How the Phillies have turned around their maligned bullpen by emphasizing specific pitches

ST. LOUIS — Trying to make sense of the Phillies bullpen’s reversal of fortune? Reasons abound, from the emergence of Seranthony Domínguez as a late-inning force to interim manager Rob Thomson’s pattern of deploying relievers against specific pockets of a lineup rather than in a particular inning.

Look deeper, though, and you’ll find that the Phillies have gotten better at optimizing pitch usage to bring about more consistency and, in some cases, greater effectiveness.

“It’s just doubling down on being as intentional with our pitch usage as possible,” said pitching coach Caleb Cotham, who works in tandem with the team’s first-year director of pitching development, Brian Kaplan. “You start looking at usage and you can see this pitch is performing fundamentally better than this pitch. So, let’s explore using it more and see how the hitters react.”

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Case in point: José Alvarado.

Few pitchers throw harder than the Phillies lefty, whose sinker averages 99.4 mph. But his command comes and often goes, with a 14.5% walk rate through his six-year major league career.

The Phillies noticed that hitters tend to chase Alvarado’s cutter out of the strike zone. They increased his cutter usage from 11.3% in 2020 and 16.3% last season to 39.2%. Hitters are 3-for-34 (.088) with 24 strikeouts against it. And since he returned last month from a brief stint in triple A, he has a 1.64 ERA, 18 strikeouts and eight walks in 11 innings, including a 7⅔-inning scoreless streak.

“I would say Alvy is a strike-creator more than a strike-thrower, and he can create a lot of strikes right outside the zone with the cutter, specifically,” Cotham said. “That pitch, it’s top of the charts. It’s one of the better pitches in baseball. There’s not many left-handed pitchers that are even throwing that pitch.”

Another example: reight-hander Andrew Bellatti. After signing the 30-year-old journeyman to a minor league contract in the offseason, the Phillies said they wanted him to throw his slider more often, citing his extreme ability to land it for a strike. Bellatti has turned to his slider 51.3% of the time in his 31 appearances, up from 38.6% last season with the Miami Marlins. Entering play Sunday, hitters were only 13-for-68 (.191) against it.

The Phillies have Nick Nelson throwing more sliders to complement his changeup as a fastball alternative. Connor Brogdon is throwing more cutters. Even veteran lefty Brad Hand has turned back to his slider more often. And so on.

It isn’t a new philosophy. For years, many teams, including the Phillies, have tried tapping into more advanced usage of offspeed and breaking pitches. But the Phillies have gotten better at identifying potential advantages, selling them to their pitchers through data and video, and implementing them.

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“I think you’re seeing examples across the league where, if you have a good pitch, you can use it a whole lot,” Cotham said. “And the cool thing is you tend to just get better at that pitch, too. The more you throw it, the more you can throw it for a strike, throw it to this side of the plate, throw it that side of the plate.

“At the end of the day, fastballs do get hit a little better than offspeed pitches anyway. So, let’s find out where that line is, and let the hitter tell you what to throw rather than what, quote-unquote, the book might say.”

Nick Castellanos notched two hits, including an RBI single, Sunday in a 4-3 loss to the Cardinals. But the Phillies also know they need more from their $100 million power bat.

“I expect him to slug at some point,” Thomson said.

Castellanos has two extra-base hits in his last 21 games and only one home run since May 30. Entering play Sunday, his .376 slugging percentage ranked 120th among 152 hitters with enough at-bats to qualify for a batting title in either league.

But Thomson hasn’t seen the need to give Castellanos a day off to reset. If anything, he cited Castellanos’ 12 hits (11 singles) in the last 10 games as a reason to believe a power surge is coming.

“I don’t see any pressure being built up in him physically with the body language and talking to him and so on,” Thomson said. “I just keep thinking he’s going to break out at some point. He’s shown signs of it. It might not be slug, but he’s getting hits.”

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Thomson on his call to intentionally walk Albert Pujols in the eighth inning Saturday after the retiring Cardinals legend came up as a pinch-hitter: “I told Caleb, I said, ‘I guess I’m taking the bus home tonight.’” The Phillies are staying at a downtown hotel within walking distance of Busch Stadium. ... Lefty reliever Sam Clay, designated for assignment last week, was claimed off waivers by the New York Mets. ... Aaron Nola (5-6, 3.15 ERA) will start the series finale Monday night against Cardinals right-hander Miles Mikolas (5-7, 2.72).