Reds’ Connor Phillips Has The Raw Stuff To Impact MLB Rotation
Even in a league calibrated for pitchers with bat-missing stuff, righthander Connor Phillips stood out. His 39.1% strikeout rate for Double-A Chattanooga last season led all Southern League starters.
The 22-year-old Phillips continued to miss bats with Triple-A Louisville in July and August and then with Cincinnati in September.
But despite reaching the big leagues, not everything went smoothly in his ascent.
Phillips walked 30 batters in 40.1 innings at Triple-A. He walked 13 in 20.2 innings in five MLB starts.
“He’s got three above-average pitches,” Reds vice president of player development Shawn Pender said. “He tends to overthrow and spin off some in an effort to throw harder or spin it harder, which is completely understandable for his age.”
The inconsistency of Phillips’ control from game to game seems to be his biggest hurdle. He has big-time stuff that helped him strike out 180 batters in 125.2 innings across three levels last season.
Phillips’ strikeout rate received a bit of a boost by pitching in the SL in the first half, when the league experimented with a pre-tacked baseball that enhanced whiffs.
“He just needs to start to learn to trust his stuff,” Pender said. “There’s times when your natural action on the pitch is such that you just need to get it where you need it to go. You don’t want guys who can throw 97-98-99 (mph) throwing 90, 91.
“But you do need them to learn that when they are behind in the count to be able to throw a good fastball or a good secondary pitch that they can locate . . . as opposed to throwing the hell out of it and maybe making a mistake over the heart.”
The Reds have improved their rotation depth this offseason by signing free agents Frankie Montas and Nick Martinez, which could give Phillips more development time if he needs it in 2024.
But if he can improve his consistency and control, he could quickly find himself back in the big leagues, where his stuff could make him a difference-maker in the rotation.
