How these 5 former Phillies are doing during spring training

Carlos Estévez 

Perhaps the Phillies’ biggest trade deadline move in 2024, they gave up two promising pitching prospects, George Klassen and Samuel Aldegheri, to grab former All-Star closer Carlos Estévez from the Los Angeles Angels. With José Alvarado struggling as the go-to guy in the ninth inning for Philadelphia, it was a move that they needed to make if they were indeed serious about a deep playoff run.

In the end, Estévez performed quite admirably for the Phillies, posting a fine 2.57 ERA and 1.19 WHIP, six saves, while giving up just six earned runs with 18 strikeouts in 21 innings pitched in 20 regular season games. He followed that up with a decent postseason showing, compiling a 3.38 ERA and 1.13 WHIP with four strikeouts in 2 2/3 innings of work over three playoff games. However, Phillies fans will forever remember Estévez for giving up the go-ahead, series-clinching grand slam to Francisco Lindor of the New York Mets, which spelled the end of their postseason run in the 2024 NLDS.

After leaving the Phillies as a free agent, Estévez ended up signing with the Kansas City Royals on a two-year, $22 million contract earlier this year. However, lower back tightness had held the 32-year-old reliever out this entire spring until his eventual debut on Friday against the Angels. His rust certainly showed as in one inning of work, Estévez had a fielding error while scattering two hits that led to an unearned run with zero walks and zero strikeouts. Nevertheless, Estévez will look forward to forming a one-two punch with Lucas Erceg in the Royals' back end of the bullpen for the upcoming season.

Jeff Hoffman

Finally, we have one of the Phillies’ most dominant relievers during the past two years, Jeff Hoffman. What started out to be just a minor league signing, Philadelphia hit the jackpot when Hoffman ended up being one of the most reliable arms in their bullpen.

In 2023 and 2024, the 32-year-old reliever compiled an 8-5 record with 11 saves, a 2.28 ERA and 0.94 WHIP, giving up just 30 earned runs in total to go along with just 35 walks and a whopping 158 strikeouts in 118 2/3 innings of work in 122 appearances. In doing so, Hoffman became an All-Star for the first time in his career last year. But his elite performance priced him out of town as a result.

This offseason, Hoffman was signed by the Toronto Blue Jays to a huge three-year, $33 million deal, likely to handle their closing duties. As far as his spring performance thus far, he had been practically unhittable. That was until his last outing against the Minnesota Twins in which he gave up two earned runs on two hits in 2/3 of an inning. As a result, Hoffman currently sports a 4.91 ERA and 1.09 WHIP with five strikeouts in 3 2/3 innings of work in four appearances.

As for Romano, he has allowed just two unearned runs so far for the Phillies, giving Philadelphia the early edge in the de-facto closer swap with the Blue Jays. A successful, rejuvenated Romano can definitely go a long way in helping the Phillies forget about letting Hoffman go. But the more Hoffman dominates for the Jays, the more Philadelphia will miss him the most of all their former players.

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