Philadelphia Phillies: David Phelps returning to form could save the season

Philadelphia Phillies RHP David Phelps will play a crucial role down the stretch.

When the deal went down for David Phelps this past trade deadline, there was genuine reason for Philadelphia Phillies fans to be excited. Phelps was a tenured veteran who had had success all over baseball, and his 2020 ERA was at a career best 2.77 with the Milwaukee Brewers. Even if he didn’t continue to pitch at that form, he couldn’t possibly make the Phillies bullpen any worse, right?

Wrong. For whatever reason, Phelps joined the Phillies and completely lost all of his pitching ability. He couldn’t locate his fastball, his off speed stuff was hanging up in the zone, and he was giving up the long ball at an astronomically high rate.

Through his first eight appearances with his new team, Phelps gave up 8 runs, 5 homers, and 12 total baserunners. His ERA was over 10 and his WHIP was getting dangerously close to that of a 2.000.

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Unlike Brandon Workman and Heath Hembree (who stink), this was a seriously odd occurrence. Phelps was genuinely having an electric 2020 season, and there was just no logical explanation for him collapsing the way in which he was. Even if he regressed back to his career average, that would have put him around a 3.91 ERA. While that’s nothing to get too excited about, it would have been a welcome sight in one of the worst bullpens in MLB history.

Mentioned first on the “Bullpen Blues” podcast, the theory was thrown out there that it could all be the result of something more mental related. While Phelps is undoubtedly a proven reliever in the MLB, the pressure of being traded for to come in and “save” the Philadelphia Phillies might have been too much for him.

Now, with a few games under his belt, it looks like Phelps could be settling back into things.

Through his last three outings (2.1 IP), Phelps has allowed zero hits, zero runs, zero walks, and struck out five. He’s come in during high-leverage situations, and has proven versatile enough to navigate the team through some close ballgames. His fastball location has looked more similar to what it looked like in Milwaukee, and his off speed stuff is generating far softer contact than before.

While it is a super small sample size, Phelps beginning to find his groove here in late September would be uncharacteristically massive for the struggling Phillies bullpen. Throw in the fact that the Phils are also down two starters, they’ll likely be turning to Phelps quite frequently over the next couple of days.

Phelps did his job perfectly the last two games, pitching in back-to-back wins for the Phillies as they look to sneak their way into the postseason. The veteran right-hander was acquired to pitch through tricky situations for Joe Girardi, and I’m sure the Phils’ manager would like nothing more than to finally have a reliever he can hang his hat on.

Phelps even showed a flash of emotion following his second strikeout on Saturday night, something that he isn’t known for doing. The veteran clearly isn’t oblivious to his previous struggles, and probably cares more than any of us when it comes to getting back on track.

Not only is Phelps a crucial piece to the Phillies pen moving forward (into what hopefully turns out to be a playoff berth), but he is also under team control through 2021. Having him around as a reliable option next season would only further his value to the Philadelphia Phillies organization.