The Los Angeles Dodgers successfully submitted waivers to claim Tampa Bay Rays pitcher Evan Phillips on Monday afternoon. The righty was designated for assignment by the Rays on August 14th. Phillips is a relief pitcher who has a good record of striking batters out. However, Phillips does not have a good record of keeping men off the base paths or keeping runs from scoring. Over his four-year career with limited action, Phillips amassed a 7.26 ERA with a 1.79 WHIP. But Evan has also struck out 11.1 batters per nine innings. This amounts to striking out 70 batters in only 57 innings. But Phillips has also been wild during his career thus far. Not only has he struck out a lot of batters, but he has walked 6.3 batters per nine innings.
Dodgers Claim Phillips
Phillips’ most productive season was 2019 for the Baltimore Orioles. During that season, Phillips struck out 40 batters in 28 innings. This amounts to a strikeout rate of 12.9 batters per nine innings, which is awesome. One the flip side, he also walked 20 batters in those 28 innings, which amounts to 6.4 walks per nine innings. His WHIP was 1.86 and his ERA was 6.43 during 2019. His WHIP was so high because he also gave up an unsightly 32 hits in 28 innings in addition to the walks.
However, there are a couple of bright spots in addition to the strikeout rate from the 2019 season. First of all, his fielding independent pitching was much lower than his ERA at 3.96. In addition, he gave up hits but he did not give up home runs. He only gave up 0.6 home runs per nine innings during that 2019 season. This is the main reason for the gap between ERA and FIP. If he is able to lower his hits and walks, then he will be a significant addition to the Dodgers bullpen. That is generally a lot to ask, but the Dodgers have done it before.
This season, Phillips has only pitched three innings for the Rays. He has an ERA of 3.00 and a WHIP of 1.00 in this small sample size of work. Phillips has given up three hits, one of which was a home run, but has not walked anyone. He has struck out two batters. Evan is currently listed as being in the minors on the Dodgers 40-man roster.
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