During an autograph signing at Dynasty Sports & Framing in Langhorne, PA on Sunday, Phillies manager Rob Thomson made small talk with a fan as he signed a photo of the team after the pennant-clinching win against the Padres in the National League Championship Series.
The fan pointed to one of their favorite players, the recently traded Matt Vierling, in the middle and expressed disappointment.
“You’re going to like the lefty we got,” Thomson said, referring to new Phillies reliever Gregory Soto.
Thomson will enter the 2023 season with perhaps the most talented Phillies bullpen in team history. But just like last year’s unit, there will be ups and downs.
The Phillies are betting on stuff and worrying about command later. It’s a strategy that’s worked in the past.
Soto, a two-time All-Star who was acquired for Vierling, Nick Maton and Donny Sands from the Detroit Tigers, profiles similarly to another Phillies pitcher who reinvented himself last season.
José Alvarado struggles were so bad in the beginning of 2022 that the Phillies sent him to Triple A in May. He came back with a new-look cutter that fooled hitters, a refined sinker that he can command more easily and a new mindset that made him one of the best relief pitchers in baseball in 2022.
Both pitchers throw hard from the left side and are prone to the occasional hiccup when their command slips. After Alvarado came back from the minors, he walked 14 batters (two intentionally) and struck out 64 batters across 38 innings. Meltdown outings where he would walk a pair and hit a batter, for instance, were few and far between.
Soto, who has pitched to a 3.34 ERA over the past two seasons, is not in dire need of fixing. He’s a good pitcher as is with plenty of experience pitching in high leverage situations, but the Phillies believe they have the secret formula to lowering his 12.9% walk rate from 2022.
“Just by hearing about him, it sounds like ‘Alvarado, Alvarado,'” Thomson said Sunday. “That’s the way I kind of view him. And our guys have done a great job with Alvarado.”
Based off the input he’s getting from the pitching staff, Thomson believes Soto is just a few tweaks away from drastically improving his command.
“It seems like it from what everybody is talking about,” Thomson said. “If our guys can do the same thing for him as they did for Alvarado, then we’re really looking good.”
Coaches Caleb Cotham, Brian Kaplan, Dave Lundquist and advanced scouting coordinator Shaun Rubin, just to name a few, comprise of the Phillies brain trust on the pitching side and will be tasked with getting the most out of the club’s new additions as well as the familiar faces and possible contributors down the line in the farm system.
Much of that work will take place in spring training. Now that he’s the manager, Thomson has handed over the bulk of his planning duties to bench coach Mike Calitri.
The job requires him to be a public face of the franchise. He enjoys meeting fans and talking to youngsters about their favorite players. All of the praise still makes him uncomfortable and he still hasn’t warmed up to his “Philly Rob” persona.
“It’s a complete team effort. It’s a complete organizational effort,” Thomson said. “I know people are saying ‘Great job and … I want it to be felt through the entire organization. Not just me.”
Now that the 2022 postseason is a memory, he’ll always cherish the crowds that packed Citizens Bank Park during the run to the club’s first World Series berth since 2009.
“I talk to my wife about it all the time – the fanbase and the noise,” Thomson said. “It was just phenomenal. I went to [the University of Kansas], so I’m going there to speak on Friday. And they play in Allen Fieldhouse. It’s the loudest arena in college basketball. Philly was louder and for four hours. They didn’t stop, so it was really incredible.”
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