Estevez arrives, sounds like Phillies’ closer in everything but name

Estevez arrives, sounds like Phillies’ closer in everything but name originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

So far this season, the Phillies have spread the wealth around their bullpen. Ten different relievers have chipped into the team total of 27 saves for the season.

That’s going to change in the final third of the schedule now that veteran right-hander arrived at Citizens Bank Park before Monday night’s game against the Yankees and put on red pinstripes for the first time.

Manager Rob Thomson won’t call Estevez, acquired Saturday from the Angels for pitching prospects Sam Aldegheri and George Klassen, his closer. He’ll just say that the right-hander is going to get the ball in ninth-inning saves situations. A free beer for anybody who can define the difference.

So, as Joe Biden once noted as an aside to Barack Obama, this is a BFD.

The reality is that this won’t be the first time the Phillies manager has used a reliever in that role for long stretches. Jose Alvarado has been that guy in stretches. Craig Kimbrel did it for a while. But Thomson’s never been quite so definitive and never had as many options — Jeff Hoffman, Matt Strahm, Alvarado — when he’s used a single reliever for an extended period of time.

The one bit of wiggle room he left himself when asked again about his plans for the 31-year-old pregame was if the opposing team has a pocket of potent left-handed bats lined up in the ninth.

“That would be the one situation you’d think about using him in the eighth, and it would also depend on what lefties we have down there and how well they’re throwing,” he hedged.

It’s also true that Estevez has been just as effective against left-handed hitters (.170 batting average, .476 OPS) as right-handers (.170/.502) this season.

Of course, he professed that he’ll happily pitch whenever the Phillies want.

“If I need to get ready an inning earlier, I’m going to do it. I’m just going to be a part of what we have going here and I’m going to feel good about it,” he said.

“In a group like this, if I can put another grain of sand on the beautiful beach they’ve built, I’m down for whatever, man.”

He’s having the best season of his career. He’s converted 20 of 23 save opportunities and finished his Angels career with a flourish, 18 straight scoreless innings. The simplest explanation for his success is that he’s throwing more strikes. He’s walking 1.3 batters per nine innings, a dramatic drop from his 3.5 career average.

“Honestly, it wasn’t my main focus in the offseason,” he said. “But hitting is really hard already. Let’s not make it easier for them. Pound the strike zone and see what happens. When you try to make things more complicated, they do get more complicated. That’s one thing I try to pump the gas on. Not get super panicked about throwing balls. But just try to pound the strike zone.”

Having him available for that situation also allows Thomson to start mixing and matching aggressively even earlier in the game than he has to this point.

Estevez has appeared in one postseason game in his career. That was in 2017 when the Rockies lost a sudden death wild-card game to the Diamondbacks. He’s coming from an Angels team that hasn’t been a contender all year.

“I was looking forward to feeling that again,” he said. “That playoff competition feeling. I’m in the right place and I’m really excited for it.”