The Philadelphia Phillies approached the trade deadline with a few goals in mind. One of those goals were met with the acquisition of Michael Lorenzen from the Detroit Tigers. Lorenzen is a right-handed starter who has Major League experience. He made his debut with the Cincinnati Reds in 2015. The right-hander spent the 2022 season with the Los Angeles Angels prior to signing with the Tigers this past offseason.
Tigers are close to trading Michael Lorenzen to the Phillies.
— Jon Morosi (@jonmorosi) August 1, 2023
Infield prospect Hao-Yu Lee is part of the proposed return heading to Detroit. @MLBNetwork @MLB
The addition of Lorenzen will be a significant boost to an already solid Phillies rotation. The 31-year-old pitcher has a career 4.02 ERA. He is having a solid year so far. As of the deadline, Lorenzen has posted a 3.58 ERA in 105 2/3 innings pitched this season. He is also limiting baserunners as his 1.10 WHIP is the lowest it has been since 2016. The right-hander also represented the Tigers in the All-Star game in Seattle this year.
While he is not the same type of strikeout pitcher like Zack Wheeler and Aaron Nola can be, Lorenzen has avoided the long ball for much of the season. On the year he has a 0.94 HR/9 rate and opposing hitters are batting .233 against him.
Michael Lorenzen's 3Ks in the 1st. pic.twitter.com/frnjeMCgte
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) July 27, 2023
The Phillies rotation of Wheeler, Nola, Taijuan Walker, Ranger Suárez, Cristopher Sánchez, and now Lorenzen makes the starting pitching corps for the Phillies that much deeper. Overall, the Phillies rotation has been good this year. Nola has struggled to keep the ball in the yard and Suárez has been off his game due to some command issues. The addition of another starter can help take some of the pressure off of those guys and perhaps give them some extra time between starts. Given the fact that the club already has proven starters, Lorenzen just needs to be a solid number three or four pitcher going forward.
Lorenzen is a rental addition at this point. His contract is up after the end of the 2023 season. Adding him to the rotation will allow for extra depth in case of an injury or allow Rob Thomson to deploy a six-man rotation at times to give his starters some extra rest. He is not an ace like some fans may have hoped for, but given the price of starting pitching this season, Lorenzen should be a solid add and help strengthen an already capable Phillies rotation.