Philadelphia Phillies: What if Vince Velasquez is actually good?

Heading into the 2021 season, Vince Velasquez wasn’t a name that fans were commonly bringing up when discussing the Philadelphia Phillies key contributors. The team had gone out and overhauled their pitching depth by way of signing Matt Moore and Chase Anderson during the offseason, seemingly closing the door on Velasquez being used as a starter moving forward.

However, thanks to some nightmare-caliber starts from Moore to start the season (followed by a trip to the Injured List), Velasquez once again found himself as a member of the Phillies starting rotation.

And he’s looked pretty darn good ever since.

Velasquez has appeared in five games as a starter this season, and he’s recorded an eye-popping 2.87 ERA during said appearances. While his average innings pitched per start remains rather low compared to other pitchers around the league (5.02), he’s consistently given the team a chance each time he’s taken the mound.

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In his most recent three outings, Vince has been borderline dominant. He’s posted a 1.59 ERA across 17.0 innings pitched, and the Phillies are 2-1 as a team during said starts (the one loss came in extra innings against Atlanta).

While Phillies fans have undoubtedly been teased by Velasquez in the past, this is quite arguably the best we’ve seen the right-hander look since joining the team back in 2016. He’s notoriously struggled with consistency above all else, and at least through his starts here in May, he’s actually been a beacon of consistency on the mound.

A lot of this newfound production could be attributed to new pitching coach Caleb Cotham, who had a lot of success in Cincinnati getting the best out of players with “untapped potential.” Or it could just be a case of Velasquez finally hitting his stride both mentally and physically. Vince is only 28 years old – right smack in the middle of his “athletic prime.”

With all of that said, a lone question emerges: What if Vince keeps pitching like this?

The Philadelphia Phillies have been hunting for back-end rotation stability for a few years now, getting any sort of production out of Velasquez is a “plus” at the moment. However, if Velasquez can continue to churn out positive 5-6 inning outings on a regular basis, the Phillies would find themselves in a situation with four solid pitchers in their rotation.

Typically speaking, a starting rotation that runs four deep is usually good enough to get you into the postseason. With an offense that’s expected to heat up as the temperature rises itself, the Phillies would be in a rather good spot heading into the trade deadline, potentially only needing to replace Chase Anderson in the rotation should he continue to struggle on the mound.

Even then, a rotation consisting of Aaron Nola, Zack Wheeler, Zach Eflin, an improved version of Velasquez, and a sputtering Anderson would still be good enough to give the Phillies a fighting chance in the NL East.

Philadelphia Phillies RHP Vince Velasquez has been very good as of late.

It’s still very early into the season, and we’ve yet to see Velasquez push past the 6th inning of a ballgame. However, the results over the past few starts have been seriously promising, and they’ve already helped secure the team two wins that they likely wouldn’t have gotten with someone like Matt Moore on the mound.

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If Vince can improve even more compared to what he’s been giving the team here in May, the Phillies rotation would be looking seriously strong moving forward.

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