The 2022 Los Angeles Dodgers are in the midst of one of the most historical stretches in the history of Major League Baseball. There are a variety of reasons to point to when examining their recent run of dominance — the front office, player development, both the amateur and pro scouting department, and the obvious, the organization’s financial resources. The Dodgers carry one of the major leagues’ highest player payrolls, headlined by Freddie Freeman, Mookie Betts, Trea Turner, and Clayton Kershaw. That alone is not enough to win a championship on its own, as is evident with a handful of organizations around the league who have invested large sums of financial resources into the construction of their roster and to no avail. That being said, since Andrew Friedman has taken the reins of the ball club, the Dodgers have cultivated one of the more plentiful player development pipelines in the sport. As a result, the farm system has created a tremendous amount of organizational depth which has allowed the club to acquire marquee talent, while also ensuring all aspects of the 26-man roster are filled with quality players.
What is often lost in the shuffle during the Dodgers’ historic run is the number of injuries amassed in 2022. The Dodgers have played a majority of the season without their number one and two starters (Walker Buehler, Clayton Kershaw and now news of NL CY Young candidate Tony Gonsolin missing time), as well as three high leverage relief options (Blake Treinen, Daniel Hudson, Tommy Kahnle). Naturally, players have stepped up in the absence of the aforementioned, and perhaps no one has stepped up more than Evan Phillips.
The Dodgers claimed Phillips off of waivers from the Tampa Bay Rays on August 16, 2021, after he had previously spent time in the major leagues with the Baltimore Orioles and Atlanta Braves. Phillips pitched well enough down the stretch in 2021, ultimately landing him a spot on the postseason roster. Fast forward to June 24, 2022, and the Dodgers lose Daniel Hudson to a season-ending ACL tear, joining Blake Treinen and Tommy Kahnle as high leverage relievers on the injured list. The Dodgers ultimately had to shuffle roles in the bullpen, and no one has answered the call better than Phillips.
Since June 25, when Phillips stepped into the high leverage role for the Dodgers, he has allowed one earned run (good for a 0.40 ERA), .070 BAA, with a 32 K%, 5 BB%, stranding 89% of base runners all while only allowing two well struck batted balls. Phillips has been nothing short of dominant for the Dodgers. Inherently posing the question, what has Evan Phillips done to be one of the major leagues most dominant relievers?
I personally think there are a few reasons for Phillips' dominance. One possible reason is the implementation of a cutter into the arsenal. Prior to this season, Phillips was a 4-seam, slider, changeup guy. As of 2022, he has ditched the changeup in favor of a cutter, which makes up for 25% of his pitches.
Below is a table outlining Phillips 2022 arsenal (Data Scraped via Baseball R)
By adding the cutter into the arsenal, Phillips' sweeping slider has experienced significant changes in 2022. For starters, Phillips whiff% on the slider has jumped from 28.6% in 2021 to 41.4% in 2022. Despite the drastic change in whiff%, the horizontal break on the slider has remained constant from year to year. The difference? The addition of the cutter to his arsenal has essentially bridged the gap between his sweeping slider and 4-seam fastball (This idea was recently discussed in depth at Prospects Live). Essentially what is happening is the cutter takes enough horizontal movement off of the sweeping slider and creates a tunnel between the slider and 4-seam fastball laterally.
Below is a movement plot which visually shows how the cutter fills the gap between Phillips 4-seamer and sweeper.
To my knowledge, in an era of pitchers chasing high spin efficient 4-seamers, with plus ride and flat approach angles, it was more common to see a cutter added to pitchers' arsenals who demonstrated the ability to produce plus ride on their fastballs. In return, the cutter has been used as an effective pitch to kill lift off of the rider, while maintaining velocity, flatter approach angles all while increasing spin on the pitch. In Phillips' case, he uses the cutter the opposite way, by creating horizontal separation between his sweeper and 4-seamer.
Generally speaking, a pitcher who throws a slider with plus lateral movement will grade out well on a stuff model and will look aesthetically pleasing on a centerfield television broadcast. In terms of fooling a major league caliber hitter, regardless of the horizontal movement and spin, a sweeper that does not tunnel well with other pitches in the arsenal can become an easier take pitch for hitters. Phillips fell into that bucket prior to this year. The Dodgers recognized these traits, and ultimately added a cutter into Phillips arsenal and the results have paid dividends. His chase% has jumped 10% from 2021 to 2022, and he has experienced drastic run value differences.
Naturally, with the increase in chase%, Phillips has essentially had to throw less strikes in the strike zone which in return has led to less pitches leftover the heart of the plate, resulting in minimal damage done by opposing hitters. Phillips has also chopped his career walk rate in half this season, which can be a credit to how well his cutter and slider complement each other.
Phillips also benefits from the velocity sweep tradeoff he acquires with his cutter/slider combination. With an understanding of how the cutter and slider tunnel off of each other, the cutter offers a firmer offering for hitters, while subtracting lateral movement from the slider.
Another plausible reason for Phillips success is the addition of a sinker to the arsenal. When examining the spin efficiency on his 4-seam fastball, Phillips grades out below league average. Naturally, Phillips falls into the bucket as a pitcher who may have success with a sinker due to the below 85% spin efficiency he generates on his heater. Without having access to Edgertronic footage, it seems reasonable to assume that Phillips is a natural supinator, which could be one of the reasons as to why he has success throwing a sinker, cutter, and sweeping slider. The sinker also gets opposing hitters off of the 4-seamer with an offering that performs effectively down in the zone.
Despite having a lower release, his 4-seamer has an average movement profile when examining pitchers on a league scale with similar release traits. With multiple fastball variations, Phillips successfully gives hitters different looks in the zone, and he has reaped the benefits.
The graphic below depicts how Phillips deploys each of his offerings in the zone in regard to the location of each pitch.
Ultimately, the recent success of the Dodgers can be attributed to multiple facets, and Evan Phillips is a prime example of that, as the organization has turned an up and down reliever into a lock down late inning relief option.