Phillies pitcher Seranthony Dominguez could undergo Tommy John surgery

The Phillies’ tattered bullpen suffered another blow on Friday afternoon when it was revealed that Seranthony Dominguez has an elbow injury that could require season-ending surgery.

Dominguez was placed on the injured list -- where he joins six other Phillies relievers -- with a right ulnar collateral ligament injury. He will seek a second opinion in the coming days. A possible option, general manager Matt Klentak said, is Tommy John surgery.

“Ser’s bummed. We’re bummed. This is a challenging time,” manager Gabe Kapler said. “It’s challenging, but it’s a good opportunity for some other players to step up and meet the bar for us.”

Dominguez emerged last season as Kapler’s most-trusted bullpen weapon after the Phillies converted the righthander from a starter to a reliever and sped him to the major leagues. But he has not been the same this season. Dominguez has allowed runs in seven of his 27 appearances and has a 4.01 ERA through 24 2/3 innings.

He was removed from Wednesday’s game with a sore elbow, but the Phillies did not realize the severity of the injury until he underwent an MRI when the team returned from a six-game road trip. If he undergoes Tommy John surgery, Dominguez would likely miss the first months of 2020 along with the rest of this season.

Dominguez’ injury leaves the Phillies with just three of the eight relievers they had in the bullpen on opening day. But reinforcements could be coming. Edubray Ramos (bicep tendinitis) should return early next week. Adam Morgan (strained forearm) and Pat Neshek (strained shoulder) could be activated during the next road trip. Tommy Hunter (strained forearm) is expected to begin a rehab assignment in a week and David Robertson (elbow soreness) could be back in July.

The Phillies believed this winter that they had constructed a bullpen of depth. They might not have Mariano Rivera, Klentak said, but they expected to have “a lot of guys that can pitch meaningful innings for us.” The Phillies are just weeks into the season and most of those arms are on the injured list.

“Sometimes, that's just how baseball works,” Klentak said. “It sucks. But sometimes that's just the reality of it. Even a bullpen that had depth that we felt like was a strength, it is even testing our depth. That's just the reality of going through a six-month baseball season.”

The Phillies will now piece together the late innings with pitchers like J.D. Hammer, who began the season in double A and had just one game in triple A, and Edgar Garcia, a rookie right-hander who logged 21 innings at triple A. Kapler said he has plans for left-hander Ranger Suarez, who replaced Dominguez on the roster. They will continue to rely heavily on Hector Neris, who has continued to be reliable as the other reliever go down. Juan Nicasio and Jose Alvarez, who begin the season as the last two relievers in Kapler’s bullpen hierarchy, will be asked to tackle big outs.

“It’s a real opportunity for some guys to step up,” Klentak said. “If you go back and look at recent baseball history, and even not so recent baseball history, at good teams, almost every one of those teams has somebody that steps up that maybe was not on the radar on opening day. In the outfield the other day, we had Jay Bruce, who wasn’t even on the team a few days earlier, and Adam Haseley, who was not projected to be in the lineup in early June, coming up big for us.

"And I think this is an opportunity in the bullpen to see what Vince Velasquez can do. Can he lock down the eighth inning with a one-run lead? Can J.D. Hammer step up? Can Jose Alvarez and Juan Nicasio continue to do what they’ve done? So we’ve got a lot of guys that I think are going to grasp the opportunity and hopefully give us some big innings while we wait to get some of these other guys back.”