Phillies trade Matt Strahm to Royals for Jonathan Bowlan

The Philadelphia Phillies have made a trade.

On Friday morning, the Phillies traded left-handed reliever Matt Strahm to the Kansas City Royals for right-handed pitcher Jonathan Bowlan.

Strahm is one of the best left-handed relievers in baseball. Last season with the Phillies, he authored a 2.74 ERA and 2.99 FIP in 62.1 innings pitched, with a 27.3 K% and 7.8 BB%. The 34-year-old was coming off a career-year in 2024, where he had a 1.87 ERA and 2.29 FIP in 62.2 innings pitched, with a 33.3 K% and 4.6 BB%.

Although he wasn’t the Phillies full-time closer, Strahm has experience in high-leverage, picking up 15 saves in the past four seasons, blowing 18 saves in the process. That said, he’s picked up 63 holds the past few seasons and is one of the best high-leverage left-handed relievers in baseball. This will be Strahm’s second stint with the Royals, having spent the 2016 and 2017 seasons with them.

Acquiring Bowlan is quite a light return for Strahm, or so it appears. The 29-year-old’s 2025 season was his first full season in the big leagues. Last season with the Royals, he finished with a 3.86 ERA and 3.97 FIP in 44.1 innings pitched, with a 25.6 K% and 9.4 BB%.

You have to look under the hood to understand the return for the Phillies. Bowlan’s fastball averaged 95.7 mph last season and he has a five-pitch mix, not often seen in a reliever. The righty also did a tremendous job generating whiffs, as he had a 33.7 whiff% and 31.4 chase%, among the best in baseball. This is all on top of generating an above-average ground ball percentage and limiting hard contact.

Still, it’s a price that the Toronto Blue Jays could’ve and probably should’ve matched. As it stands, Brendon Little is their high-leverage left-handed reliever. Last season, the 29-year-old had a 3.03 ERA and 2.92 FIP in 68.1 innings pitched, but a large part of that is thanks to his strong first two months of the season. From Jun. 1 until the end of the season, Little had a 4.07 ERA and 3.23 FIP in 42 innings pitched.

At one point during the regular season, Little was one of their most important relievers, but he struggled in his six playoff outings. Over four innings of work, Little had a 11.25 ERA and an 11.89 ERA, giving up a game-tying home run to Cal Raleigh in Game 5 of the American League Championship Series, then giving up a walk-off home run to Freddie Freeman in Game 3 of the World Series.

This doesn’t mean that Little doesn’t have value in the Jays’ bullpen, because he absolutely does. When he’s at his best, he’s nearly unhittable, it’s just about unlocking that on the regular. Still, it may not be a bad idea for the Blue Jays to use Little in medium relief while finding a high-leverage lefty, something Strahm would’ve been perfect for.

There aren’t a ton of left-handed relievers on the free agent market. There are a few former Blue Jays of note, namely Tim Mayza and Tayler Saucedo, with the best free agent left-handed reliever being Danny Coulombe. If the Jays wish to bring in another left-handed reliever, they’d have to do so internally (perhaps Ricky Tiedemann?) or through a trade.

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