Phillies agree to 2019 contract with pitcher Jerad Eickhoff

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Eickhoff will provide rotation insurance to the 2019 Phillies

After reaching a one-year deal with arbitration-eligible reliever Hector Neris this afternoon, the Phillies have now reportedly agreed to a contract with another pitcher as well.

This time it was 28-year-old right-hander Jerad Eickhoff, who missed nearly all of the 2018 season due to a lat injury that had also bothered him early in the 2017 campaign.

A native of Evansville, Indiana, Eickhoff was the Texas Rangers pick in the 15th round of the 2011 MLB Amateur Draft out of Olney Central College in Illinois.

Rising through the Texas farm system, Eickhoff reached the Double-A level. Then at the trade deadline on July 31, 2015, Eickhoff was one of four prospects dealt to the Phillies from the Rangers in exchange for pitchers Cole Hamels and Jake Diekman.

Eickhoff quickly reached Philadelphia, making his big-league debut with the Phillies by tossing six shutout innings at Miami less than a month after the trade. He would make eight total starts over that final month-and-a-half, with the last four of those as seven-inning Quality Start efforts.

As a member of the starting rotation in 2016, Eickhoff went 11-14 with a 3.65 ERA and 1.160 WHIP. He allowed just 187 hits over 197.1 innings across 33 starts that year with a 167:42 K/BB ratio.

During a 2017 season interrupted first by the lat injury and later by an injured finger, Eickoff slipped to a 4.71 ERA and 1.523 WHIP over 24 starts.

Eickhoff made eight starts across three minor league levels as he worked his way back in the 2018 season. Then over three September appearances with the Phillies he allowed 10 hits over 5.1 innings, striking out 11 opposition batters but walking none.

On October 1, Eickhoff underwent carpal tunnel surgery. In her fine piece on that situation, Meghan Montemurro of The Athletic quoted new Phillies pitching coach Chris Young: “…with Eick, it’s how much trust we all have in the person that gives me very little doubt that he’s going to come back and be as good or better than he was."

Jim Salisbury at NBC Sports Philadelphia reports that Eickhoff received a $975,000 deal for 2019. That would nearly double his salary from what he has earned in each of his first three big-league seasons.

Important off-season dates for the Phillies and Major League Baseball

Rob Manfred leads MLB into a big off-season

It has finally arrived, one of the most anticipated Major League Baseball off-season periods in years. Fans of the Philadelphia Phillies have been led to believe that the team will be a major player in the free agent market during this ‘Hot Stove’ season.

As of 9:00 a.m. EDT on Monday morning the contracts expired for dozens of players. They are now free to negotiate for deals covering 2019 and beyond. Their former team has exclusive negotiating rights for the first five days. After that, it’s on to the open market.

The list of available names at this point includes Bryce Harper, Manny Machado, Josh Donaldson, Craig Kimbrel, Michael Brantley, Patrick Corbin, Andrew McCutchen, Dallas Keuchel, and World Series MVP Steve Pearce among dozens of others.

The list of big names could increase by midnight on Halloween, as star pitchers Clayton Kershaw and David Price have until that point to decide whether or not to exercise player options on their contracts. If either or both turns down the option, they would also join the free agent ranks.

A number of players who appeared with the Phillies during the last few years are also available as free agents. That list includes Freddy Galvis, Wilson Ramos, Asdrubal Cabrera, Clay Buchholz, Charlie Morton, and Jake Diekman.

Other names available on the market and very familiar to Phillies fans from their time with the team include outfielder Hunter Pence, starting pitcher J.A. Happ, and reliever Ryan Madson. The latter two own World Series rings from the Phillies 2008 championship team.

Here is an exhaustive list of the important dates to look for as we move through the MLB off-season and into the start of the 2019 season:

OCTOBER 31: Halloween. Okay, okay. Besides candy, the majority of contract options must be exercised by teams or players for the following season. Already picked up were team options on players such as Madison Bumgarner and Carlos Carrasco. Shortstop Elvis Andrus exercised his player option. The big name here is Clayton Kershaw with the Dodgers. He has until the clock strikes midnight after the trick-or-treaters are tucked in bed to make his decision.

NOVEMBER 2: This is the deadline by which MLB teams must tender a qualifying offer (click link for detailed explanation) to eligible free agents. The one-year offer this season would be for $17.9 million. For example, the Nationals could make a qualifying offer to Harper. He could accept and play with them next year on a contract worth $17.9, or decline and become a free agent. If a qualifying offer is made, players have 10 days maximum to make their decision. However, players acquired in mid-season deals cannot have such an offer made. Therefor, the Dodgers cannot make a qualifying offer to Machado. He is automatically headed to free agency.

Phillies are expected to be major players in the bidding for free agent Harper.

NOVEMBER 3: The date on which the full and open free agency period will begin. This would, for instance, be the earliest that the Phillies could formally negotiate with Harper or Machado. It is also the earliest that free agents can sign with a new team, though you won’t see that happen in most instances since the player would need to negotiate a contract first. That would likely happen after entertaining multiple offers.

NOVEMBER 4: Rawlings and Major League Baseball will announce the winners of the 2018 Gold Glove Awards.

NOVEMBER 5: Finalists will be announced by MLB for each of the major awards, including the Most Valuable Player in each league, the Cy Young Award, the Rookie of the Year, and Manager of the Year. Also, the MLB Executive of the Year will be announced on this date.

NOVEMBER 6-8: GM meetings held in Carlsbad, California. Big deals don’t usually happen here, but the groundwork is often laid for those consummated later, including at the later Winter Meetings.

Phillies may still have one final playoff push left in their 2018 season

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Asdrubal Cabrera's addition failed to help Phillies stay in contention

Frankly, I’m tired of thinking in terms of what this 2018 Philadelphia Phillies ball club can’t get done. 

I really don’t think they are a playoff team just yet. But I’ve also always been a glass-half-full guy. So, it’s time to examine the possibilities once again.

Much has been made of the Philadelphia Phillies sudden inability to win a series. They have now lost nine in a row going back to an early-August four-game sweep of Miami at Citizens Bank Park.

What you may not realize is that it was exactly one month ago today that the team’s 2018 hopes had crested. Fans had little reason to suspect what was about to happen next and unfold over this past calendar month.

On Wednesday morning, August 8, the Phillies woke up in Phoenix, Arizona as a first-place team. They were tied in the loss column with the Atlanta Braves, but had played and won three more times. Their lead was at two games in the loss column for an NL Wildcard playoff berth.

The club had defeated the host Arizona Diamondbacks the previous night by a 5-2 score when Nick Pivetta matched Dbacks ace Zack Greinke pitch for pitch. What had been a 1-0 pitcher’s duel was busted open with a four-run rally in the top of the eighth against former Phillies reliever Jake Diekman.

It was a sixth victory in seven games for the team. The lone defeat had come in the series opener on a 14th inning walkoff. The last defeat prior to the winning stretch had been a 13th inning walkoff at the hands of the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park.

The Phillies were winning baseball games and playing good teams tough on a regular basis. And there were signs that the club might finally be scoring runs on a consistent basis, something which had eluded them for much of the season. The Tuesday night victory was the fifth straight in which the club had scored at least five times.

Then on that Wednesday night the Phillies were shutout by Arizona’s lefty ace Patrick Corbin. No shame there. Corbin was an NL All-Star this season and was emerging as one of the top pitchers in all of baseball.

After an off-day the Phillies moved on to San Diego to face the Padres, the last place team in the West Division and owners of the worst record in the entire National League. Once again, they were shut out, this time by rookie Jacob Nix.

Those consecutive white-washings proved to be the beginning of a month-long 9-17 collapse leading up to last night’s opener at Citi Field in New York.

The month of losing had left the Phillies staring up at a three-game deficit to Atlanta in the division and had dropped them four games off the final Wildcard pace with four teams between them and that last-chance playoff spot.

But here we sit on Saturday morning, September 8, and the Phillies are still very much alive. The Braves faced a tough schedule this week, playing the Red Sox and Diamondbacks. They have gone just 1-4 to this point. Atlanta has lost seven of their last 10 overall, nine of their last 14 games.

With the Phillies 4-3 win over the Mets last night coupled with a Braves 5-3 loss to Arizona the division deficit has been cut to just two games in the loss column. There are still 22 games remaining for the Phillies this season, including seven of the final 11 as head-to-head battles with Atlanta.

The Phillies still have not resolved a huge negative issue that has plagued the team all year long. They still are not scoring on a consistent basis. 

Prior to last night the lone Phillies victory of the past week came when the offense erupted for nine runs in Miami. But in the other four games, all losses, the team managed to score just a single run in each.

Management tried to help by bringing in veterans Asdrubal Cabrera, Wilson Ramos, and Justin Bour to bolster the attack and provide greater depth. It really hasn’t helped very much.

Jerad Eickhoff should be a long term workhorse in Phillies rotation

The surprising Eickhoff looks like a long term mid-rotation starter

At the 2015 MLB trade deadline, the Philadelphia Phillies shipped their ace starting pitcher Cole Hamels to the Texas Rangers.

It was a crucial deal for the Phillies rebuilding program, coming as the team was dismantling the 2008 world champions and moving on from a core that had captured five straight NL East crowns.

In return for Hamels and hard-throwing reliever Jake Diekman, the Phillies received a package of five prospects. The Phils also agreed to take on the contract of injured pitcher Matt Harrison.

Those five prospects were the key to the deal for the Phillies. Those players were catcher Jorge Alfaro, outfielder Nick Williams, and pitchers Jake Thompson, Alec Asher, and Jerad Eickhoff.

No disrespect at all to Eickhoff, but he was easily the least well-known of the prospects. But having turned 25 years old just weeks prior to the deal, he was also the closest to being ready to help the Phillies in the short term.

Phils Fans Follow Former Heroes in Postseason

If my Twitter timeline is to be trusted, and with hundreds of Phillies fans, it usually can be, then there remains a great deal of baseball interest among that fan base despite a 4th consecutive season out of the playoffs for the Fightins.

A number of ex-Phillies players are participating in this year's MLB postseason, and that includes a handful of the 2008 World Series championship team.

As most everyone is already aware, both Jimmy Rollins and Chase Utley are now in the NLDS with the Los Angeles Dodgers. JRoll played 15 seasons in a Phillies uniform, Utley played parts of 13 seasons in red pinstripes. They were the starting MIF together in Philly for over a decade.

They are taking on the New York Mets, whose starting catcher is Travis d'Arnaud, the Phils' 1st round pick in the 2007 MLB Amateur Draft. He was dealt to Toronto as part of the package for Roy Halladay in December of 2009.

The Dodgers knew they were acquiring older players who had their best years in the rear-view mirror when they took on Jimmy and Chase. But they got those players specifically for October play, hoping their long, winning experience would help get the team over the top in postseason play. 

That kind of tough, no-fear play was on display yesterday, when Utley's key play accounted for a pair of difference-making runs in evening the series.

Over in the American League, the Texas Rangers hold a 2-0 lead in their ALDS with the powerful Toronto Blue Jays. 

One of the Texas keys has been former Phillies' ace lefty Cole Hamels, dealt to the Rangers at the trade deadline for a 5-player package.

Hamels pitched for the Phillies for parts of 10 seasons before being dealt as a key piece to the current rebuilding process. 

He was 7-1 down the stretch for Texas, with a 78/23 K:BB ratio over 83.2 innings in which he allowed just 77 hits. Hamels got a no-decision in Texas' huge Game 2 win on Friday.

Jake Diekman went with Hamels in that Texas trade, and he really got his act together with the Rangers. 

In 26 games with Texas over the final two months, Diekman recorded 10 Holds with a 2.08 ERA and .169 batting average against. 

In 21.2 innings he allowed just 13 hits, with a 20/7 K:BB ratio. He has pitched 2 innings in both LDS games, allowing no baserunners.

The Blue Jays have Ben Revere in left field. Revere hit .319 with a .354 on-base percentage in his two months with the Jays since his own trade deadline deal. 

In the 56 games that he played with Toronto, Revere scored 35 runs and stole 7 bags. Thus far, in his first postseason experience, he has gone 3-10 with a run scored and an RBI.

In the other ALDS, the Astros have righty Chad Qualls in their pen. Qualls spent 35 largely ineffective games with the disappointing 2012 Phillies. 

They also have Jonathan Villar, signed by the Phils out of the Dominican Republic back in 2008 and traded to Houston as part of the Roy Oswalt deal in 2010.

Playing a more important role in that ALDS should be the lone Royals ex-Phil, and along with Hamels, Utley and Rollins, the only other 2008 World Series hero left in action. That would be reliever Ryan Madson, who made an amazing comeback this season.

Madson, who hadn't pitched in the Major Leagues since leaving the Phillies following the 2011 season, signed with both the Reds and Angels as a free agent. But injuries kept him from returning, and appeared to be ending his career.

But the Phillies' 9th round pick in the 1998 MLB Amateur Draft got it back together with the Royals this year, and has been better than ever out of their pen. 

In 63.1 innings across 68 games, Madson allowed just 47 hits with a 2.13 ERA, 0.963 WHIP, and a 58/14 K:BB ratio.

How crazy would it be for Phillies fans to watch a key World Series game in a couple of weeks where Utley and/or Rollins steps into the box in a key moment against either Hamels or Madson? Now that would blow up Philly-area Twitter for sure.

Mitch Williams Interview

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Williams (center) during his stint as an analyst with the MLB Network

Mitch Williams is one of the most colorful, controversial, and popular athletes in Philadelphia sports history. "The Wild Thing" who heroically shut down the Braves to clinch the 1993 National League Pennant, then became a publicly vilified goat on yielding Joe Carter's World Series-winning homerun just 10 days later.

Williams rose from the ashes of that emotional '93 devastation to eventually be forgiven and embraced again by Phillies fans, and ultimately beloved by them. He did it by never shirking responsibility, and by always displaying openness and candor in handling the situation.

I was fortunate enough to be able to interview the former Phillies closer this week. In our conversation, Mitch showed that he is as feisty, frank, and competitive as ever.

We covered a wide range of topics, from his current internet talk show "Unleashed with Mitch Williams", to last year's incident that resulted in his being fired by the MLB Network, to his opinion on the current Phillies bullpen of Jonathan Papelbon, Ken Giles, Jake Diekman, and Justin De Fratus.

Along the way there were detours to Curt Schilling's Hall of Fame worthiness, his relationship with Lenny Dykstra, and even a more recent run-in with former Phils pitching coach Rich Dubee involving both Diekman and Phillies pitching great Roy Halladay.

Phillies Receive 7 GIBBY Awards Nominations

7 Phillies nominations for 2014 GIBBY's

“Greatness In Base Ball Yearly”, that’s what MLB’s GIBBY Awards celebrate. The awards were begun by Major League Baseball back in 2002. They are awarded for extraordinary performances by players, managers, executives, and others in the game.

For 2014, the Philadelphia Phillies organization has been announced as having nominees in 7 categories. Those are:

BEST PLAY: September 1st, Marlon Byrd makes a diving catch to preserve the team’s combined no-hitter vs. Atlanta.

BEST MOMENT: June 14th, Jimmy Rollins singles for his career franchise record-setting 2,235th hit.

BEST PITCHING MOMENT: September 1st, the combined no-hitter, first in franchise history, by Hamels/Diekman/Giles/Papelbon.

BEST HEROICS: Ryan Howard, for a trio of walkoff hits that came on May 28th, August 5th, and August 10th.

BEST CLOSER: Jonathan Papelbon, who had 39 Saves, a 2.04 ERA, and a 0.90 WHIP, with a 63/15 K/BB ratio, allowing just 45 hits in his 66.1 innings pitched.

ODDITY: Jerome Williams, registered wins against the Oakland A’s during 2014 with 3 different teams – Phils, Astros, Rangers.

'CUT4' TOPIC: Tom McCarthy, June 27th – while broadcasting with the team’s announcers from center field, TMac donned his baseball glove, reached out, and snagged Freddie Freeman’s massive homerun on the fly while still calling the play-by-play.

Voting is conducting by MLB alumni, the media, baseball front office personnel, SABR, and fans. The fans can vote by going to MLB.com/gibbys until 11:59pm on November 21st. The winners will be announced at MLB.com and on the MLB Network on December 6th.