Philadelphia Phillies: In 2021, consistency needs to be key for Zach Eflin

2021 was the best season of Zach Eflin‘s MLB career, there’s little to debate there. He posted a career-low 3.97 ERA, a career-low 1.271 WHIP, a career-low 3.23 xFIP, and a career-high 10.7 K/9 rate. It was a super promising few months of baseball for the often criticized right-hander, a stretch that left the Philadelphia Phillies feeling pretty good about him being their established “#3” moving forward.

Eflin’s velocity on his sinker and curveball was a tick higher than we’ve come to expect with him, and it led to a very strong ten starts. With new pitching coach Caleb Cotham coming into the organization as well, the general consensus this offseason is that Eflin is poised to put together a really good sixth season.

The Philadelphia Phillies need a consistent Zach Eflin in 2021.

With all of that said, the problem with Eflin has never really been his talent and/or ability, it’s been his consistency. He’s routinely shown flashes of borderline elite pitching throughout his Phillies career, but always failed to stretch it out over the course of an entire 162 game season.

For example, Eflin’s production was all over the place in 2019.

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Eflin’s ERA hung around the high 3.00s for the majority of the regular season, with it even dipping into the 2.00s during the months of May and September. However, Eflin’s July ended up being a historically bad month for the right-hander. He lost four starts in a row, posting an 11.88 ERA which ultimately saw him moved to the bullpen under the watch of former manager Gabe Kapler.

While Eflin was noticeably a better pitcher before and after that dreadful month of July, the simple truth is that his mid-summer collapse was a big reason the Philadelphia Phillies failed to crack the postseason that year.

If Eflin ever wants to reach his full potential as a starting pitcher for the Phillies, he simply has to find a way to weed out some of these brutal stretches of inconsistency. The right-hander tried to cite a “heavy body” as the reason for his struggles in 2019 – needless to say that didn’t go over well with the team’s fanbase.

For what it’s worth, Eflin looked like a completely different pitcher in 2020 compared to 2019. Former pitching coach Bryan Price did a lot of great work with the righty, really honing in on his ability to strike batters out at a high rate – as opposed to being a “ground ball pitcher.”

As previously mentioned, this newfound aggressiveness really paid out in a big way for Eflin, and all the metrics point to 2021 being an even better season for him. Throw in the fact that the Phillies could be employing a better defensive infield this season (should they sign someone like Andrelton Simmons) and Eflin could even see himself enter the All-Star conversation.

I’ve come around on Eflin quite a bit since July of 2019 – I’m fairly confident that he’s going to have a strong 2021 campaign. He appeared to make a bit of a “mental switch” towards the end of the shortened 2020 season, as he was the guy Joe Girardi and the Phillies turned to down the stretch (he came out of the freakin’ bullpen on short rest against the Rays).

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That mental shift that Eflin seemingly underwent – transitioning into a pitcher who wants the ball in his hand during the biggest moments – should (in theory) help him become a far more consistent starter moving forward into the prime of his baseball playing career.

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