Phillies 2019 season preview: Relief pitcher Seranthony Dominguez
By John Town
Seranthony Dominguez was one of the bright spots of the 2018 Phillies season. Can he continue his success in his first full major-league year?
Before the 2018 season, with a significant amount of starting pitching prospects in the minor leagues, the Phillies opted to move Seranthony Dominguez to the bullpen where his high-octane arsenal would play up. That move proved to be successful as Dominguez rocketed up the minor-league leader to Philadelphia.
Dominguez allowed just three earned runs and struck out 18 batters in 13 innings for Double-A Reading to start off the year. After just three shutout appearances in Triple-A Lehigh Valley, Dominguez was promoted to the majors at the beginning of May. Just eight months prior he was in High-A Clearwater.
Dominguez became a beacon of hope in a bullpen plagued by injuries and inconsistency to start the year. He quickly became manager Gabe Kapler‘s fireman, coming in when the team was in a tight spot in late innings. This led to Dominguez recording 14 holds and 16 saves in 53 appearances by the end of the year.
In 58 innings pitched, Dominguez had a 2.95 ERA, 11.48 strikeouts per nine innings, 3.41 walks per nine, and 1.3 Fangraphs wins above replacement. He was the most valuable reliever on the team in terms of fWAR even as his performance tailed off in the second half.
Among 147 relievers with 50 or more innings pitched last year, Dominguez ranked 18th in strikeout rate (32.0%), eighth in WHIP (0.93), 28th in fielding-independent pitching (2.85), and 24th in skill-interactive ERA (2.81).
Now that Dominguez is heading into his first full season as a major-league reliever, can we expect him to produce similar results?