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Phillies hope for ‘better’ Gregory Soto after disappointing first year with Phillies

Gregory Soto had a 4.62 ERA in his first season with the Phillies.(Melissa Tamez/Icon Sportswire)

The Phillies have an entire offseason to think about their failure to put away the Diamondbacks in Games 3 and 4 of the NLCS.

The bats deserve the blame for scoring one run in Game 3, but Game 4 is going to sting for a long time.

The Phillies had a 5-2 lead in the bottom of the seventh. There’s something to be said about only getting two runs in the sixth with the bases loaded and nobody out, Alec Bohm giving the D-Backs a free out on the bases and two terrible at-bats from J.T. Realmuto and Nick Castellanos, but the bullpen had a three-run lead to protect.

Alek Thomas delivered the gut punch when he homered against Craig Kimbrel in the bottom of the eighth to tie it. Rob Thomson inexplicably let Kimbrel face three more batters and José Alvarado allowed the go-ahead run on a base hit against Gabriel Moreno.

Kimbrel is the face of the Phillies’ bullpen failures. He’s getting torched on the airways and on social media. Much of it is deserved, but it’s not all on him. Thomson is hearing it for going to Kimbrel one too many times, but the Game 4 debacle could have been avoided if another veteran reliever did his job.

The Phillies needed Gregory Soto to take care of business against a part of the D-Backs order he matched up well against.

He came into the bottom of the seventh inning with a three-run lead and the Phillies eight outs away from securing a 3-1 series lead. He needed to retire the switch-hitting Geraldo Perdomo and Ketel Marte to end the inning and come back out for the eighth to face Corbin Carroll.

Soto was ahead of the No. 9 batter Perdomo 1-2, threw a slider that missed way inside and low, missed high on a sinker and then threw the same pitch down the middle that Perdomo deposited into center field for a hit.

He lost his command against Marte and only threw one pitch inside the strike zone.

Trea Turner helped him out with a slick grab at short to get Marte out at second on a fielder’s choice from Carroll.

It led to the Phillies going with Orion Kerkering and his tired arm to keep the D-Backs from scoring. He had no feel for his sweeper and walked in a run home before getting Pavin Smith to ground out to first for the final out.

The momentum shifted when Soto failed to put Perdomo away. Maybe the path to victory in Game 4 is smoother with a better outing from Soto. Maybe it isn’t, but the depleted Phillies pitching staff desperately needed three outs from Soto in that game and he failed to keep the D-Backs down. One bad thing led to another and it ended with the Phillies surrendering the lead in the eighth inning.

It’s disappointing considering the high hopes the Phillies had for Soto at the beginning of the year.

He and Kody Clemens were acquired in a trade with the Detroit Tigers for Matt Vierling, Nick Maton and Donny Sands in early January.

There was an expectation that Soto and Alvarado would pair up to be the most dangerous left-handed relief combination in the sport. That never happened.

While Soto flashed dominance at times, his first season in Philadelphia was mired in inconsistency. He finished the year with a 4.62 ERA and drastic splits against righties and lefties. Lefties hit .127/.205/.228 against Soto in 2023. Righties hit .255/.327/.393. He also finished with a 5.40 ERA over the last two months of the season.

Soto is arbitration eligible through 2025. MLB Trade Rumors

projects he will make $4.9 million in 2024.

Dave Dombrowski hinted at the Phillies’ intention to retain Soto. It sounds like they are attributing Soto’s up-and-down year to his late arrival to spring training due to visa issues.

The Phillies made some mechanical changes with Soto, the most notable being a new slide step delivery, but the team believes both sides will benefit with more time.

“I think Soto will be better this year,” Dombrowski said. “From the very beginning, unfortunately, with him showing up late for spring training and our guys not getting their hands on him as early as they would like.”

It took more than a year for Alvarado to transform from an electric arm with command issues to one of the best relievers in baseball. Soto’s stretches of dominance last year were an encouraging sign.

But the Phillies need more out of Soto next season. And if the Phillies plan on not pursuing a replacement for Kimbrel in free agency, the onus is on Soto to ensure he enters next year’s postseason as a reliable high-leverage option out of the bullpen.