The Phillies’ Dylan Covey has a 2.08 ERA in July and August. Here’s why he’ bullish about his future.
The reliever has played for five organizations and in Taiwan. At 32, he feels he is becoming a complete pitcher.
Dylan Covey’s Phillies tenure did not get off to the best start. He allowed five earned runs in a two-thirds of an inning in a May 28 game against Atlanta. He posted a 5.68 ERA in the month of June. But over the months of July and August, Covey has seemed to hit a stride.
Hitters were batting .338 against him in May and June. Over July and August, they are batting .245. Covey has posted 2.08 ERA over that span. It’s not perfect. He’s striking out fewer batters over the last two months than he did in the first two, and has seen his walk rate creep up. But he feels as if his arsenal is as complete as it has ever been, thanks to an atypical journey and some help from the Phillies’ pitching staff.
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Covey has played in five big league organizations. From 2021-22, he played in Taiwan. But along each stop he has learned more about himself as a pitcher.
He looks at his sinker as an example. He used to throw it all the time, earlier in his career, especially to lefties. Hitters were expecting it. The Chicago White Sox, who claimed him off waivers from the Oakland A’s in 2016, told him that it wasn’t a good pitch and to stop throwing it.
They asked Covey to replace his sinker with his four-seam fastball. He changed his arm slot so he was reaching up higher. It didn’t feel natural, and it caused him to lose some of his more effective pitches, like his splitter and his change-up.
His time in Taiwan, in that sense, was a godsend. Covey used it to reset and shape his arsenal to be the best it could be.
“Back in 2017, 2018, 2019, I think my repertoire was totally different,” he said. “I think when I went to Asia the last couple of years, I was able to work on things and fine-tune them in a competitive environment that wasn’t like the big leagues.
“So, it’s not like as much pressure, but still able to be in that competitive environment and really fine-tune some things. Be able to pitch in those environments and not have the stress of, ‘OK, if I mess this pitch up, I might be sent down.’”
Covey moved his arm slot back down. He got a feel back for his sinker again. When the Dodgers signed him to a minor league contract in January, he added a cutter. When the Phillies claimed him off waivers from the Dodgers in May, they told him to keep it.
And now, at age 32, after stumbling in the big leagues and minor leagues since 2013, Covey feels as complete a pitcher as he ever has been — and the numbers over the last two months back that up.
There is still room for improvement. Covey is reincorporating his splitter to get more swing-and-miss and plans to start using it in games soon.
“Earlier in my career, that was the pitch where I was like, if you need a swing-and-miss, that’s what you’re going to get,” Covey said.
But overall, the Phillies feel that Covey is progressing in the right direction.
He thinks he relied too much on his sinker earlier in his career, “I threw it all the time. Too much. So hitters were kind of just keying in on it. Even if I was ahead in the count, I was going to throw it at some point, with two strikes. I became too predictable, too reliant on it. And now the fact that I’m able to throw all of my pitches for strikes, behind in the count, ahead in the count, whatever, it keeps the hitters off balance a little more.”
“His stuff is pretty good and he’s throwing strikes,” said manager Rob Thomson. “That’s the main thing. And now they’re working on the secondary pitches and they’ve come along fine. Every time he’s come out for the most part, even the other day when he gave up a run, it’s been three singles that just went through the infield. So he’s getting a lot of soft contact, which is good.”
Extra bases
José Alvarado (left elbow inflammation) will pitch an inning on Tuesday night at triple-A Lehigh Valley and an inning on Friday. … Brandon Marsh (left knee contusion) was running the bases at Lehigh Valley on Tuesday. It’s possible he plays in a game at triple A on a rehab assignment soon. There is still no timetable for his return.