{"id":93769,"date":"2025-09-16T08:52:59","date_gmt":"2025-09-16T08:52:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=93769"},"modified":"2025-09-16T08:56:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-16T08:56:10","slug":"matt-strahm-triggers-vesting-option","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=93769","title":{"rendered":"\ud83d\udea8\ud83d\udea8\ud83d\udea8 STRAHM\u2019S OPTION: With Matt Strahm triggering his vesting option, is Philadelphia now locked into a bullpen blueprint that could decide October? Will his durability stabilize the staff or highlight cracks in the rotation? Or is this the contract twist that forces a total rethink of the Phillies\u2019 offseason?"},"content":{"rendered":"<article>\n<header><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/athletic\/uploads\/wp\/2024\/06\/12225844\/USATSI_23472351-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"How Phillies' Matt Strahm and Jeff Hoffman became catch partners \u2014 and baseball's best bullpen duo - The Athletic\" \/>By Anthony Franco | <time datetime=\"2025-09-15T23:41:49-05:00\">September 15, 2025<\/time> at <time datetime=\"2025-09-15T23:41:49-05:00\">11:41pm CDT<\/time><\/p>\n<\/header>\n<div>\n<p>Phillies reliever\u00a0<strong>Matt Strahm<\/strong> completed a perfect eighth inning for a hold tonight against the Dodgers. In the process, he crossed the 60-inning threshold and vested a $7.5MM option for the 2026 season. The southpaw will still need to pass a postseason physical for the option to go into effect.<\/p>\n<p>Strahm initially joined the Phils on a two-year, $15MM free agent contract during the 2022-23 offseason. That has turned into an excellent value for Dave Dombrowski\u2019s front office. Strahm turned in a 3.29 ERA across 87 2\/3 innings during his first season with the club. Philadelphia signed him to a one-year extension for the 2025 season before the \u201924 campaign even got underway.<\/p>\n<p>The 33-year-old Strahm has responded with arguably the best two years of his career. He worked to a 1.87 ERA over 66 appearances a year ago and holds a 2.83 mark in 60 1\/3 frames this season. His velocity has ticked down, but he\u2019s still punching out 28% of batters faced against an 8% walk rate. He carried a solid 11.7% swinging strike percentage into tonight\u2019s performance.<\/p>\n<p>Philly has increasingly leaned on Strahm as one of their top bullpen weapons. He has a career-best 21 holds. In the second half, only closer <strong>Jhoan Duran<\/strong> has entered in higher-leverage situations on average. Strahm is alongside <strong>David Robertson<\/strong> and\u00a0<strong>Orion Kerkering<\/strong> as the Phils\u2019 top setup arms going into the playoffs.\u00a0<strong>Jos\u00e9 Alvarado<\/strong> is ineligible for the postseason because of his failed performance-enhancing drug test. Strahm and\u00a0<strong>Tanner Banks<\/strong> will go into October as manager Rob Thomson\u2019s top two southpaws, while waiver pickup <strong>Tim Mayza<\/strong> looks like a borderline candidate to make the playoff roster.<\/p>\n<p>The Phillies would very likely have exercised Strahm\u2019s option even if he had fallen shy of the 60-inning mark. Philadelphia will be happy to retain him on an affordable salary for a leverage reliever. Duran will be back in the ninth inning, while Kerkering and Banks remain under control for multiple seasons. The Phils hold a $9MM option on Alvarado, whose season ended last week when he was diagnosed with a forearm strain.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<p>View Comments (5)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Phillies reliever Matt Strahm unlocked a $7.5MM option by reaching his 60th inning of the season. Find out more at MLB Trade Rumors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":93778,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[3701],"class_list":["post-93769","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mlb","tag-matt-strahm"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>\ud83d\udea8\ud83d\udea8\ud83d\udea8 STRAHM\u2019S OPTION: With Matt Strahm triggering his vesting option, is Philadelphia now locked into a bullpen blueprint that could decide October? Will his durability stabilize the staff or highlight cracks in the rotation? Or is this the contract twist that forces a total rethink of the Phillies\u2019 offseason? - NEWS USA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=93769\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"\ud83d\udea8\ud83d\udea8\ud83d\udea8 STRAHM\u2019S OPTION: With Matt Strahm triggering his vesting option, is Philadelphia now locked into a bullpen blueprint that could decide October? Will his durability stabilize the staff or highlight cracks in the rotation? Or is this the contract twist that forces a total rethink of the Phillies\u2019 offseason? - NEWS USA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Phillies reliever Matt Strahm unlocked a $7.5MM option by reaching his 60th inning of the season. 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