Philadelphia Phillies: Klentak should 100% take a chance on Mike Foltynewicz

The Philadelphia Phillies should absolutely take a chance on DFA’d Braves pitcher Mike Foltynewicz.

According to MLB.com’s Mark Bowman, the Atlanta Braves have officially designated former All-Star pitcher Mike Foltynewicz for assignment. Considering how utterly disastrous the Philadelphia Phillies pitching staff has looked to start the 2020 season, this is something Matt Klentak needs to be all over.

Foltynewicz struggled for the majority of his MLB career, before absolutely popping during the 2018 season. He recorded ERAs in the 4.00s and the 5.00s from 2014 to 2017, and then saw it dip all the way down to 2.85 just two seasons ago. During that impressive 2018 campaign, Foltynewicz went 13-10, made 31 starts, posted a WHIP of 1.082, and even threw a complete game shutout.

Despite his stellar All-Star season, Foltynewicz appeared to fall back to his old ways the following year. His ERA shot back up to 4.54, and he only managed to make 21 starts. The 6-4 righty finished off the year by getting absolutely shelled in the NLDS, allowing seven runs across two games versus the St. Louis Cardinals.

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Opinion of Foltynewicz obviously had started to sour in the Braves clubhouse, and his 2020 debut appeared to be the final straw. Making his first appearance against the Tampa Bay Rays, Foltynewicz didn’t even make it out of the fourth inning.

The biggest problem when it comes to Foltynewicz’ regression is his overall fastball velocity. Since debuting back in 2014, it’s been steadily decreasing over time (slightly peaking again during 2018). He started with an average fastball velocity of 98.2 MPH. Tonight his average velocity sat at a cool 89.3…

However, there’s still reason to believe there’s some left in the tank with “Folty”. During his final ten starts of 2019 (not including the NLDS), he went 6-1 with a 2.65 ERA. He recorded 55 strikeouts during this timeframe and allowed just 45 hits. Clearly, there’s talent there.

When it comes to the Phillies, they obviously could use any pitching help they could get at this point. Vince Velasquez looked abysmal in his first start of 2020, Nick Pivetta got shelled coming out of the ‘pen, and Zach Eflin and Jake Arrieta have their own respective concerns.

Even if Foltynewicz is a massive bounce-back project (which he 100% is), the Phillies are so desperate for any sort of boost to their pitching staff, that he’d absolutely be worth the shot.

In all reality, he could be totally atrocious, and that’s completely okay. At this point in time, the Phillies simply looking for guys who can last longer than three innings against the Marlins. Even if Foltynewicz is not the same pitcher he was in 2018, he could probably do that.