Philadelphia Phillies: Has Vince Velasquez earned Joe Girardi’s trust?

Could Philadelphia Phillies’ pitcher Vince Velasquez finally have figured things out?

A few months ago, it seemed borderline impossible that Vince Velasquez would ever consistently start games for the Philadelphia Phillies again. Zack Wheeler was signed in the offseason, Spencer Howard was set to debut soon, and Nick Pivetta looked impressive during Spring Training #1.

Now, with Opening Day mere days away, it looks like ol’ “Vinny Velo” has worked himself into a favorable position with the new coaching staff.

Velasquez has always been a super intriguing pitching prospect, primarily due to his elite athleticism. Standing at 6-3, Velasquez is 205lbs of pure muscle. He can consistently throw into the high 90s, and can even play a bit of left field when asked to.

Despite all these elite athletic gifts, Velasquez has really struggled since joining the Phillies back in 2016. Across four seasons and 92 starts, Velasquez is 27-34 with a 4.70 ERA. He averages just 5.08 innings per start, and has a WHIP in the high 1.300s.

With all that in mind, it appears Velasquez may finally be figuring things out. With a whole new coaching staff in place, spearheaded by pitching guru Bryan Price, it looks like Velasquez has put a serious emphasis on developing a new pitch, a cutter. Velasquez wasn’t even throwing this during the first Spring Training, which means in just a few months, he’s gone out and learned an entire new pitch.

Pitching against the New York Yankees on Monday night, Velasquez went five innings, allowing just one run and four hits. He struck out six Yankees batters, consistently fooling them as he kept them off balance with a healthy dose of 95+ MPH fastballs, looping curveballs, and of course his newly developed cutter.

We’ve seen this from Velasquez before, some flashy performances in Spring Training or even early in the season before an inevitable collapse later down the road. It’s a yearly routine at this point, Phillies fans buying into the hype of Velasquez before the season begins. However, this is a new coaching staff, a far better coaching staff if I do say so myself. If Joe Girardi and Bryan Price feel confident in Velasquez this year, that genuinely does carry some weight.

Velasquez looks set to to be the team’s third starter this upcoming week, potentially signaling that the Phillies trust him over former Cy Young winner veteran Jake Arrieta…