After the Phillies acquired pitcher Clay Buchholz from Boston, it locked
Nola confirmed with CSN’s Michael Barkann that “my arm is good to go. One-hundred percent.” Elbow injuries, in the case of pitchers, sometimes lead to the infamous Tommy John surgery, but Nola was able to dodge it this time. Still there’s doubt the 23-year old will ever return to his 2016 April-May form, where he led the team with a 2.88 ERA. A top priority for Nola and Phillies fans should be finishing the year in one piece.
Velasquez has an injury history of his own, including shoulder troubles, Tommy John surgery (2010), and most recently a biceps injury – sidelining him in 2016. For years, the dark cloud hanging over Velasquez has always been related to durability.
Newly acquired Clay Buchholz is no stranger to the disabled list. Over the 32 year old’s 10-year career, he has made seven trips, battling back, hamstring and elbow issues.
Sixty percent of the starting rotation has a shaky injury history. Of course injuries are part of the game, but Hellickson and Eickhoff leave the least concern, as each made a full complement of starts last season.
What can the Phillies do to limit the chances that their pitchers – and most importantly Nola and Velasquez – get hurt? They can try a six-man rotation.
Experimenting a six-man rotation will benefit the Phillies in three ways.
Baseball is constantly changing and ever-evolving, especially for pitchers. Pitchers used to throw complete-games on 150 pitches. That’s certainly not the case anymore.
The last team to utilize a six-man rotation? The Chicago Cubs did, late in 2016, “just trying to keep guys fresh for the rest of the year,” as Joe Maddon put it. The Phils are not the Cubs, but hey, we all know how it worked out for Chicago.
Worst case-scenario for the Phils: it certainly can’t hurt.