A no-hitter origin story: How the Phillies’ trade for Michael Lorenzen came together

David Chadd was home Wednesday night, watching the Phillies on television, when his phone rang in the eighth inning. On the other end, the unmistakable gravelly voice of one of his oldest friends in baseball.

“Lorenzen’s got a no-hitter,” longtime manager Jim Leyland said.

“Skip, come on,” said Chadd, a special assignment scout for the Phillies and, like most baseball lifers, wildly superstitious. “You, of all people?”

“Well,” Leyland said, “we’re not there. We’re just watching. And I’m not in the dugout.”

» READ MORE: Pitch call issues, a grip tweak and HOF-bound Vans: Scenes from Michael Lorenzen’s no-hitter

“I understand,” Chadd said. “But I still don’t want to talk about it.”

They laughed and agreed to reconnect when it was over.

Turns out, they could’ve talked all night.

There won’t be another quite like it at Citizens Bank Park this season, even if the Phillies lock up a wild-card spot next month or win a playoff series or two in October. Not only did 28-year-old rookie Weston Wilson homer in his first major league plate appearance and Nick Castellanos slug his 200th career home run, but Michael Lorenzen hurled a 124-pitch no-hitter. The Phillies have existed for 141 seasons; they have celebrated 14 no-hitters.

And it all happened in Lorenzen’s first home start, eight days after the Phillies acquired him in a deadline trade with the Tigers.

It represented a triumph for Lorenzen, of course. And for catcher J.T. Realmuto, who also called then-Marlins righty Edinson Vólquez’s no-hitter in 2017. For rookie center fielder Johan Rojas, too, who tracked down nine fly balls — one-third of the Nationals’ outs — including the final out off the bat of Dominic Smith.

But it was an organizational victory. The Phillies spent weeks formulating a plan of action for the trade deadline. They cast a wide net for pitching depth (and a right-handed hitter, which they ended up not getting) in a market in which the going-for-it buyers outnumbered the noncontending sellers, never more than in the final shopping days before 6 p.m. Aug. 1.

The Phillies identified Lorenzen early. Their interest even stretched back to the offseason, president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski admitted last week, although they weren’t willing to make the starting rotation commitment that he sought in free agency and ultimately received with a one-year, $8.5 million contract from Detroit.

» READ MORE: How Michael Lorenzen pitched a no-hitter in skateboard sneakers

Deciding to target Lorenzen at the deadline — and completing a deal — was the work of boots-on-the-ground scouts, a persistent front office, and even the recommendation of a pitching coach who had a long-standing relationship with the 31-year-old righty. Without each one of those people, Lorenzen’s historic night probably doesn’t happen, at least not with the Phillies.

Based on interviews this week and background information from multiple sources, here’s why the Phillies focused on Lorenzen and how the trade came together.

In this market, the line between the buyers and sellers was often opaque. But the Tigers’ playoff odds, calculated by Fangraphs, peaked at 7.8% when they were 25-26 on May 28. And they went into the All-Star break on a 14-24 slide.

Detroit’s deadline intentions were clear.

Lorenzen represented a marketable asset. Aside from being on an expiring contract, he’s in the midst of the best season of his nine-year career. He completed at least five innings in 14 of his first 15 starts and was named to the All-Star team. The Phillies also liked his versatility. Lorenzen was a starter as a rookie in 2015 and the last two seasons; in between, he pitched mostly out of the bullpen.

The Phillies set out to learn more. They sent a scout to follow the Tigers and attended three of Lorenzen’s last four starts before the deadline, according to director of pro scouting Mike Ondo. (They also saw lefty Eduardo Rodriguez, although his contract status — signed through 2026 but with an opt-out after this season — made a trade more complicated.)

» READ MORE: Murphy: Why Michael Lorenzen’s pitch count was such a concern in his no-hitter

Lorenzen couldn’t have looked better. He blanked the A’s for five innings on July 6, then returned from the All-Star break with 6⅔ scoreless innings in Seattle on July 15 and seven more in Kansas City five days later. The shutout streak finally ended at 22⅔ innings when Lorenzen gave up three runs in five innings July 27 against the Angels.

“At this time of the year, you want someone who’s going good,” Ondo said. “I don’t think we’re looking for a reclamation project at this time of the year. Whoever we get needs to come in and step right into what we’re doing. I think the fact that he was pitching well made it more appealing.”

In 2011, when Dombrowski ran the Tigers’ baseball operations, he made one of his more heralded deadline deals for righty Doug Fister, who had a 2.96 ERA in his final seven starts for Seattle. In 11 games for Detroit, he went 8-1 with a 1.79 ERA.

But pre-trade performance doesn’t always portend success after a deal. So, the Phillies dug deeper on Lorenzen’s resurgence in Detroit.

In preparation for the deadline, Dombrowski asks the scouts to file reports to Ondo on specific trade targets after every game rather than one bulk report at the end of their look. With Lorenzen, a common theme emerged: He simplified his approach to pitching.

Earlier in his career, even when he pitched out of the bullpen for the Reds, Lorenzen frustrated some scouts because he insisted on using six pitches. Rather than relying on his four- and two-seam fastballs, slider, and change-up, he went to his curveball and cutter, even though they weren’t nearly as effective.

But when the Phillies saw Lorenzen last month, he focused more on what he does best, mixing the fastballs with his bat-slowing change-up. His slider also evolved into two pitches, with different speeds and shapes.

“It’s just knowing what I’m going to throw, when I’m going to throw it in the sense of eliminating a couple pitches,” Lorenzen said the day after the no-hitter. “Kind of simplifying my repertoire, change shapes, change speeds, attack the strike zone, and trust the defense. It’s gone my way so far.”

» READ MORE: Phillies’ Michael Lorenzen feels ‘10 percent more sore’ a day after his no-hitter

The difference was noticeable — first to the scouts and now to Lorenzen’s new teammates.

“He’s evolved as a pitcher, for sure,” Realmuto said. “His change-up has gotten a lot better. In my opinion, his slider has gotten tighter. And he’s also got that sweeper that acts as an equalizer to get more swing and miss. When I faced him, he didn’t really have any of that.”

The scouts’ recommendation was strong: Trade for Lorenzen.

Making it happen was another story.

In the days before the deadline, a few starters changed teams, notably Lucas Giolito (Angels), Lance Lynn (Dodgers), Jordan Montgomery (Rangers), Aaron Civale (Rays), and in a whopper, Max Scherzer (Rangers).

The Phillies began discussing trade concepts after Lorenzen’s July 27 start but “didn’t engage” on prized pitching prospects Mick Abel and Griff McGarry, according to Dombrowski. Further, they didn’t talk about Rojas, who has played well since his major league debut after the All-Star break.

But the talks with the Tigers didn’t fizzle, in part because Chadd, hired by the Phillies last November after 18 years with Detroit, kept the conversation going with his former colleagues, including vice president of player personnel Scott Bream.

» READ MORE: Sielski: Lorenzen made the Phillies, the city, and his mother proud with his no-hitter

“I still have contacts in Detroit, and you utilize those contacts in situations like this,” Chadd said by phone. “Ultimately it gets to [general manager] Sam [Fuld] and Dave, and they make the final decision. But you just try to keep conversations flowing, talk through different scenarios.”

A few hours before the deadline, the sides agreed on 20-year-old infield prospect Hao-Yu Lee, a contact hitter who batted .283/.372/.401 with 12 doubles and five homers in 247 at-bats at high-A Jersey Shore.

The Phillies were bullish on Lee, no small sacrifice to rent Lorenzen for a few months. If they had accumulated more depth in triple A — or counted less on getting a major impact this season from top prospect Andrew Painter, who tore a ligament in his elbow in spring training and underwent Tommy John surgery — their pitching needs at the deadline might not have been as pronounced.

But they were thorough in the process that led them to Lorenzen. And if he becomes this year’s version of Fister, it will be another Dombrowski coup.

“It’s a tribute to our scouts that were watching him at that particular time and all the people that were supplying information that he’s the right guy,” Dombrowski said. “David Chadd worked really hard at trying to get this done. It’s quite an accomplishment for the organization and all the work that everybody put into play.”

Phillies pitching coach Caleb Cotham teamed with Lorenzen in Cincinnati in 2016 and coached him a few years later. Before the trade, the front office asked for a recommendation.

“What I told Dave is, ‘There’s a lot of guys I can speak real high of, and I don’t know if I can speak higher than I can speak of Mike,’” Cotham said. “He’s someone I would bet on in a big way.”

Last week, Cotham found a photo of Lorenzen’s change-up grip from 2019 with the Reds. It was subtle, but as Cotham put it, “the fingers were oriented a little different.”

» READ MORE: How Michael Lorenzen sparked Brandon Marsh’s trend of pouring water on his head

The morning after Lorenzen’s Phillies debut — eight innings, two runs on Aug. 3 in Miami — he got a text message.

“Talk me through the grip change,” Cotham said.

Lorenzen’s change-up is his best pitch, according to multiple scouts. It was never better than in 2019, when opponents went 8-for-74 (.108) and slugged .230 against the pitch. And while it has been effective since then (.154 average/.242 slug in 2022; .155/.330 this season), it hasn’t felt quite the same to Lorenzen.

Now he knows why.

“I let Caleb know right when I got here that my change-up’s had like a Band-Aid on it for the past couple years,” Lorenzen said. “I’ve been able to get by, but it hasn’t been my change-up.”

Lorenzen went back to the old grip between starts and used it Wednesday night. He threw 37 change-ups against the Nationals and got eight outs, including three strikeouts.

And when the final out landed in Rojas’ glove, Chadd called back Leyland to talk all about it.

“It was an incredible night,” Chadd said. “I just was happy to be a small piece of the process and be helpful in any that I could.”

» READ MORE: ‘I think I’m going to go deep tonight’: Inside Weston Wilson’s memorable MLB debut with the Phillies