of a defensive play:


And then, for whatever reason, the Phillies sent him back out to pitch a seventh inning. I found it perplexing to begin with, and even after he got the first out, I found it incredibly strange that they didn’t even have a guy getting loose in case things started to go sideways.

And by the time they did get Jeff Hoffman up and ready, it was three batters too late, and he had to come in to protect a one-run lead in a game the Phillies seemed to be coasting through to their latest victory.

By leaving Walker in that long he gave up a walk, a hit, and a three-run bomb. It left his pitching line looking a lot uglier than it would have Thomson shook his hand after six innings and told him he did a great job in his first start.

Instead, 6 1/3 innings allowing eight hits, six runs, all earned, two walks and two home runs while striking out just four looks much more grotesque:


Yes, it’s just one start, but he could have come away feeling a lot better – and the team feeling a lot better about him – after six innings than anyone feels after 6 1/3.

Leaving Walker in the game to give up that home run only brought about more questions than answers. The Phillies will insist they are blocking out the noise, but it’s really hard to ignore. The players pay attention to what’s being said, and what’s being written. It’s hard to just constantly block it out, especially when you are fighting for your job. Why create such undue stress for your own players?

It was a decision that simply made no sense.

And now by announcing Turnbull is going to get another start – deservedly so – it adds additional pressure to Cristopher Sanchez to pitch well Monday night against the Angels. Because now he’s not certain of his spot in the rotation either. And to be fair, if you are going to give Walker a little runway here to prove he deserves to stick in the rotation, then the guy who might have to come out is Sanchez – only because he’s been more inconsistent than Turnbull and batters are still walloping his sinker, even if they can’t touch his changeup.

Maybe that would be the best situation for the Phillies. At least Sanchez has experience being a long-man out of the bullpen before – unlike Turnbull or Walker.

Frankly, pulling Sanchez from the rotation and putting him in the ‘pen would probably upset the apple cart the least. Walker gets to keep his job, for now, while he works his way back from injury, and Turnbull gets to keep proving he deserves to stay in the rotation, meanwhile Sanchez gets to work on refining his sinker so that when he does get back to the rotation in the not-too-distant future, he’ll have a chance to be even better than he’s been so far.

By punting the Phillies are going to see if any other factors emerge over the course of the next few days that can help make their decision seem easier and also seem like it’s not just one of those tough calls a team has to make. But one has to wonder if by doing that it knocks them a little out of sync.

The good news is, the Phillies are a veteran team who have proven time and again that they can deal with adversity when it is thrust upon them. And if the conditions become adverse, you should have confidence that they will be able to overcome it.

Ultimately, the issue here isn’t about getting Walker back into the rotation or pulling Turnbull out, or worrying about how a more inexperienced pitcher like Sanchez, who relies on confidence as much as he does his changeup, will react if you pull him from the rotation.

Instead, the issue is that they are not making the call – at least not yet. And by not doing that, that they are unnecessarily bringing scrutiny on themselves at a time the team’s recent efforts should instead be widely celebrated.