Former Phillies Friday: Zach Eflin pitching like All-Star with Rays

Zach Eflin spent parts of seven seasons with the Phillies. (Kyle Ross/Icon Sportswire)

The Philadelphia Phillies allowed Zach Eflin to depart in free agency for a three-year/$40 million deal with the Tampa Bay Rays this past offseason, and the veteran righty has responded turning in the best half of his career.

Across 15 starts this season for the Rays, Eflin is 9-3 with a 3.29 ERA, 3.23 FIP and 2.2 WAR, according to FanGraphs. To put things in perspective, the highest single-season WAR total that Eflin posted during parts of seven years with the Phillies was 2.3 in 2018.

Sunday evening, full MLB All-Star Game rosters will be announced. The list of American League starting pitching candidates is deep, and Eflin could get caught in a numbers game given the amount of candidates that the Rays — who have an MLB-best 56 wins — have. If the Rays only get one starting pitcher, lefty Shane McClanahan could be the pick, given that he’s 11-1 with a 2.23 ERA.

Regardless of whether he’s an All-Star or not, Eflin’s strong season has led to debate about whether the Phillies should have retained him. Remember, a choked-up Eflin told Phillies Nation in the aftermath of the team’s World Series loss to the Houston Astros that he hoped to stay in Philadelphia.

“There’s no other place I really want to play other than this place,” Eflin said. “It’s a dream to be able to put on that jersey every single night and go to war with these guys. So we’ll see what happens.”

When the dust settled, though, Eflin declined his half of a $15 million mutual optio n and became a free agent. Rather than re-sign him, president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski and the Phillies pivoted and signed Taijuan Walker to a four-year/$72 million deal instead.

Independent of how Walker’s deal ultimately plays out, it is hard to fault the Phillies for pivoting away from Eflin given his history of knee issues. Eflin was a reliever for the Phillies late in 2022 and into the postseason, with injuries limiting him to 75 2/3 innings pitched in the regular season. Eflin has made 24 or more starts just twice in his career, most recently in 2018. While he’s on track to snap that streak in 2023 given that he’s already made 15 starts, Eflin did spend some time on the injured list in April with back tightness. And it’s fair to wonder how his knees will age over the lifetime of his three-year pact.

Nonetheless, it was Eflin who closed out a Wild Card-clinching victory in Houston last October, and he was one of the most respected players in the clubhouse on a team that reached the World Series. There figure to be some nice moments at Tropicana Field next week, when the Phillies will face off with Eflin and the Rays for a three-game.