Before it gets too full!
The call to arms this year brought a lot of faces from Lehigh Valley to the majors this season, but none of them really looked like they had a future with the big club.
Until Max Lazar arrived.
Buckle up, folks. The hype train for another Phillies minor leaguer turning into a solid major league contributor starts here.
2024 season: 11 G, 13 2⁄3 IP, 7 R (7 ER), 2 HR, 3.7 BB%, 16.7 K%, 4.61 ERA (4.19 FIP), 0.0 fWAR
What went right
Listen, it’s all a bit of fluff. Lazar came up from Lehigh Valley as someone the team wanted a look at and he didn’t really do anything to hurt his stock within the organization. The innings that he gave the team weren’t exactly the ones where the team was in peril (0.17 gmLI) so he was just here to soak up some of those innings the team didn’t want to give other arms. We’ve written about it before – it’s an admirable job on a big league staff if one can get that job.
What went wrong
The only blemish on his season was his lack of strikeouts. As you can see above, rarely did he have the stuff to get batters out on his own. He relied quite a bit on his defense to get him out, which in the major leagues is something of a problem. When he wasn’t relying on his defense, he struggled with a platoon split that would make a grown man cry (.188/.212/.438 against RHH vs. .350/.381/.450 against LHH). Both home runs he allowed were by right handed hitters, but that on base and slugging against left handed hitters is a problem.
Still, it’s not as though he wasn’t getting batters out in the minors via the strikeout. Over 43 1⁄3 innings between Reading and Lehigh Valley, he struck out 56 batters. It might be the arm angle he’s delivering from, which would classify as the highest arm angle of any Phillies right handed pitcher who threw at least 10 pitches last season.
It’s funky and probably led to his getting minor league hitters out, but in the majors, funkiness is only going to get you so far. He’ll have to show greater stuff in 2025 if he hopes to stick in the bullpen.
The future with the Phillies
Well, he’s on the 40 man roster for now. That means he’ll see some time in Philadelphia at some point this season. What happens after that is the same story with any pitcher at the bottom of the team’s relief depth chart.
It’s a very simple formula. Perform and the team will let you stay around. Don’t perform and you’ll be headed back to the minors and the next one gets called up.
If Lazar wants to be the one that sticks around, he’ll have to find a few more ticks on his fastball, maybe a bit more spin on the curveball he throws 21% of the time. If I had to venture a guess, the cutter that he has, thrown 17% of the time in 2024, will see an increase while the four seam fastball sees a decrease as a result, a way to get left handed hitters out.