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Phillies reportedly look into Robertson to fill void left by Alvarado's PED ban originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

The Phillies bullpen needs help. A unit that had already struggled for much of the season to his point lost its anchor, closer Jose Alvarado, to an 80-game PED suspension. GM Dave Dombrowski and the rest of the front office could be facing the sobering possibility of giving up one or more of the organization’s most talented prospects as they scramble to fill the void left by the flame-throwing left-hander.

But there is a relief pitcher the Phillies could pick up. One that wouldn’t cost them any personnel. One with whom they are quite familiar. In fact, they’ve already looked into it for this season.

According to mlb.com’s Mark Feinsand, the team contacted free agent pitcher David Robertson even before the Alvarado suspension was announced.

Robertson, who turned 40 on April 9, has had two stints with the Phillies. He signed a two-year deal prior to the 2019 season, but suffered an elbow injury requiring Tommy John surgery after only seven appearances, missing the rest of 2019 and all of 2020. He was acquired at the 2022 trade deadline and pitched to a 2.70 ERA in 22 games, notching six saves, and held a 1.17 ERA in eight postseason appearances.

In 2024 the right-hander pitched 68 games for the Texas Rangers, going 3-4 with a 3.00 ERA and a 33.3 K%, among the best in the game. His cutter, a pitch he throws nearly two-thirds of the time, held a plus-17 run value, tied for 2^nd-best in MLB.

The season, and the Phillies’ search for relief help, could go in a lot of different directions in the next few months. But another look at Robertson could be a low-risk, high-reward option for Dombrowski and Company.

Here are five things to watch and predictions as the Mets and Los Angeles Dodgers play a three-game series at Citi Field starting on Friday at 7:10 p.m.

5 things to watch

NLCS rematch

The last time these teams faced off was last year’s NLCS when the Dodgers ended the Mets’ miraculous postseason run -- jumping on both Sean Manaea and Kodai Senga in a Game 6 clinching victory. 

Los Angeles, of course, ultimately went on to defeat the Yankees in five games in the World Series to secure the eighth title in franchise history.  

Both teams made some big additions over the offseason, and they are currently considered among the favorites to represent the National League in the Fall Classic this year.

The Mets (30-20) have hit a bit of a rough patch after their red hot start to the season -- currently sitting in second place in the NL East, just 1.5 games behind the Phillies and 10 games above the .500 mark. 

The Dodgers (31-19) have been struggling of late as well, but they are coming off a series win over the Diamondbacks and are currently tied with Philadelphia for the most wins in the National League. 

Could this rematch be an early NLCS preview?

Brett Baty's confidence continues to grow

Baty just keeps building his case for everyday playing time. 

With Mark Vientos struggling defensively, the youngster drew the start at the hot corner in each of the three games in Boston and he impressed with the leather in the first two. 

Carlos Mendoza said pregame Wednesday that Baty’s defense was the main reason he decided to leave him in the lineup against a tough left-hander in Garrett Crochet for the series finale. 

Baty responded by cracking a two-out RBI single in the second inning to get the scoring started. He came through again later on, going the other way to put New York back in front with a two-run double off another tough lefty in Brennan Bernardino. 

The 25-year-old finished the day 2-for-4 while driving in three of New York’s five runs. 

After his strong showing against the lefties, Baty figures to have earned himself the opportunity to get back out there against Clayton Kershaw in the opener -- he should be in the lineup for all three games of this set. 

Signs of life at the plate

Baty wasn’t the only positive sign during Wednesday’s win in Boston. 

The rest of the bottom four did a good job setting the table as well -- Luis Torrens was on-base three times, Tyrone Taylor picked up a knock of his own, and Luisangel Acuña reached on a pair of infield hits. 

Francisco Lindor had two hits out of the leadoff spot as well -- opening the game with a double off Crochet and then cracking a solo shot over the Green Monster in the ninth for the Mets’ first homer since last Tuesday. 

As a team, though, they still finished 3-for-12 with runners in scoring position. 

They are now an abysmal eight-for-56 in such situations over their last eight games.

Juan Soto still looks a bit lost at the plate -- he was fooled badly on three strikeouts against Crochet, but drove one deep to center with the bases loaded in the seventh which would’ve been a grand slam if not for the wind. 

Soto now hasn't left the yard since May 9 and he's just 5-for-35 over that span. Pete Alonso’s production has slowed down mightily as well since the calendar flipped to May -- he's now gone 56 at-bats without a homer, which is the third-longest streak of his career.

Vientos also still isn’t offering much of anything in the power department, and Brandon Nimmo continues to struggle mightily at the plate.  

For this offense to get back in a groove, they need the big guns at the top to get rolling again.

Dodgers' pitching has been hittable

The positive for the Mets is the Dodgers’ pitching staff has been very hittable thus far. 

LA came into the year with a loaded rotation from top-to-bottom after making some offseason additions, but they’ve battled numerous injuries and have been forced to tap deep into their depth. 

Roki Sasaki, Blake Snell, Tyler Glasnow, Emmett Sheehan, River Ryan, and Gavin Stone are all currently sidelined and Shohei Ohtani is still yet to make his return to the mound.

Relievers Blake Treinen, Evan Phillips, Michael Kopech, Kirby Yates, and Brusdar Graterol are also on the IL.

With their pieced together young staff, the Dodgers have allowed the ninth-most runs (222) and seventh-most homers (65) in baseball to this point in the season. 

The Mets will have to deal with the veteran Kershaw, who is 11-0 against them in his career, but he struggled in his season debut -- allowing five runs and walking three in just four innings against the Angels. 

Tony Gonsolin (4.05 ERA) and Landon Knack (6.17 ERA) are set to pitch the final two games.

Mets pitchers will have their hands full

As bad as the Dodgers' pitching has been thus far, their offense has had their backs.

They currently lead the league with a .284 average. They also rank second in home runs (81), hits (454), runs scored (284), and OPS (.814) and find themselves in the top-10 in several other key categories.

Their star-studded top of the order leads the way headlined by Ohtani, Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman, and All-Star catcher Will Smith -- three of which are hitting above the .300 mark.

Teoscar Hernández and Tommy Edman have returned from stints on the IL and they’ve been great thus far as well -- producing a combined 18 homers and 64 RBI.

The speedy Hyeseong Kim has also provided a spark since being called up and Andy Pages has locked himself into an everyday role after producing nine long balls over the first 46 games of the season.  

The Mets’ pitching staff has continued to carry their weight amid the offenses struggles, but they'll really be put to the test this weekend -- and it'll be up to Griffin Canning, David Peterson, and Senga to keep this high-powered group in check. 

Predictions

Who will the MVP of the series be?

Francisco Lindor.

He's been tremendous at home this season and showed some positive signs on Wednesday.

Which Mets pitcher will have the best start?

Kodai Senga.

Senga is rolling and will be determined to make up for his rough showing in the NLCS

Which Dodgers player will be a thorn in the Mets' side?

Freddie Freeman.

One of the biggest Met killers around, who leads the NL with a .368 average and 1.087 OPS.

Ace mismanagement? Red Sox' plan for Crochet backfires in loss to Mets originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston

The Boston Red Sox appeared to be in a good spot Wednesday night.

The Sox were tied 1-1 with the New York Mets with one out in the sixth inning and seeking their first three-game winning streak since late April. Their ace, Garrett Crochet, was dealing, with just five hits allowed and five strikeouts on 85 pitches, his latest a nasty sweeper to ring up Juan Soto.

But that would be the last pitch Crochet threw, as manager Alex Cora emerged from the dugout to give Crochet the short hook and summon reliever Liam Hendriks from the bullpen. While Hendriks completed the sixth inning, it was all downhill from there: Hendriks, Brennan Bernardino and Sean Newcomb combined to allow four runs over the final three innings en route to a disappointing 5-1 loss.

So, why did Cora pull Crochet so early? The Red Sox manager explained that Wednesday was a planned shorter start for Crochet, who leads the majors in innings pitched and had gone a full seven innings in three of his last four starts.

“It’s for the benefit of the player,” Cora said after the game, via MassLive.com. “We’re here for the long run and we need that guy to make his starts. And for us to go to where we feel we can go, we need him.”

Crochet — who wasn’t informed about Boston’s plans to limit him before the game — wasn’t too happy about his early exit.

“I was frustrated,” Crochet said, via MassLive. “Just wanted a chance to pick up my teammates, the bullpen. They’ve obviously worked really hard this series. And I wanted to try and keep them out of it as much as possible.”

To Crochet’s point, no Boston starter had lasted more than 4.2 innings in the previous four games entering Wednesday. And just one day earlier, six Red Sox pitchers combined to log 6.2 innings of relief after starter Walker Buehler was ejected in the third inning.

Yet there was Cora at Fenway Park on Wednesday pulling the plug on Crochet’s shortest outing of the season, and turning to an already-taxed bullpen to get 11 more outs.

“I like to think that I’m built up for that workload at this point,” Crochet said. “Obviously the focus is on being healthy in October, which I understand. But my focus right now is looking out for my teammates, trying to pick up slack when there needs to be.

“If I’m gonna be the starting pitcher that we’re looking towards right now, I wanna go out there and lead the league in innings. I want to throw as many innings as possible.”

There’s a rational case for monitoring Crochet’s workload; the 25-year-old is just three years removed from Tommy John surgery and has only thrown more than 100 innings in a season once (146 in 2024). If the Red Sox want Crochet to be at his best in October, there’s a benefit to not overworking him on a cold night in May.

But the reality is that Boston may not be playing in October unless it can win games more consistently. The Red Sox are 25-26 after Wednesday’s loss and now are 3-6 in their last nine games. In their defeat to the Mets, they squandered a rare opportunity to complete a series sweep and gain momentum entering a three-game set with the lowly Baltimore Orioles.

You could argue there’s plenty of time for the Red Sox to get hot. But their conservative approach with Crochet highlights an overall lack of urgency of Fenway Park that’s reflected in the team’s current record.

The first two years of Jacob deGrom's contract with the Rangers were mainly spent on the IL.

He made just three starts towards the end of last season as he was recovering from a second Tommy John surgery, but after having a healthy offseason and full spring training, he's finally ready to roll.

The right-hander is officially back and delivering the type of performances Texas was expecting when they handed him a big money five-year deal a couple of winters back -- Wednesday night was another one of those.

Taking the mound against the high-powered Yankees lineup in his first New York start since the 2022 National League Wild Card round, deGrom put together seven strong innings of work.

He did get off to a bit of a slow start, allowing the Bombers to put two on in the first and then Anthony Volpe led off the second with a triple and later scored -- but it was smooth sailing from there.

DeGrom retired the next 15 batters in order before the scorching hot Cody Bellinger crushed a solo homer to cut into the Rangers' two-run lead leading off the bottom of the seventh.

He easily set aside the next three batters to finish off his fourth quality start of the season with a final line of two runs allowed on three hits to go along with just one walk and nine strikeouts.

It was also the first time he topped the 100-pitch mark this season.

"Everything felt good," deGrom said postgame. "You miss that much time, it's good to pitch anywhere -- but having spent so much time in New York, getting back on the mound here, it was fun tonight."

Fittingly in his return to the Big Apple, the 36-year-old ended up being handed the tough-luck no-decision as the Rangers were walked off, but he continues to prove that even after a few injury-plagued seasons he's still among the best in the game.

DeGrom has now allowed just five earned runs in each of his last five starts -- pitching to a strong 1.45 ERA and 0.81 WHIP with five walks and 36 punch outs over that span.

"The main thing is the mental thing," he said. "You want to be out there competing. The goal is to be out there as much as I could, to take the ball as many times as I could -- when you don't, you feel like a real letdown."

If deGrom is able to stay healthy, perhaps he'll have his shot at a Citi Field return later this season.

Here's what happened in Mets Land on Wednesday, in case you missed it...

• With the Mets' offense struggling, Carlos Mendoza decided to shake things up with the lineup

• New York's offense responded by showing some sigs of life, closing its three-game set in Boston with a much-needed 5-1 win over the Red Sox
• Brett Batydelivered for this struggling offense again, driving in three of their five runs on the night
• Huascar Brazoban"saved the team" with an clutch two-inning showing late in the ballgame
• Looking to provide a spark, Mendoza plans on sticking with those lineup changes moving forward
• Mike Piazzaoffered some advice to Juan Soto amid his slow offensive start with the team
• Down on the farm, Ronny Mauricio stayed hot in Syracuse -- homering for the second straight day
• Right-hander Paul Blackburntwirled seven scoreless innings in what could be his final rehab appearance
• WATCH: Baty, Brazoban, and Tylor Megill discuss their part in the victory over Boston