The Phillies have agreed to terms on a Major League contract with right-handed reliever Blake Parker, Ken Rosenthal and Matt Gelb of The Athletic report (via Twitter). The 34-year-old Parker was recently designated for assignment by the Twins and ultimately opted for free agency over an outright assignment to Triple-A Rochester.
Parker rejecting his outright assignment with the Twins meant walking away from the remainder of his $1.8MM salary, but he’ll now land with the Phils on a new big league pact and immediately jump back onto a roster that is vying for a postseason berth. He’ll also be reunited with righty Mike Morin, whom the Twins designated for assignment and traded to the Phillies earlier this month.
Parker logged a 4.21 ERA in 36 1/3 innings with the Twins but struggled more than that number would indicate. His velocity dipped to its lowest mark since 2014 (91.5 mph average fastball), and he averaged four walks per nine innings pitched — the worst mark of his career excluding a small 17-inning sample in 2016. Parker’s overall strikeout rate, swinging-strike rate and first-pitch strike rate were all down from his 2017 peak with the Halos, and he gave up far too much hard contact; Statcast put his 42.9 percent opponents’ hard-hit rate in just the 10th percentile among MLB pitchers and felt that he was actually fortunate to escape with a .246/.331/.442 opponents’ batting line (based on the quality of the contact he allowed).
All that said, Parker has a decent big league track record and plenty of high-leverage experience, making him a logical fit for a Phillies bullpen that has been torn asunder by injuries in 2019. In his last 170 MLB innings, Parker has a 3.18 ERA with 10.1 K/9, 2.7 BB/9, 1.38 HR/9 and a 40.7 percent ground-ball rate. Much of that production came during the aforementioned career year in 2017, but there’s minimal downside to the Phillies taking an inexpensive look at Parker as a means of helping to patch a beleaguered relief corps.
Parker has fewer than five years of Major League service but will soon cross that threshold. As such, if he acquits himself well in his new environment, he can be controlled through the 2020 season via arbitration.
I know its not a trade but this trade deadline is kinda boring so far….
You do realize like 75% of the trades happen ON the deadline day, right?
It’s never been that way in the past. Yes, there are a lot of deals on deadline day, but usually they are the filler type players. The big names usually move in the week or so before the deadline.
I agree. I mean I don’t need it to be as active as the NBA was this month. But it’s not asking too much for 1 or 2 really big names to be on the move. And no, I don’t consider Marcus Stroman a really big name. He’s a good pick up, but at the trade deadline, if him going to a non contender is the biggest trade, then why even bother?
Here’s a really big name: Jarrod Saltalamacchia
July 31, 2007: Traded by the Atlanta Braves with Beau Jones (minors), Elvis Andrus, Neftali Feliz and Matt Harrison to the Texas Rangers for Ron Mahay and Mark Teixeira.
July 31, 2010: Traded by the Texas Rangers to the Boston Red Sox for a player to be named later, Chris McGuiness, Roman Mendez and cash. The Boston Red Sox sent Michael Thomas (minors) (August 14, 2010) to the Texas Rangers to complete the trade.
Teams arent just going to make trades for your enjoyment. Too many teams think they have a shot this year and the sellers dont really have anything notable to sell. Add that with the sellers being stingy and you have a slow deadline.
Context is important
So maybe the addition of a second wild card team has diminished the movement.
I think so. Too many teams still believe they are in it. When you couple that with WC hopeful teams refusing to sacrifice talent for a 1 game playoff, this is what you get. It just is what it is.
The wife and I were talking about it. They should make the WC a best of 3 series with the #1 WC team getting the first 2 games at home. Continue on with the rest of the playoffs as currently constructed. Take 2 games out of the regular schedule to keep all the dates in line.
Why not? The whole concept of pro sports is to do things for the enjoyment of your customers.
They have had the second wild card for almost a decade now. It hadn’t diminished the movement until this year.
+hiflew
The core appeal of pro sports is to see the best athletes compete against one another. Thats where the main source of enjoyment comes from. Trades are cool and all but a team wont just throw caution and common sense by the wayside for giggles. They run a business where the profitable enjoyment of their customers comes from the success of their team. Thus, teams make trades/acquisitions/roster changes in an attempt to put a winning team on the field (whether it be in the present or future) and not because it makes deadline week less boring to you. They wont just make a trade for the sake of making a trade and giving you an article to read. It has to make sense for them as they attempt to put the best product on the field. Even trade happy GMs like Dipoto have this in mind.
Thats why.
Get ready for a long time in between pitches, walks, and a lot of hard contact Phillies fans
i dig this move.
Until you see him pitch
Hahaha have fun with that one Phillie fans….not a more frustrating pitcher to watch than this guy. Wait until you see his mound antics…hangs his arm like kimbrel, then shot puts the ball away from him before pulling it back in and beginning to shake back and forth before bouncing the ball in front of the plate…..good luck!
I do not know you personally but I would like to know what you do to make more money than this guy? And if you are a major-league pitcher then you have my sincere apologies.
I think it’s Grant Balfour, but the name was already taken.
Felt this one coming. No way was Parker not getting scooped up.
Any reliever with a pulse is going to get scooped up.
I would have assumed either Cubs or Marlins would get Parker. I guess the Phillies also need bullpen help. The Giants and Astros are pretty much the only two teams that don’t have some sort of bullpen difficulties as of right now. The trade deadline is hopefully going to be fun.
Why are you thinking Marlins, if you don’t mind my asking.
dont see why not. contrary to what the twins fans say, id argue he would help this bullpen.
I agree, I remember reading the article about his DFA and it seemed as though the Twins really didn’t want to part with him.
He’s better than what the Phillies currently have outside of Neris (who’s overexposed) and Pivetta (if he keeps pitching the way he has since his move to the pen).
Probs not… Parker’s Post All Star Break ERA was a dismal 6.75….
thats because during his last outing he allowed 4 runs. the other 4 games prior to the break he did not allow a single run.
So the Twins dumped him cuz of 1 bad outing?? It had been building Pre All Star Break as well… This was just the final straw.
Phillies are just a land fill for bad Twins pitchers…
ERA with so few innings is virtually meaningless. As a human being, Parker is a good guy, But he allows too many HRs, doesn’t miss enough bats and walks too many.
As the 13th man on a pitching staff that can be shuttled up and down, he has value. Other than that, he really doesn’t.
Well, he can’t be shuttled up and down.if he had options, the twins would have used them
You are not wrong. If you have a major league contract, and get paid a major league salary, why shouldn’t there be allowances in the contract that allows players to be shuttled to AAA without being exposed to waivers.
Isn’t Parker is getting hurt by this? Doesn’t this make his services less valuable?
Why are the Phillies the garbage pale for the rest of the league?
I HATE YOU KLENTEK AND MCFAIL!!
Then go root for another team.
The crying. Stop it.
There’s no crying in Baseball!!!!!!!
oh please. just like the fans on the radio who claim thet arent trying. they’ve signed Smyly, Parker, and LoMo, traded for Vargas, Pirela, Bruce, and Morin trying to hope for something to stick. perhaps its bargian hunting, but theyve done a terrific job getting loads of talent for almost nothing, and there’s still 24 hours left pre-deadline.
I remember when Pat Gillick picked Scott Eyre out of the Cubs scrap heap in 2008. Turned out pretty well for the Phils if I remember right. I bet Coach Him completely forgot about that one (but complained about it in 2008 too).
A bit of an overreaction, imo. I think fans like you think only in terms of over-the-top trades. You can certainly land better guys, but then you have to damage your long-term chances. As a RS fan, I’d prefer to give up two low=level guys for Cashner, than to give up someone like Casas for someone like Wheeler.
Stay calm Phillies fans. This is not a huge move, but why not? It could help. It may not. There may be more to come.
How weird that the Twins’ castoffs (Parker, Morin, Mejia) are being picked up by other teams. The Twins only cast them off because their bullpen was and is one of the worst in baseball. I’m reminded of that famous quote by Plato, “What the hell is going on here?”
They’ve been casting off okay pitchers and now desperately need bullpen help. It’s very odd.
Twins bullpen is 6th in the league in WAR
OKay relievers that cannot hold a 9-5 lead in the 8th….
Just shows how bad all bullpens are.
Probably not the last DFA Twin to join the Philly bull pen this season.
Where’s Big Sexy?????
Parker is a walk-off-homer specialist. Phils can plan on a couple extra loses if using him as a closer.