The Phillies brought Hoby Milner to the major-leagues this week when they designated Jeanmar Gomez for assignment. Now who exactly is Milner?
The Phillies shook up their roster Tuesday by designating Michael Saunders and Jeanmar Gomez for assignment. To replace Gomez in the bullpen, the team added left-handed reliever Hoby Milner to the 40-man roster.
Milner isn’t the call-up everyone was hoping for this season. He’s never been part of top prospect discussion, only occasionally being thrown in the conversation when talking about bullpen arms. However, he’s in the majors now and its worth taking a look at the newest arm in Philadelphia’s bullpen.
Milner was drafted back in the seventh round of the 2012 draft from the University of Texas. During college he pitched out of both the bullpen and rotation.
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Through his first three seasons in Philadelphia’s system he pitched with a normal delivery and posted decent numbers. However, he couldn’t overpower hitters with his high-80s fastball, which made him an unlikely option as a starter.
In 2015, Milner transitioned to a full-time bullpen role and also changed his delivery. He dropped his arm slot all the way to a submarine motion before eventually settling with a sidearm motion.
The change in arm slot has really helped Milner, as he told Matt Breen of Philly.com:
"“It’s been great,” Milner said. “Last year was my first full season doing it. I started in extended spring training last year, kind of tweaking this and that. It worked out. This year I kind of built off last year. I took the successes I had and carried that over to this year and I took the failures I had last year and tried to correct those this year, and it’s come together better.”"
2016 was where Milner’s trajectory really took off. He started off the season in Double-A Reading, dominating the Eastern League. He struck out 26.5% of opposing hitters, logging a 1.08 WHIP and 1.84 ERA in 38 games.
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Milner’s ERA jumped to 4.50 when he was promoted to Triple-A, but a 2.61 fielding-independent pitching showed it was a fluky number. His strikeout rate also grew to an astonishing 32.8% with a miniscule 4.5% walk rate.
After the season, with numerous prospects to protect from the Rule 5 draft, Milner was left off the roster and thereby left exposed to the draft. The Indians selected Milner, becoming their No. 24 overall prospect according to Baseball America.
However, Milner couldn’t stick on Cleveland’s roster with several other bullpen arms proving to be better options.
He was returned to the Phillies and assigned to Triple-A Lehigh Valley.
Milner has been electric in the IronPiigs’ bullpen this season. In 27.2 innings, Milner struck out 27 batters, walked just four, and gave up eight runs. His 1.01 WHIP and .235 batting average against are both solid.
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With Milner now in the majors, he offers a more intriguing option as a lefty reliever over Adam Morgan or Joely Rodriguez. He has yet to appear in a major-league game despite being active for three so far, but we will get to see what he can do sooner or later.