Phillies 2020 Player Grades: Brandon Workman, David Phelps

Grading the 2020 season for the two biggest Phillies trade acquisitions — Brandon Workman and David Phelps

The Phillies bullpen was bad in 2019. They finished in the bottom half of the National League in ERA, FIP, and fWAR. Even worse, they finished second-to-last in home runs allowed per nine innings (HR/9). The only team with a higher HR/9 was the Colorado Rockies — who played half of their games in the home run-friendly Coors Field.

General manager Matt Klentak chose not to significantly improve the bullpen over the 2019-2020 offseason. Only three relievers acquired last offseason pitched for the Phillies in 2020: Trevor Kelley (3 1/3 IP, 10.80 ERA), Deolis Guerra (7 1/3 IP, 8.59 ERA), and Reggie McClain (5 1/3 IP, 5.06 ERA).

None of these signings did anything to improve the bullpen situation in Philadelphia (although, technically, McClain’s ERA was lower than the Phillies collective 7.06 bullpen ERA). When something is bad and you do nothing to change it, chances are it will remain that way. And that’s exactly what happened.

Thus, Klentak had no choice but to acquire some relievers ahead of the August 31, 2020, trade deadline — despite having few tradeable assets and still needing to stay under the luxury tax. The best he could do was Brandon Workman and David Phelps from the Boston Red Sox and Milwaukee Brewers, respectively.

Klentak also acquired David Hale (New York Yankees) and Heath Hembree (Red Sox), but the Workman and Phelps additions were made for them to pitch high-leverage innings. Unfortunately, both trades yielded extremely poor results; neither pitcher had much success in red pinstripes.

Grading Phillies RHP David Phelps’ 2020 season

The Phillies acquired David Phelps on August 31 in exchange for three low-level minor leaguers. He was the final pitcher that general manager Matt Klentak acquired for the bullpen in 2020, and perhaps the worst.

Phelps had been a quality bullpen arm for five different teams since he became a full-time reliever in 2016; his ERA from 2016-2019 was 2.85. He was particularly excellent in 2016, when he had a 2.28 ERA in 86.2 innings, with a 2.1 fWAR.

Phelps also impressed the Phillies’ brass with his early performance in 2020. In 13 innings for the Milwaukee Brewers, he pitched to a 2.77 ERA and a 2.81 FIP. He was striking out more batters and walking fewer than he ever had before.

However, there was some cause for concern with Phelps. He sat out the entire 2018 season with an elbow injury, and when he came back in 2019, he showed signs of decline. While his 3.41 ERA was still impressive, his 4.58 FIP and 5.01 xFIP were the worst of his career. His strikeout rate went down, his walk rate went up, and home run rate skyrocketed.

Clearly, Klentak thought that Phelps’ early 20202 success indicated that he had fully rebounded from his Tommy John surgery. Unfortunately, his performance with the Phillies showed that that was far from the case.

In 10 games, Phelps had an absurd 12.91 ERA and 9.97 FIP. While his strikeout rate was impressive and his walk rate was decent, he allowed five home runs in only 7 2/3 innings pitched.

As with Workman, Phelps was the victim of a ridiculously high HR/FB ratio: 50%. His career mark is 11.4%. Thus, he finished with a 4.01 xFIP, which is actually a decent number. It’s not good enough for a closer or a set-up man, but it’s better than a lot of pitchers in the Phillies bullpen.

Thus, while Phelps’ ERA was much worse than Workman’s, his K/9, BB/9 and xFIP suggest that he actually pitched somewhat better.

As with Workman, I want to take into account the fact that our expectations for Phelps were too high.

Grade: C-