Phillies trade for submarine pitcher with dominant strikeout rate

Billy Heyen

Phillies trade for submarine pitcher with dominant strikeout rate image

They don't make too many pitchers like Nolan Hoffman.

The right-handed hurler throws with a submarine motion, coming from below the point of parallel to the ground to try and get hitters out. And now, he's the newest member of the Philadelphia Phillies' organization.

The Phillies traded cash to the Texas Rangers on Wednesday to acquire Hoffman.

The 27-year old has yet to make his MLB debut, but the Phillies put him on their 40-man roster. He'll start in Triple-A with Lehigh Valley, but his placement on the 40 suggests he might be up soon.

Hoffman had a great strikeout rate so far this season in the minors at 29% of the batters he faced going down via the K.

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Before this season, Hoffman spent time in the minor league systems of Baltimore and Seattle.

Despite his motion, Hoffman still throws pretty hard. This season, his average sinker velocity is 93.3 miles per hour. He also has a cutter, curveball and changeup.

The Phillies bullpen has an ERA north of 4.50, and it's bottom-10 in baseball. Any chance they can take on improving that is worth it.

And if it also means a sidewinding pitcher gets to take to a big league mound, it'll be that much cooler.

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Billy Heyen

Billy Heyen is a freelance writer with The Sporting News. He is a 2019 graduate of Syracuse University who has written about many sports and fantasy sports for The Sporting News. Sports reporting work has also appeared in a number of newspapers, including the Sandusky Register and Rochester Democrat & Chronicle