Orion Kerkering embodies the historic, chaotic Phillies
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Hallie Grossman, ESPN Staff Writer
ORION KERKERING CAST a furtive glance around the clubhouse. His teammates — this lot of Philadelphia Phillies who had been his teammates for a grand total of three weeks — were consumed with the work ahead of dispatching the Braves in Game 4 to clinch the National League Division Series, or just otherwise engaged in pregame rituals, and they paid him no mind. He tugged open the plastic bag and double-checked its contents. Satisfied, he squirreled it away in his locker for safekeeping. His time, and the time for the contents of that bag, was coming.
The fact that these teammates were his teammates was silly. That this locker was his locker, illogical. That the contents of that bag, which he had commissioned barely 12 hours ago, were his to commission at all, downright asinine. Six months ago, he took the mound in Low-A ball in Clearwater, Florida. Low-A! And here he was, suiting up in Philadelphia. In the majors. In October. (Philadelphia! The majors! October!)
So roughly four hours later — with the Atlanta Braves duly dispatched and the NLDS safely clinched — when he nudged his clubhouse neighbor and fellow bullpen mate, Jeff Hoffman, smiled with an air of mischief and told him, “Hey, man, look at this,” well, it made as much sense as anything else in this nonsensical year.
The way Hoffman tells it, Kerkering giggled almost like a grade-schooler at what he had done. Fittingly, perhaps, since he’s only 22 and not that far removed from grade school. (He was in grade school, in fact — just 9 years old — when his now-teammate and Phillies closer, Craig Kimbrel, made his major league debut in 2010.)
Hoffman smiled back at Kerkering. “Wow,” he told him. Atta boy, he almost said, which is also fitting. Because Orion Kerkering, a Phillie for 20 days, had made a T-shirt commemorating that sentiment exactly.
In maroon, against a powder blue backdrop on the front: “ATTA BOY HARPER”
On the back: “HE WASN’T SUPPOSED TO HEAR IT”
With help from a college friend and Philadelphia local who made the shirt on about a half day’s notice, Kerkering had memorialized Orlando Arcia, the Brave who launched a thousand Bryce Harper stare-downs. Specifically, the Atlanta shortstop’s dig and subsequent about-face at Harper’s Game 2-ending baserunning blunder. And Hoffman loved it.
“When you win, you can do whatever you want,” Hoffman says. “At least that’s how we look at it here.”
And the Phillies did win, with a hint of bedlam and utter lack of orthodoxy, as is their wont. So with the clubhouse draped in celebratory plastic and geysers of celebratory Budweiser arcing through the air, Kerkering finally put on his shirt. Phillies third baseman Alec Bohm double-fisted a pair of beer bottles and poured them all over it. Kerkering paid it forward, dousing Kyle Schwarber with the beer he’s barely old enough to drink legally.
His path to this beer bath was a little frenzied and more than a little unexpected — which on this particular team, with this particular group of players, somehow feels just right.
The Phillies simply do not do normal. They send the unlikeliest leadoff hitter in baseball to the plate; Schwarber is shaped like a fire hydrant and on many nights, either fires moon shots into the Philadelphia evening or whiffs entirely. Their lineup can boggle the mind; Nick Castellanos, their $100 million slugger, has mostly taken up residence in the 7-hole for over a month now. They can launch (and launch and launch) home runs all the way to the Delaware River, but can forget, for seeming eternities, how to make bat meet ball with runners in scoring position. And they can look like a very good team for 162 games, only to hulk out when the calendar flips to October and there’s a nip in the air.
They are perfectly imperfect. A chaotic mess. A beautiful symphony.
Orion Kerkering — and his chaotic, symphonic climb to the highest level of baseball — fits right in.
PERHAPS IT SHOULD be no surprise, then, that by the seventh inning of Game 1 in the National League Championship Series, a healthy number of Phillies fans and armchair Toppers the Philadelphia region wide were agitating to replace their ace with a pitcher they hadn’t heard of three weeks before.
Starter Zack Wheeler had, by and large, breezed through six innings against the Arizona Diamondbacks, helped steward a 5-2 Phillies lead, then handed the ball to the bullpen. And though Kerkering did not get the nod that night, the clamor was still a dizzying turn of events for a man who currently calls a hotel in Philadelphia’s Navy Yard home.
He’s living out of a suitcase he packed last month, with enough clothes — some shirts, some pants; “I’m not a big stylish guy,” he says — for the final week of the Reading Fightin Phils‘ season, plus a sightseeing trip to Gatlinburg, Tennessee, with his girlfriend. They pushed back their plans when he got the call to head to Triple-A — then that pushback got pushed back when, four nights and one game into his stint with the Lehigh Valley IronPigs, he got summoned to Philadelphia on a late-September Friday around noon. He had planned to get a haircut that afternoon; instead, he battled midday traffic from Allentown to Philadelphia, dropped his belongings at the hotel, then hightailed it to Citizens Bank Park in case he needed to pitch that night. (He didn’t, but would two days later.)
Since that Friday when his fall turned topsy-turvy, Kerkering has made:
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His major league debut, on Sept. 24, a 1-2-3 eighth inning against the Mets.
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His postseason debut 10 days later, a 1-2-3 eighth inning against the Marlins.
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His NLDS debut three days after that, a 1-2-3 seventh inning against the Braves’ historically potent offense.
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His NLCS debut a week after that. He allowed one hit, served three strikeouts and looked generally filthy in the ninth inning to close out Arizona in a 10-0 laugher.
Kerkering’s swift ascension to these playoffs makes a meteor’s pace seem glacial. To wit: Since 1992, according to Stats Perform, he’s just the second player to pitch in Low-A, High-A, Double-A, Triple-A and the major league postseason.
And though he finally looked the part of a rookie by the heart of the NLCS — he gave up three straight hits and the game-tying run in the Phillies’ Game 3 loss; he delivered a bases-loaded walk before closing out the seventh inning in Game 4 — Kerkering swears he has never been cowed by the moment or the enormity of what he has done since late September. Instead, shell shock took hold when he passed a Bryce Harper or a Kyle Schwarber or a Trea Turner. Or a Nick Castellanos or Aaron Nola or Zack Wheeler. He rattles off what feels like half the roster, recounting how he’d see them in the clubhouse, realize they were his teammates, then laugh to himself about it all. “A little-kid kind of moment,” he says, a bit sheepishly, now that the bewilderment has faded and he’s a seasoned veteran of 20-plus days.
Which is pretty much what his teammates make him out to be, on the mound at least — a seasoned veteran — a distinction they also say he comes by honestly.
“If I had his stuff, I’d be pretty mellow too,” says pitcher Michael Lorenzen. “I’m telling you. It’s that good.”
A popular refrain, by all counts. J.T. Realmuto, Philadelphia’s longtime catcher, heard it early this year, and often.
“To be honest, I’ve been hearing about him and his stuff since May,” he says. “Every time I asked any minor league coach, ‘Hey, what do we have coming?’ He was the first one they always mentioned.”
So is it enough, his devastating slider and the aura of inevitability that trails in that slider’s wake? Can Kerkering be a secret weapon and a fittingly unorthodox puzzle piece for this unorthodox team in the throes of another October run?
“100%,” Lorenzen says. “100%. He’s going to throw a lot of important innings. Everyone’s going to know who he is at the end of this. Everyone will.”
IF EVERYONE DOES know who Kerkering is at the end of this, it’s a tale that’s especially apropos told here. Philadelphia falls hard for chaos to call its own.
One day before he turned Arcia’s words into a fashion statement, he strode into Citizens Bank Park for Game 3 against the Braves wearing someone else’s eloquence.
“If you don’t get it, then get the f— out of Philly,” said Phillies backup catcher Garrett Stubbs, by way of postseason hype video. Stubbs’ exuberance wound up printed on T-shirts. The T-shirts wound up on a table in the clubhouse, up for grabs for interested parties. Kerkering saw them, snagged one for himself — if nothing else, he was still getting by on his two weeks’ worth of clothes, and an extra tee could prove handy. Then, caught up in the team’s emotional roller coaster of a start to the series against the Braves, he figured the Phillies’ first NLDS game at home was a fine time to showcase it.
So what don’t people get, exactly, about Philly? These people who need to get the f— out?
“Just how passionate we are,” Kerkering estimates. We, he says, this Venice, Florida-raised Phillie who has called Philadelphia (or at least a hotel room in Philadelphia) home for a month.
Philadelphia has fallen hard for Kerkering because of his wardrobe choices, his ridiculous slider and his rapid-fire rise to the top of the baseball food chain. And because of his father, Todd, who stumbled into his own bit of viral fame after he was caught on the TV broadcast overcome with emotion during Orion’s regular-season debut.
When the cameras caught Todd choking up, he wasn’t just watching his son take the mound in Philadelphia. He was watching him take the mound when he was 6, and 10, and 14. He was watching him at 7, getting ready for fall ball. Orion’s coach at the time assembled his team and asked the players: “Who can play what position?” Orion’s response was immediate and resolute: “I can play them all.”
Todd is a former Marine and has long tried to pass down the lessons he learned from his service to his son. “Be the silent professional,” he starts. “Be patient. Slow is fast.”
They’re lessons that Orion has not heeded, at least not in his baseball career. But the Marines also taught Todd to maintain a sense of humor, lightheartedness and joy. So he smiled, too, at his son’s willingness to play to the Philly masses with his pointed fashion choices.
Among those Philly masses are a couple of his old Marine Corps friends. They texted him in recent days: “Everyone loves your kid.”
“For right now,” Todd wrote back.
Both Kerkerings, it seems, are quick studies in the art of playing in Philadelphia, and for these Phillies. And all their attendant chaos.
Sports
‘We’re a very dangerous team now’: What all this winning means for the Red Sox’s trade deadline plans
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Jesse Rogers
Just over a month ago, the Boston Red Sox traded Rafael Devers to the San Francisco Giants in a blockbuster deal that sent shockwaves through the industry. At the time of the trade, the Red Sox were just a game over .500. They went 3-7 in their first 10 games without Devers and looked to be fading out of contention.
As the team fell in the standings, rumors began to circulate that the slugging designated hitter wouldn’t be the only star traded out of Boston. But a 10-game win streak before the All-Star break has vaulted the Red Sox into the thick of the playoff race and provided some clarity about their trade deadline plans.
“Throughout the whole year, we thought we had a really good team,” assistant GM Paul Toboni told ESPN over the weekend. “We were kind of waiting for it to click. That streak reconfirmed the thought that we had a good team.”
Boston doesn’t have a lot of expiring contracts, so even without the win streak, a complete teardown was unlikely. Still, trading some of its outfield depth was a possibility. The Red Sox rank in the top 10 in OPS in right field, center field and left field thanks to Jarren Duran, Roman Anthony, Ceddanne Rafaela and Wilyer Abreu.
With that group helping the Red Sox hold an American League wild-card spot, the front office is likely to add pitching, according to sources familiar with their situation, while retaining the abundance of outfielders unless the club is blown away with an offer in the next 10 days.
“Having a surplus of good players isn’t a bad thing,” Toboni said. “The high-end depth is a really good thing. It’s not like we’re anxious to move away from that.”
With their outfield situation likely to be addressed in the offseason, the Red Sox have winning on their minds. A young core, highlighted by the arrival of Anthony and infielder Marcelo Mayer, has had some time to adjust to the majors, leaving the team’s veterans excited about the coming months.
“These guys have been here for a few months now,” Red Sox third baseman Alex Bregman said. “We’re starting to learn who we are as a group. The adjustments are being made quicker at this time of the year. It didn’t start out that way, but guys are wanting to learn and get better. You can see that in our growth this year.”
Bregman watched closely while he was out of the lineup because of a quad injury he sustained at the end of May. He has seen what winning baseball looks like during his time in Houston. It has taken the young Red Sox some time to get there.
“We’re a very dangerous team now, especially when we’re prepared and executing,” Bregman said. “We’ve played good for a while now.
“People will say this is a hot streak, but I believe this is who we are.”
As the calendar inches toward August, that’s the sentiment throughout the clubhouse, where the veterans who have been through the uncertainty of trade season are relieved to spend the next two weeks without trade chatter.
“The run we went on before the All-Star break, it was good. We needed something like that to get us back in the mix, restore some confidence,” starting pitcher Lucas Giolito said. “Right now, staying in the present is important, but I don’t think we have guys in this room too worried they’re going to get dealt or anything anymore.”
Two players who were brought in over the offseason might be the most relieved.
All-Star closer Aroldis Chapman, who has a 1.18 ERA and 17 saves, could have been one of Boston’s most sought-after deadline trade candidates had the front office elected to deal him.
When asked about possibly being moved, the 37-year-old, who is playing for his seventh major league club, smiled as he responded through his interpreter: “The team is in good shape.”
Fellow Boston pitcher Walker Buehler added: “It’s probably good timing to hopefully push the front office to go out and buy and help us make a run. We did our part at the end of the first half there. I want to stay here and be part of it. Don’t want to be on the wrong side of a trade.”
Though they might have done enough to convince the front office to stick with the current veterans, the Red Sox have some of their toughest work ahead of them. According to ESPN Research, they have the hardest remaining schedule for the rest of the month and sixth hardest for the rest of the season, but manager Alex Cora isn’t interested in looking at the stretch run — or what Boston’s first postseason berth since 2021 would mean.
Instead, he believes that if the players can keep attacking each day, the rest will take care of itself.
“I promised myself I’m going to stay in the moment,” Cora said. “It doesn’t do the group any good to start talking about that. We have to win games. It’s not to put pressure on the front office or ownership. It’s what we need to do for us to play in October.”
Opposing teams are asking for “outrageous returns” for pitching, according to league sources, but if the asking prices become more reasonable closer to the deadline, expect the Red Sox to be involved. Until then, they are focused on riding their July momentum while navigating a tough schedule.
“Time to keep it locked in,” Giolito said. “We’ll be welcoming whatever help comes.”
Sports
‘We’re a very dangerous team now’: What all this winning means for the Red Sox’s trade deadline plans
-
Jesse Rogers
Just over a month ago, the Boston Red Sox traded Rafael Devers to the San Francisco Giants in a blockbuster deal that sent shockwaves through the industry. At the time of the trade, the Red Sox were just a game over .500. They went 3-7 in their first 10 games without Devers and looked to be fading out of contention.
As the team fell in the standings, rumors began to circulate that the slugging designated hitter wouldn’t be the only star traded out of Boston. But a 10-game win streak before the All-Star break has vaulted the Red Sox into the thick of the playoff race and provided some clarity about their trade deadline plans.
“Throughout the whole year, we thought we had a really good team,” assistant GM Paul Toboni told ESPN over the weekend. “We were kind of waiting for it to click. That streak reconfirmed the thought that we had a good team.”
Boston doesn’t have a lot of expiring contracts, so even without the win streak, a complete teardown was unlikely. Still, trading some of its outfield depth was a possibility. The Red Sox rank in the top 10 in OPS in right field, center field and left field thanks to Jarren Duran, Roman Anthony, Ceddanne Rafaela and Wilyer Abreu.
With that group helping the Red Sox hold an American League wild-card spot, the front office is likely to add pitching, according to sources familiar with their situation, while retaining the abundance of outfielders unless the club is blown away with an offer in the next 10 days.
“Having a surplus of good players isn’t a bad thing,” Toboni said. “The high-end depth is a really good thing. It’s not like we’re anxious to move away from that.”
With their outfield situation likely to be addressed in the offseason, the Red Sox have winning on their minds. A young core, highlighted by the arrival of Anthony and infielder Marcelo Mayer, has had some time to adjust to the majors, leaving the team’s veterans excited about the coming months.
“These guys have been here for a few months now,” Red Sox third baseman Alex Bregman said. “We’re starting to learn who we are as a group. The adjustments are being made quicker at this time of the year. It didn’t start out that way, but guys are wanting to learn and get better. You can see that in our growth this year.”
Bregman watched closely while he was out of the lineup because of a quad injury he sustained at the end of May. He has seen what winning baseball looks like during his time in Houston. It has taken the young Red Sox some time to get there.
“We’re a very dangerous team now, especially when we’re prepared and executing,” Bregman said. “We’ve played good for a while now.
“People will say this is a hot streak, but I believe this is who we are.”
As the calendar inches toward August, that’s the sentiment throughout the clubhouse, where the veterans who have been through the uncertainty of trade season are relieved to spend the next two weeks without trade chatter.
“The run we went on before the All-Star break, it was good. We needed something like that to get us back in the mix, restore some confidence,” starting pitcher Lucas Giolito said. “Right now, staying in the present is important, but I don’t think we have guys in this room too worried they’re going to get dealt or anything anymore.”
Two players who were brought in over the offseason might be the most relieved.
All-Star closer Aroldis Chapman, who has a 1.18 ERA and 17 saves, could have been one of Boston’s most sought-after deadline trade candidates had the front office elected to deal him.
When asked about possibly being moved, the 37-year-old, who is playing for his seventh major league club, smiled as he responded through his interpreter: “The team is in good shape.”
Fellow Boston pitcher Walker Buehler added: “It’s probably good timing to hopefully push the front office to go out and buy and help us make a run. We did our part at the end of the first half there. I want to stay here and be part of it. Don’t want to be on the wrong side of a trade.”
Though they might have done enough to convince the front office to stick with the current veterans, the Red Sox have some of their toughest work ahead of them. According to ESPN Research, they have the hardest remaining schedule for the rest of the month and sixth hardest for the rest of the season, but manager Alex Cora isn’t interested in looking at the stretch run — or what Boston’s first postseason berth since 2021 would mean.
Instead, he believes that if the players can keep attacking each day, the rest will take care of itself.
“I promised myself I’m going to stay in the moment,” Cora said. “It doesn’t do the group any good to start talking about that. We have to win games. It’s not to put pressure on the front office or ownership. It’s what we need to do for us to play in October.”
Opposing teams are asking for “outrageous returns” for pitching, according to league sources, but if the asking prices become more reasonable closer to the deadline, expect the Red Sox to be involved. Until then, they are focused on riding their July momentum while navigating a tough schedule.
“Time to keep it locked in,” Giolito said. “We’ll be welcoming whatever help comes.”
The 2025 MLB trade deadline is just around the corner, with contending teams deciding what they need to add before 6 p.m. ET on Thursday, July 31.
Could Jarren Duran be on the move from the Boston Red Sox? Will the Arizona Diamondbacks deal Eugenio Suarez and Zac Gallen to contenders? And who among the Los Angeles Dodgers, Chicago Cubs, New York Mets, New York Yankees, Detroit Tigers and Philadelphia Phillies will go all-in to boost their 2024 World Series hopes?
Whether your favorite club is looking to add or deal away — or stands somewhere in between — here’s the freshest intel we’re hearing, reaction to completed deals and what to know for every team as trade season unfolds.
More: Top 50 trade candidates | Passan: Contender plans | Trades for every team
Jump to …: Trending names | Latest intel
MLB trade deadline trending names
1. Eugenio Suarez: The Arizona Diamondbacks star is No. 1 in our updated MLB trade deadline candidate rankings and could be the most impactful player to move this month. On pace to hit more than 50 home runs, the 2025 All-Star is on the wish list of every contender in need of third-base help.
2. Sandy Alcantara: The 2022 Cy Young winner is an intriguing option in a deadline with a dearth of impact starting pitching available. His ERA is over 7.00 for the Miami Marlins this season, but some contenders believe he could regain form in a new home.
3. Jhoan Duran: This deadline is suddenly teeming with high-end relievers who will at the very least be in the rumor mill during the coming days. If the Minnesota Twins opt to move their closer — and his devastating splinker — Duran might be the best of the bunch.
MLB trade deadline buzz
July 22 updates
Why the 2022 Cy Young winner isn’t the most in-demand Marlins starter: Edward Cabrera has become more coveted than Sandy Alcantara, who teams believe might take an offseason to fix. Alcantara’s strikeout-to-walk ratio is scary low — just 1.9 — and his ERA is 7.14. Cabrera, on the other hand, is striking out more than a batter per inning and his ERA sits at 3.61. The 27-year-old right-hander will come at a heavy cost for opposing teams. — Jesse Rogers
How Kansas City is approaching the trade deadline: The Royals have signaled a willingness to trade, but with an eye toward competing again next year — meaning they aren’t willing to part with the core of their pitching staff. Other teams say Kansas City is (unsurprisingly) looking to upgrade its future offense in whatever it does.
Right-handed starter Seth Lugo will be the most-watched Royal before the deadline, since he holds a $15 million player option for 2026 “that you’d assume he’s going to turn down,” said one rival staffer. That’ll make it more difficult for other teams to place a trade value on him: The Royals could want to market him as more than a mere rental, while other teams figure he’ll go into free agency in the fall when he turns down his option. — Buster Olney
What the Dodgers need at the deadline: The Dodgers’ offense has been a source of consternation lately, with Max Muncy out, Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman slumping, and key hitters tasked with lengthening out the lineup — Teoscar Hernandez, Tommy Edman amd Michael Conforto — also struggling.
But the Dodgers’ focus ahead of the deadline is still clearly the bullpen, specifically a high-leverage, right-handed reliever. Dodgers relievers lead the major leagues in innings pitched by a wide margin. Blake Treinen will be back soon, and Michael Kopech and Brusdar Graterol are expected to join him later in the season. But the Dodgers need at least one other trusted arm late in games.
It’s a stunning development, considering they returned the core of a bullpen that played a big role in last year’s championship run, then added Tanner Scott and Kirby Yates in free agency. But Scott and Yates have had their struggles, and there are enough injury concerns with several others that it’s a need. — Alden Gonzalez
Which D-backs starter is most coveted? The Diamondbacks are getting as many calls — if not more — about Zac Gallen as they are for Merrill Kelly even though the latter starting pitcher is having the better season. Teams interested in adding to their rotations still have more faith in the 29-year-old Gallen than the 36-year-old Kelly. — Rogers
Who are the White Sox looking to deal? Chicago’s Adrian Houser seems likely to move, as a second-tier starter who has performed well this season. The 32-year-old right-hander was released by the Rangers in May but has been very effective since joining the White Sox rotation, giving up only two homers in 57⅔ innings and generating an ERA+ of 226. Nobody is taking those numbers at face value, but evaluators do view him as a market option. The White Sox also have some relievers worth considering.
But it seems unlikely that Luis Robert Jr. — once projected as a centerpiece of this deadline — will be dealt, unless a team makes a big bet on a player who has either underperformed or been hurt this year. The White Sox could continue to wait on Robert’s talent to manifest and his trade value to be restored by picking up his $20 million option for next year, which is hardly out of the question for a team with little future payroll obligation. — Olney
Why Rockies infielder could be popular deadline option: Colorado’s Ryan McMahon is the consolation prize for teams that miss out on Eugenio Suarez — if he’s traded at all. The Cubs could have interest and would pair him with Matt Shaw as a lefty/righty combo at third base. — Rogers
Does San Diego have enough to offer to make a big deal? The Padres have multiple needs ahead of the trade deadline — a left fielder, a catcher, a back-end starter. How adequately they can address them remains to be seen. The upper levels of their farm system have thinned out in recent years, and their budget might be tight.
The Padres dipped under MLB’s luxury-tax threshold this year, resetting the penalties. But FanGraphs projects their competitive balance tax payroll to finish at $263 million this year, easily clearing the 2025 threshold and just barely putting them into the second tier, triggering a 12% surcharge.
Padres general manager A.J. Preller might have to get creative in order to address his needs. One way he can do that is by buying and selling simultaneously. The Padres have several high-profile players who can hit the market this offseason — Dylan Cease, Michael King, Robert Suarez, Luis Arraez — and a few others who can hit the open market after 2026. Don’t be surprised to see Preller leverage at least one of those players, and their salaries, to help fill multiple needs. — Gonzalez
Which Orioles could be on the move? Not surprisingly, Baltimore is perceived as a dealer and is expected by other teams to move center fielder Cedric Mullins, first baseman/designate hitter Ryan O’Hearn and some relievers. — Olney
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