Cotham sees signs of pitching improvement
>> Bob McClure was the Phillies’ pitching coach in 2017, had no starters with a winning record, and took off for Minnesota to coach in the bullpen.
Rick Kranitz had the job in 2018, ran through 27 pitchers, and was fired seven weeks after the season, irritated by the experience.
By 2019, it would be Chris Young in charge, 38 years old and not ready for a room full of aging pitchers disinterested in his opinions or too young to make them matter.
Bryan Price, the former manager of the Reds, presided over the world’s worst bullpen in 2020, saw it remade in midseason, then presided over the world’s second-worst bullpen. Or was it the other way around? Either way, he saw enough of Hector Neris and too little of Tommy Hunter, then went charging into early retirement at age 58.
Caleb Cotham has come to know the history of an organization that keeps trying to win with Vince Velasquez in the rotation and Neris in the bullpen and John Middleton in his own wallet, fishing out misspent cash. He’s 33 and five years removed from a 35-game, two-year major-league career, and he expects to have the job when he is 34, 35, or 36.
“I love it here,” Cotham
said before a game Friday against the Atlanta Braves. “I love the people. I love the players. I’d love to be here for a long time.”
That’s the plan, and the analytics do say that one of these offseasons, the Phillies won’t circulate a press release about their new pitching coach. The trouble is that Aaron Nola, Vince Velasquez, Neris and Zach Eflin were all around for McClure and Kranitz, Young and Price. They have had years, decent and poor. Nola even had a great one in 2018, winning a spot in the AllStar Game and finishing third in the race for the Cy Young.
Yet all these spent pitching coaches later, Nola rarely sees a seventh inning, Velasquez remains undependable in the back of the bullpen, Neris is a failed closer trying to salvage a career as a short reliever and the often-sore Eflin is, again, injured.
So what is Cotham, the former Yankees and Reds right-hander from Tennessee, supposed to do that the rest of them became exasperated trying?
“There’s always better, there’s always worse,” Cotham said. “At the end of the day, we’re just trying to get better. That’s all we can do.”
The Phillies’ pitching is better than it was in 2020, even if it was virtually impossible to be worse. Zack Wheeler has grown from an intriguing talent to one of the most dominant pitchers in the National League. Even if the Phillies have blown 23 saves, Dave Dombrowski has (slightly) improved the bullpen. Nick Pivetta pitches someplace else. Small steps. Too small, really. But steps.
“There’s a lot of arrows pointing up,” Cotham said. “Slow, trickling improvements with each guy. And when you look at the end of the year, it will be a good year.”
He’s 33, and he’s optimistic, and, well, it is July, not September. But the Phillies have an unproven closer in Ranger Suarez, a 32-year-old left-hander on an incentive-thick $3 million contract who last year worked in Japan in Matt Moore, and a farm-system showpiece in Spencer Howard who starts night games but rarely is still useful by the time it is dark.
It’s strange, and bordering on alarming, that a franchise can have so few dependable pitchers. If it is going to improve, and there is time, Cotham will be a reason. He works hard, spreads optimism and insists progress is happening.
“Outside of the Big Three, what Vinny has done at times has been impressive,” he said. “It probably hasn’t shown up as much as he wants in the games, but I really like where he is at with the work. In the bullpen, Jose Alvarado is throwing more strikes. The way our season goes, there’s going to be ups and downs. We’ll just continue to work and try to get better.”
Nola has the talent to be better. Wheeler is an ace. Eflin is making progress from the knee. Suarez has a chance. Bailey Falter, battling coronavirus issues, is a promising left-hander in the bullpen. And the NL East is so soggy that it can be won by a team with Velasquez as a No. 4.
But the trade deadline is next week, and while he won’t say so, Cotham will hope for help.
“You always can use more pitching,” he said. “I trust the guys here. If there is someone who can help our team get more outs and win more games, I’m in. But even if there’s not, I do believe we have the ingredients to succeed and get this done.”
He’s hardly the first one.