Continuing to dive into the free-agent reliever pool, we discuss an intriguing option this time, one a tier below Adrian Morejon and David Bednar. Evan Phillips is set to be on the market after only pitching 31.2 innings in the past two seasons. The Dodgers have other free agent relievers that they might favor over Phillips, due to the recent Tommy John Surgery (TJS) in 2025 that has limited innings for Phillips.
In his return from TJS, Phillips returned in the middle of the 2026 season and pitched 26.0 innings of solid relief work. He had an ERA of 3.46, 11.42 K/9, and a 2.08 BB/9 in those innings, which was good enough for the Dodgers to put him on the postseason roster. In the postseason, Phillips had three innings pitched and didn't allow a run. Let's dive into the profile of Phillips in his return from TJS.
The Stuff is Still There for Phillips
The biggest concern with TJS is pitchers losing what made them good in the first place, and for Phillips, he has always had elite stuff. In his return, it seemed that his 4-seam fastball, sweeper, and cutter didn't miss a beat in terms of movement and velocity. In fact, his 4-seam saw an increase in velocity from 95.4 mph in 2025 to 96.9 in 2026 and his sweeper still has a lot of depth.
Across the board, he is throwing harder, with just about every pitch going up a tick. That stuff helped Phillips strike out 31.1% of the batters he faced, which is the second-best tally in his career (with a limited sample size). It also seemed like Phillips was able to control his stuff better as he limited walks with a 5.7% walk rate, which is a career low. To go with that, he generated a ton of chase (35.4% chase rate) and whiff (26.7% whiff rate), which is another good sign his stuff is still there.
His calling card, the sweeper, still gave batters fits at the plate as they only hit it at a .059 average, and it generated a 34.3% whiff rate. In terms of run value, it has been his best pitch during these past two shortened stints, with a value of 2 in both 2025 and 2026. Another stat that shows his stuff is still there is stuff+, as he had an overall value of 116, with his fastball garnering a career-high 116 to pair with his 124 value on his sweeper.
Phillips has always had top-notch stuff, and that has helped him have two dominant seasons in 2022 and 2023. He hasn't quite returned to that form and in 2026 there are some issues with his profile that can't be ignored.
The Long Ball and Hard Hits
Despite plenty of positives in 2026, Phillips bane was the long ball this season as he had an HR/9 of 1.73, by far his career worst tally. He had a bad combo of allowing a ton of barrels (16.7% barrel rate), hard hits (39.4% hard-hit rate), a low groundball rate (31.8%), and having an average launch angle of 21.8 degrees.
His batted ball profile shows that he limits line drives at 16.7%, but his 51.5% flyball rate caused some issues. Pair that with a career-worst 14.7% HR/FB rate, and it makes sense why the long ball gave him issues. Now, for some added context, he gave up five total HRs in 2026, with four of them coming in his first month of action back from TJS. The issue is that all five of those HRs were deemed as "no-doubters" which is a tad concering.
So, Phillips was really good at getting Ks, limiting BBs, but when contact was made, it was more than likely loud contact, and while it mainly hurt him early in his return to action, it is a concern for teams to look at when pursuing him.
Conclusion
Phillips is an intriguing free agent with his high overall stuff and past track record. He has shown to be a high-leverage reliever for a couple of seasons and still has the makings of one if he can get back to limiting hard hits. This is one reliever to keep an eye on for the Royals, given the track record and the fact that he won't garner top dollar in the market. Spotrac has his market value set at $8.9 million, which is a fair amount less than Bednar and Morejon's projected value and probably more in the ballpark of what the Royals want.
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