A Relief Pitcher’s Journey From ‘Bulk Guy’ to ‘Guy’ to Star

Quality illuminators come from everywhere. Think about the two who hit 400 career saves last month. Craig Kimbrel was an early draft pick from Alabama, a dominant finisher from his first summer with the pros. Kenley Jansen, who hails from Curaçao, was a minor league catcher for many years before learning how to throw.

Somewhere among those former Los Angeles Dodgers firefighters is the team’s current back-up asset: Evan Phillips. He’s always been a pitcher — more comfortable on the mound, he said, than anywhere else in the world. He was also released by the Baltimore Orioles, then the worst baseball team, less than two years ago – and dropped again two weeks later by the Tampa Bay Rays.

“I feel like I’ve been through the worst of this game,” Phillips said last week, before a game with the Phillies, “so when I’m out there and it looks like it’s a hot situation for a replacement pitcher, I feel as cool as can be.

The right-hander Phillips has quietly been arguably the Majors’ best reliever in the past two seasons. From early 2022 through Tuesday, he had the lowest ERA in the sport, with 1.54 (minimum 65 appearances) and the lowest WHIP (walks plus hits per innings pitched) in the sport, with 0.787 (minimum 65 appearances). Opponents had a meager .244 slugging percentage against him.

His effectiveness has been critical to the Dodgers, who went 38-29 after Tuesday’s victory despite troubling struggles on the mound. After leading the National League in ERA each of the past six seasons, their 4.44 through Tuesday tied for 19th in the majors. If manager Dave Roberts could clone Phillips, he would.

“He controls a strike zone, he has a variety of weapons to get guys out and he’s completely neutral,” Roberts said, referring to Phillips’ strength against both lefties and righties. “I don’t need any information to know that he’s always the best option. And so now with that, it’s, when do you put in that silver bullet that you’ve got?

In Philadelphia, Roberts couldn’t find that moment. He had used Phillips extensively earlier in the week and only wanted him for a one-inning save situation on Friday. That was never developed and the next two games were fairly skewed.

Phillips then had a full weekend to catch his final appearance last Wednesday in Cincinnati, when he gave up a homer against the Reds’ Will Benson to end the game. It was the first walk-off homer he’d ever allowed, but it had already rocked the feeling.

“I talked to some of our pitchers after the game about how it feels,” Phillips said. “That won’t be the last time it happens. It will definitely happen again and I need to be able to turn the page quickly because the team will count on me for a while in such situations.”

Phillips, 28, has gone from the typical four-A-man – trapped in an underworld between Class AAA and the majors – to a real boy, baseballees for a solid big leaguer. It was a winding pro journey that began in 2015, when Atlanta drafted him in the 17th round at the University of North Carolina Wilmington.

A lively fastball helped Phillips reach the majors in 2018 with the Braves, who traded him to the Orioles that summer. A Baltimore coach, Chris Holt, taught Phillips a sweeping slider, which required lowering his arm angle. The sweeper quickly became Phillips’ best pitch, but the new angle took some of the bounce off his fastball. He could not stay with Baltimore in parts of three seasons.

Back in the minors in 2021, when the Orioles were a major league worst 52-110, Phillips’ goals were limited: He hoped to be a bulk man (essentially a long stopgap) in Baltimore. When Phillips was summoned to the office of the Class AAA Norfolk manager one day in August, he imagined one of two outcomes.

“I had a 50/50 feeling whether I was released or I was drafted,” he said. “And that’s such a strange thought process, if you think about it, but that was kind of the position of the team – we need pitchers to cover games, but we also want to push our prospects up and put them in positions to be on build.” for the future.”

The Orioles gave Phillips’ roster spot to a fast-rising closer, Félix Bautista, now a star in Baltimore, and Phillips landed with the Tampa Bay Rays, the eventual divisional champions. The Rays happened to be in need of a new arm, and Phillips debuted with three solid innings in a stellar win, earning his first career save.

However, that’s the problem with long relievers: when they do their job, they need a few days of rest. When they are considered expendable and out of minor league options, as Phillips was, they are in immediate danger of being assigned to assignment.

So it was with Phillips, who moved to another team that just needed a major league-style arm to get through a game.

“We came to a day where we needed length out of the pen,” said Dodgers General Manager Brandon Gomes. “We said, ‘We think this guy is talented – let’s shoot him and see how he does.’ And all the makeup stuff we did with him was excellent.

Phillips worked in nine games for the Dodgers that season, including a win in the NL Championship Series. The team encouraged him to emphasize the sweeping slider, a throw that spooked some opponents.

“I remember a text from Curt Casali with the Giants that year,” said Gomes. “Like, ‘What is this? That’s the best slider I’ve ever seen.’ So he always had that — that was his superpower — and it speaks to his aptitude and openness to working with our pitching group to add the cutter and bring back the two-zoomer as he’s gone along.

While many relievers only use two pitches, last season Phillips had four he could trust: the sweeping slider, the cutter, the four-seam fastball, and the sinking two-seam fastball. The result was a 1.14 ERA and hard-earned belief that he was more than an easily replaced roster filler.

“Because why would I ever believe I should be throwing leverage innings for the Dodgers?” Phillips said. “Coming from where I came from, that never felt like something I could say. So it took me a long time to really believe I belonged there.

“Luckily I never carry those feelings to the field or anything like that. Every time I go out to participate, it’s as simple as it can be. It was never about, “Am I right for this at-bat?” or “Why am I here?” Throwing baseball is the most comfortable thing I do in my life. I’m doing it longer than anything I’ve ever done. It’s like taking a step forward, simple as that for me. It is something I love to do, and I pursue that work every day.”

Every day? Of course that is not possible. But the Dodgers – especially this year – would love to let him do it.