Philadelphia Phillies: Blake Parker should be back in 2021

The Philadelphia Phillies historically bad bullpen had one reliable arm in 2020.

The 2020 season for the Philadelphia Phillies will certainly be one that fans will want to erase from their memory. What began as a season with loads of optimism, quickly descended into the fiery abyss of mediocrity. If the Phillies were a sinking ship this past season, that would have to make their bullpen the anchor. That same bullpen will go down as one of the worst bullpens in the history of baseball, as they pitched to an ERA of 7.06 as a unit. Yuck.

While they did have a few guys who at times showed flashes, the one consistent arm they continued to trot to the mound when the bullpen door opened was the old veteran right-hander Blake Parker. In 16 innings of work this past season in red pinstripes, Parker posted a 3-0 record with an ERA of 2.81. He also struck out 25 batters in those 16 innings, which equated to an absurd 14.1 K’s per nine; a new career high for Parker.

Hitters slashed a putrid .203/.304/.677 against Parker, and in total he finished twelfth on the team with a WAR of 0.6. Not bad for a guy who wasn’t even on the team at the start of the year!

More from Section 215

The veteran was signed as a minor league free agent in late July of the 2019 season, and was relied upon by the Phils down the stretch of that season. He was okay, as he posted an ERA of 5.04 in 25 innings of work, striking out 11.2 batters per nine innings. This resulted in the Philadelphia Phillies bringing him back on a minor league contract with an invite to spring training for the 2020 season.

When the baseball world was put on hold and eventually returned, Parker failed to make the final opening day roster for the Phillies; a move that was quite a head scratcher considering his previous success in his career, and the myriad of unknowns that roamed around in the bullpen for the Philadelphia Phillies. Entering 2020, Parker had produced a career ERA of 3.56 across 285.2 innings of work. So it was not as if he was some unknown flash in the pan pitcher.

His absence from that opening day bullpen was shocking; I truly can not express that enough. You had guys like Trevor Kelley, Reggie McClain, Cole Irvin, and Deolis Guerra all make the team ahead of him; for simply no reason at all.

Blake Parker did eventually make his debut 13 games into the 2020 season, and it was clear from the get go that he belonged on the big league roster. It took until his ninth appearance of the season for Parker to allow his first earned run, and when all was said and done he only ended up allowing two throughout his entire season.

The veteran right-hander was outrighted off the 40 man roster a few weeks back, as at this moment it appears the Philadelphia Phillies are just going to blow it up, and rebuild the entire bullpen. While this is certainly warranted, I would love to see Parker back on a one-year deal. Considering he is 35 years old and it is not as if he throws particularly hard, I would expect that if he does land a major league deal it would come in the $1 million dollar range. It is also quite possible he could be a guy that will need to settle for a minor league deal and have to prove himself again.

Either way, the Phils would be wise to bring back #53 for another year, considering all the work that needs to be done to the bullpen this offseason. I do not believe he should be relied upon as a high leverage, late inning bullpen arm. But every team needs those middle relief guys, and Parker fits that mold.

dark. Next. Philadelphia Phillies: What could a Kris Bryant trade look like?

At the end of the day, Blake Parker gets outs and that is the most important thing. I love the high velocity arms as much as anybody else, but in reality I just want somebody who gets guys out; and that is what Parker did for the Phillies this past season.

Home/Philadelphia Phillies