Phillies promote pitching prospect Seranthony Dominguez to majors
By John Town
The Phillies promoted pitching prospect Seranthony Dominguez, who moved to a full-time relief role this season, to the major leagues.
A day after the Phillies‘ bullpen blew a late three-run lead in Sunday’s loss to the Washington Nationals, the team called up some support. Pitching prospect Seranthony Dominguez has been promoted from Triple-A Lehigh Valley to the major leagues.
To make room for Dominguez, Adam Morgan was placed on the disabled list with a back strain. The injury must have stemmed from his outing Sunday, where he faced two batters, allowing one hit. This leaves Zac Curtis as the lone lefty in the bullpen.
Dominguez is the team’s No. 11 prospect according to MLB.com. His fastball runs up into the high-90s. He also has two solid pitches in his changeup and slider, but his overall lack of command left his future as a starter in doubt.
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Indeed, Dominguez transitioned to a full-time relief role this season as the team accumulated more and more starting pitching depth. The move has been a successful one as Dominguez has dominated through the first month of the season.
In 11 appearances between Double-A Reading and Triple-A Lehigh Valley, Dominguez had a 1.62 ERA, 0.660 WHIP, and 7.00 strikeout-to-walk ratio.
He had just three outings in Triple-A before being called up, allowing no hits and one walk in 3.2 innings.
Despite his inexperience in Triple-A, IronPigs manager Gary Jones says he isn’t surprised to see Dominguez called up: [quote via Stephen Gross of the Morning Call]
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"“Any time you’ve got the stuff he’s got – I mean electric fastball, overpowering sinker, down in the zone, at the bottom of the zone. I mean when you’ve got that you don’t always have to be on the edges. You can make mistakes with that kind of stuff and still get hitters out. So its a good thing. It doesn’t surprise me at all after I saw him. I saw him in spring training a little bit, not a whole lot, but after I saw him pitch it didn’t surprise me at all. His stuff is electric.”"
In five spring training games this year, Dominguez had a 1.93 ERA and 0.86 WHIP. He made a good impression on Phillies manager Gabe Kapler then as well as when he checked out the Fightin’ Phils earlier this season.
Dominguez’s promotion comes on the heels of a gut-wrenching loss Sunday. The team overcame striking out 15 times to Max Scherzer to take a 4-1 lead over the Nationals. The bullpen then imploded as a combination of Tommy Hunter, Luis Garcia, and Hector Neris blew that lead as Washington won in walk-off fashion.
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Dominguez’s presence injects some youth in the bullpen, and if he pitches the way he has been in the minors, he will be a great reliever.