One thing that the Philadelphia Phillies did not fail at during the playoffs was their pitching. It was the known strength coming into the season, but it became pretty apparent early on that this staff was different from most years. That showed in the postseason, and unfortunately it was again rendered meaningless with the consistent failure of the offense.
The Phillies are now faced with the reality of layoffs and shakeups that need to happen to some degree. They can't run the same group back, whether it's the players or the personnel. Different voices need to be heard from some part of the roster.
Luckily for the Phillies, they have a tremendous pitching staff in place for the future and have pitching coach Caleb Cotham at the helm. Cotham has perfected the staff and deserves to stick around. Phillies manager Rob Thomson has already been announced as a returning part of the team, so Cotham will await Thursday's 11 a.m. ET press conference with everyone else to know what other changes are taking place.
Pitching coach Caleb Cotham is one bright spot from Phillies' disappointing NLDS series
Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts admired how tough the Phillies' rotation was against his lineup. He overcame it by beating the Phillies in four games, but he also knows that his team escaped by the skin of their teeth. It bodes well for Cotham to receive such a compliment, but the praise didn't end there.
Ahead of their NLCS date matchup with the Milwaukee Brewers, Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman praised how the Phillies approached generational talent Shohei Ohtani during the NLDS, per MLB.com's Paul Casella. Ohtani is the one hitter you don't want to face heading into a playoff series. He could be on his way to winning his third straight MVP and 4th overall, but that didn't stop Friedman from praising Phillies pitchers' approach to Ohtani at the plate all series long.
“I think the biggest thing is the stuff that the Phillies threw at us obviously was really good,” Friedman said, per Casella. “But even that, I thought the execution was as good as it can possibly be.”
He isn't wrong, as the Phillies kept mostly the entire Dodgers' lineup silenced through the four games. It's not easy shutting down the defending World Series champs, but Cotham had the perfect game plan against the sport's biggest star in Ohtani, who went a combined 1-for-18 with nine strikeouts in the NLDS.
“So I think the combination of those things lining up — look, if a pitcher who has really good stuff executes at an A-plus level, hitters aren't going to hit," Friedman continued. "Hitting is way too difficult. It's about hitting mistakes more than not. And they executed it on him at an elite rate. So could some swing decisions help and potentially get a mistake? For sure,” Friedman stated. “But I think it was the most impressive execution against a hitter I've ever seen.”
It's pretty remarkable that a pitching staff that lost ace Zack Wheeler in August managed to still turn in one of the most impressive postseason series from a pitching perspective. Phillies pitchers had a 2.87 ERA in the four games. The starters posted a 2.25 ERA.
Cotham is the one to thank. He's worked alongside a lot of these guys for years. He's made the most of his five seasons in Philadelphia and will look to only get better. His hard work paid off with how Cristopher Sánchez, Jesús Luzardo, Aaron Nola and Ranger Suárez performed from just a starting rotation standpoint. There's some expected turnover with the coaching staff, but Cotham needs to stay in Philadelphia, and the praise only solidifies that fact.