The Philadelphia Phillies are completely blowing up their bullpen
By David Esser
RHP David Phelps
Club option declined.
Matt Klentak’s big deadline day acquisition, veteran relief pitcher David Phelps was supposed to come in and steady the ship for the Philadelphia Phillies bullpen. Instead, the former Brewer somehow made things even worse.
In just 7.2 innings of work for the Phillies in 2020, Phelps allowed 12 hits, 11 runs, and 5 home runs. Phelps couldn’t locate his pitches to save his life, and batters were routinely dumping his fastballs over the outfield wall. It was a brutal stretch of baseball for Phelps, and he finished his 2020 tenure with the Phils with an outstanding 12.91 ERA.
Even with his horrendous play, declining the option on Phelps did come as a bit of a surprise. Prior to his arrival in Philadelphia, Phelps had been a steady reliever for a handful of different teams, and a 2021 salary of $4.5 million wasn’t all that unreasonable.
At 34 years of age there’s a half decent chance that he’s just cooked at this point in his career, but he was a name that I thought would sneak onto the 2021 roster based on resume alone.
For example, I would’ve much rather seen Phelps pitch for the Phillies next year as opposed to Neris.
Nevertheless, the Philadelphia Phillies declined Phelps’ option and he’s now a completely unrestricted free agent. Cleaning house definitely isn’t the worst of strategies to employ in this situation.