The Phillies didn't just lose a reliever for the season. They may have lost him for two. Jeff Passan confirmed reports that Brad Keller has a torn UCL in his right elbow and is done for 2026, with surgery potentially wiping out most or all of 2027 too.
Phillies reliever Brad Keller has a torn UCL and is expected to miss the rest of the season. If he undergoes surgery on his right elbow, it would keep him out a significant portion, if not all, of 2027 as well. Keller signed a two-year, $22 million deal over the winter.
MLB Trade Rumors was among the outlets confirming Philadelphia officially placed Keller on the IL with the injury, making it real and not just speculation.
MLB Trade Rumors made it official: Keller's on the IL with a torn UCL.
This one stings extra because of the timing. The Phillies signed Keller to a two-year, $22 million deal back in December, fresh off a dominant season out of the Cubs' bullpen where he posted a 2.07 ERA across 68 appearances. He'd spent 2018-23 as a Royals starter before reinventing himself as a shutdown reliever, and Philadelphia paid up to bring that version north on I-95.
Instead, year 1 of the deal is already toast, and if he needs Tommy John surgery, year 2 could go with it. That's a $22 million bullpen arm that may never actually pitch for the team that signed him — the kind of outcome front offices lose sleep over when writing checks for relief pitching, historically the most volatile investment in baseball.
The Phillies are in the thick of a playoff push and now have to fill the gap without their big offseason bullpen addition. Expect the front office to lean harder on internal arms and scan the trade market for relief help before the deadline, while Keller and his surgeon figure out just how much of 2027 is actually salvageable.