Phillies designate Brad Keller for assignment

It’s ostensibly a less-invasive operation than a full Tommy John ligament replacement, but the internal brace procedure carries a similar return timetable of roughly 13-16 months. The 31-year-old high-leverage reliever signed a two-year contract in the offseason and is unlikely to make it back to Philadelphia until the late stages of next season, if at all.

This is purely procedural; Keller is out for the year with a torn UCL and will likely miss most of next year as well.

It’s a huge blow for Philadelphia’s bullpen depth and they’ll undoubtedly be looking to add at the deadline as Keller is likely to miss well into next season. Keller pitched in just one game after dealing with forearm tendinitis. He finishes his age-30 season with a 4.02 ERA in 31 1/3 innings pitched. He’s due $13 million next season from the Phillies.

Keller has been out since June 16th with forearm tendinitis. He wil return to a 4.15 ERA, 1.35 WHIP and 31/12 K/BB ratio across 30 1/3 innings out of the bullpen.

Keller’s absence is a significant hit to Philadelphia’s high-leverage mix since he’s served as their primary setup specialist ahead of closer Jhoan Duran. He’s also handled a couple save situations whenever Duran was unavailable for workload reasons. The 30-year-old righty holds a respectable 4.15 ERA, 1.35 WHIP and 31/12 K/BB ratio across 30 1/3 innings in his Phillies debut this season.

As suspected, the Phillies avoided Jhoan Duran tonight after he threw 27 pitches in his return from the IL on Tuesday. That means one more save chance for Keller, who will mostly pitch the eighth with Duran back. He gave up a leadoff single and then a walk with one out and another with two outs before Jacob Wilson grounded out to end the game.

Keller got the call to guard a one-run advantage in the final frame and managed to work around a leadoff single from Kyle Stowers by getting Otto Lopez to hit into a double play. He gave up a two-out single to Xavier Edwards before getting Liam Hicks to ground out to end the contest. His stint as Philadelphia’s temporary closer is over with Jhoan Duran coming back from the injured list ahead of Tuesday’s contest in Miami.

Duran will return to solidify the back-end of Philadelphia’s bullpen after missing just over two weeks with a left oblique strain. The electrifying 28-year-old stopper was off to a brilliant start this season with a microscopic 1.35 ERA across 6 2/3 innings of work. Fantasy managers should make sure to get him back in lineups this week.

It wasn’t a pretty first save for Keller, who needed 26 pitches to get through the frame and started things off with a leadoff walk to Javier Sanoja. Sanoja would eventually come around to score on an RBI single by Otto Lopez, but got Xavier Edwards to fly out to center to end the inning on a full count fastball. Given the dicey outing, we’ll see if interim manager Don Mattingly calls on Keller again the next time a save situation arises, or if he opts to go with someone else while Jhoan Duran is on the 15-day IL.

The entire top of the Phillies pen came in fresh on Thursday, so it’s noteworthy that they used their closer early in a tie game. It was the only hit that Keller allowed in what was otherwise an unremarkable inning. The Phillies would tie the game again in the ninth, but go on to lose in extra innings. Keller remains the safest pick to close in Philadelphia’s pen at the moment.