With top pitching free agents Blake Snell and Max Fried finding new homes already this offseason, the prices for some of the remaining starters in the market have now gone up in the process. So if the Philadelphia Phillies still want to look for a rotation upgrade via free agency ahead of the 2025 season, they will need to act soon before they begin to price themselves out of the mix.
Despite that, there are actually still some more affordable yet solid starting options available if need be. In particular, FanSided MLB insider Robert Murray has identified a former Phillies pitcher to be an under-the-radar rotation name to watch following the Winter Meetings. That distinguished candidate is none other than Michael Lorenzen.
"With the prices of free-agent starting pitchers very high, one under-the-radar option to monitor is right-hander Michael Lorenzen," Murray writes.
MLB insider tabs former Phillies starter an under-the-radar rotation name to watch
When it comes to Lorenzen and his tenure with Philadelphia following the 2023 trade deadline, Phillies fans will remember him mostly for bombing out after throwing a no-hitter in his second start with his new club at the time.
In the end, he posted a dismal 5.51 ERA and 1.46 WHIP, giving up 29 earned runs with 20 walks and 28 strikeouts in 47 1/3 innings pitched over 11 appearances that included seven starts with the Phillies. As a result, Lorenzen ultimately appeared in only two games for Philadelphia during the postseason that year, making his overall contributions to the organization negligible.
However, Lorenzen bounced back with a strong 2024 season split between the Texas Rangers and Kansas City Royals. In 26 games, he compiled a 7-6 winning record with a tidy 3.31 ERA and 1.24 WHIP, along with 97 strikeouts in 130 1/3 innings.
More importantly, Lorenzen was a beast for the Royals after Kansas City acquired him from the Rangers at the trade deadline. He posted a 2-0 record with a stellar 1.57 ERA and 1.08 WHIP, giving up just five earned runs with 22 strikeouts in 28 2/3 innings down the stretch to help the Royals reach the postseason. Most notably, as Murray points out, Lorenzen made effective adjustments to his pitch selection that brought him great success with Kansas City by foregoing his slider and increasing the usage of his sweeper.
Lorenzen’s previous salary was just a one-year contract worth $4.5 million with the Rangers this past season. With his solid performance from 2024, he will likely get a pay bump for 2025, but nothing crazy like the money being thrown around for the likes of Snell and Fried. As a result, if the Phillies believe that Lorenzen is worth another shot with the team now that he has honed his pitch selection to perfection, it could be a reunion that could potentially bring a low-risk, high-reward outcome for Philadelphia.