Tyler Phillips returns to Citizens Bank Park to face the team he grew up rooting for — and the one that traded him away
“All these guys keep telling me, ‘Man, you’re back home,’” the South Jersey native said. “But now, the season home for me is Miami. The emotion is a little bit bittersweet.”
The bullpens at Citizens Bank Park have doors now, allowing visiting relievers an escape from both the elements and taunts from the home crowd. But former Phillie Tyler Phillips doesn’t anticipate using them when he’s in the Marlins bullpen this weekend.
“I’ll probably be outside the doors,” he said Friday from the visitors’ clubhouse. “I enjoy the atmosphere here. That’s why most of those guys over there want to play here.”
Phillips was traded to the Marlins for cash considerations on March 26, but the Phillies are more than just the team where he made his major league debut. Phillips is a South Jersey native and was drafted by the Rangers out of Bishop Eustace in 2015. He grew up cheering for his hometown team.
“All these guys keep telling me, ‘Man, you’re back home,’” Phillips said. “But now, the season home for me is Miami. The emotion is a little bit bittersweet. I still have a job to do, and I have to stay locked in.”
He left five tickets for his family and friends, but won’t be surprised if he knows many more people in the stands. He said most of his friends don’t ask him to get them into the game, since many are diehard Phillies fans who already have season tickets.
“I’m sure I’ll see a lot of people that I recognize‚” Phillips said. “I’m sure I’ll hear some stuff out in the bullpen that catches me off guard. I’m trying to lock in, and [I’ll] be like, ‘How does someone know about that?’”
Phillips had a dream first few starts with the Phillies last year — including a shutout of the Guardians in just his fourth major league appearance — but started to struggle when the calendar flipped to August, culminating in an option to triple A.
Phillips entered spring training with a positive mindset but ended up with the Marlins when there wasn’t a role for him on the organization’s big-league pitching staff. Overall, the change of scenery has done him good. He has a 4.00 ERA in nine innings of relief with Miami, after posting a 6.87 ERA in a starting role for the Phillies.
One of the biggest adjustments in going from starter to reliever is less time spent game-planning. While starters have extensive meetings with their catcher before every appearance, going over how they plan to attack each hitter, relievers don’t have that luxury. Since they may be called on in any situation, the work mostly falls to them to be prepared.
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But Phillips’ starting experience has helped him with that. And Miami has a young bullpen, he said, so they have leaned on each other to find their way.
“[Matt] Strahm told me this last year,” Phillips said. “He said, starters get the SWAT team. You get everything. Relievers, you kind of just get tossed in there to clean it up. And he said just go out there and throw your best [stuff]. So that’s kind of something that I’ve had to learn.”
This series marks Phillips’ first time at the Bank as a member of a visiting team. He has a lot of memories here, from last season and from well before that, when he was a kid watching from the stands. But there is one thing that stands out the most, which still makes Phillips emotional when he recalls it.
“It’s not the fact that I pitched well, it’s not the fact that I had a complete game,” he said. “The things that stand out to me the most was in my home debut and the [complete game], it’s the fact that I got a standing O from the fans. It still chokes me up to this day. That’s something you dream of.”
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Extra bases
Nick Castellanos was back in the lineup Friday after being removed mid-game the day before with a left hip flexor strain. … Brandon Marsh, who sat out on Thursday with a strain behind his right knee, did some running drills on the field Friday afternoon. He did not start Friday,but was available off the bench in an emergency situation. … Ranger Suárez (lower-back stiffness) arrived in Philadelphia late Friday afternoon and will throw a bullpen Saturday. … Taijuan Walker (1-1, 2.30 ERA) is scheduled to start on Saturday against Marlins righty Cal Quantrill (1-1, 5.79).