Amidst a revamped Phillies bullpen, Vince Velasquez still the odd man out

At least through the first four games of the 2021 season, the Philadelphia Phillies bullpen appeared to be noticeably improved. Jose Alvarado was hitting 100 MPH with ease, Archie Bradley was oozing an infectious level of confidence, Brandon Kintzler worked the team out of a jam in his first appearance, and Sam Coonrod impressed during his debut appearance.

Even guys like Connor Brogdon and Hector Neris, who were apart of the team’s historically bad bullpen in 2020, showed up this season expressing a significant level of command and poise on the mound. Brogdon’s scoreless streak has extended to 12+ innings now, and Neris has been perfect in save opportunities thus far.

While it’s still far too early to make any sort of grand conclusions regarding the Phillies new-look bullpen, the group has already helped the team win a few games that they likely would’ve lost in 2020. In a NL East that projects to be extremely competitive this season, every single game counts, especially when they come against division rivals.

However, despite the resurgence that the Phillies have experienced with their reliever room, there’s still one name that can’t seem to find his footing amidst all the chaos: Vince Velasquez.

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A starter-turned-reliever who was brought back this past offseason in hopes that he could turn into a productive “long-man” for Joe Girardi, Velasquez had a downright disastrous start to the season. After pitching a 1-2-3 scoreless sixth inning, he proceeded to walk four straight batters in the seventh, finishing the night with four earned runs, and ultimately giving the Mets their first win of the season.

While some may point to the fact that Velasquez had a good first inning, and shouldn’t have been sent out for another one, the simple reality of the situation is that he’s being paid $4 million this season to literally stretch out over multiple innings. It was the whole reason Dave Dombrowski opted to keep him on the major league roster in the first place – he saw value in Vince as someone who could gobble up 2-3 innings every once in awhile.

If the Phillies wanted someone who specialized in pitching one inning at a time, they likely would have opted to retain LHP Tony Watson this offseason, releasing/trading Vince in the process

But no, they retained Vince under the belief that he’d be a weapon on days like this, when the unfortunate reality of the situation is that he’s just not that. He’s the odd man out in a bullpen that has looked pretty darn good outside of Velasquez’ Tuesday debacle against the Mets.

For what it’s worth, I don’t think this is a good position for Velasquez to be in either. He clearly isn’t comfortable in this long-man style of role, and has repeatedly expressed a desire to be back in the starting rotation. Not only would the Phillies benefit from offloading the veteran RHP, but Vince himself would likely benefit from a fresh start somewhere else. Somewhere like Oakland for example, where former Phillie Cole Irvin gets to start ballgames.

Vince Velasquez doesn’t have a place in the Phillies new-look bullpen.

The Phillies definitely need a long-man who they can rely on, but Velasquez hasn’t proven to be that guy. They’d be much better off turning the role over to someone like Spencer Howard, or even just bringing another lefty specialist into the mix by way of JoJo Romero.

As crazy as it sounds, there’s likely a trade market out there for VV. Teams were calling about the RHP during the offseason, and it’s unlikely that one extra bad outing swayed any potential bidders off the idea. Opening up a roster spot for a better reliever, while simultaneously escaping from that $4 million salary would be a win-win move for Dave Dombrowski.

While calling for Velasquez’ trade after one bad outing might seem a tad overdramatic, the “Vinny Velo” saga is one that has dragged on for multiple years now. The organization has tried every which way possible to get some sort of value out of the right-hander. At the end of the day, he just doesn’t have a realistic role on the Phillies roster.