Philadelphia Phillies: David Phelps deserves another chance in 2021
Philadelphia Phillies RHP David Phelps deserves another shot in 2021.
The Philadelphia Phillies bullpen was downright atrocious in 2020. You think I am kidding? How does the worst bullpen in the last 90 years of Major League Baseball sound? Yeah, it was THAT bad. David Phelps was acquired midseason from the Milwaukee Brewers to help stablize the pen. Simply put, this did not work out at all. Phelps was awful in his first half-season in Philadelphia.
However, I am here to tell you he should get another crack at it in red pinstripes in 2021. Yes, it may sound crazy. I am well aware how bad things went this season, which included an ERA of 12.91 in 10 appearances (7.2 Innings pitched) and a ridiculous 5 home runs allowed. To put that into perspective, Phelps allowed 5 home runs in 41 appearances in 2019. Think about that, he allowed 5 in 7.2 innings of work with the Philadelphia Phillies and I want him back for 2021. I know, I sound like an insane person.
The thing is though, Phelps has a long track record of being an incredibly good relief pitcher throughout his major league career. This goes all the way back to 2016. Between 2016-2019, David Phelps appeared in 159 games (176 innings pitched) and was downright dominant. Over that span, he produced an ERA of 2.85. You don’t have to be a huge baseball fan to know that is darn good.
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Even with the Brewers here in 2020, David Phelps was incredibly productive. In 12 appearances (13.0 innings pitched) with Milwaukee this season, Phelps produced an ERA of 2.77 to go with a ridiculous 13.8 K/9. For those unaware with what that stat is, essentially if Phelps pitched a 9 inning game, he would have struck out nearly 14 hitters through those 9 innings. Even in his short stint with the Philadelphia Phillies he held a K/9 of 12.9.
To me, his brief stint here as a Phillie is clearly an outlier filled with loads of bad luck. Yes, he was awful, but so was the rest of the bullpen. David Phelps has a team option for 2021 worth $4.5 million dollars. To me, this is a no brainer of a move. I would without a doubt bank on the idea that David Phelps can return to form, especially for the cheap price of $4.5 million. Yes, it feels weird saying cheap and $4.5 million dollars in the same sentence, but in Major League Baseball this is really not a large sum of money.
Next. Bryce Harper deserves better from the Philadelphia Phillies front office. dark
With the current state of the Philadelphia Phillies and their absolutely dreadful bullpen, this almost seems too easy. Bring David Phelps back for another year, his track record would say it is far more likely that he once again will be productive than not.