Tyler Phillips Is the Marlins’ Ultimate Swiss Army Knife

What was once seen as a strength due to having ample depth, pitching has recently become quite shaky for the Miami Marlins, largely due to the number of injuries the ball club has had to endure.

Between the injuries sustained by Eury Perez, Janson Junk, and Robby Snelling, the organization has recently found itself in desperate need of starting pitching. Not to mention the struggles of Braxton Garrett in his return to the big-league team after his two-year battle with injuries.

The left-hander is currently back at Triple-A Jacksonville, where he has a 2.15 ERA in 46 innings pitched. Sandwiched in between the two minor league stints were two bad MLB starts that resulted in a 14.54 ERA in only 4.1 innings.

Thankfully for the Fish, they have the benefit of maximizing their pitching talent, and Tyler Phillips has been the most recent example of that.

The Marlins’ Swiss Army knife has been everything the Marlins could have asked for since he was acquired by the team right before the start of the 2025 season. Known in large part for his self-slapping, self-hype move as he exits the bullpen before entering the game, Phillips is making sure he is also known as one of the more useful and versatile pitchers in the league.

A Useful Piece for the Miami Marlins

What he has been able to do for the Marlins so far is reminiscent of what Ronny Henriquez did for the team last year, and it was something we anticipated the Marlins would miss after Henriquez underwent UCL reconstruction in the offseason.

Despite making his debut in 2024, Phillips had been drafted all the way back in 2015 by the Texas Rangers. He was a part of the Rangers organization up until July of 2021, when he was claimed off waivers by the Phillies.

Unfortunately for the right-hander, the debut he had waited so long for did not end as well as he would’ve liked. In 2024, he pitched to a 6.87 ERA in 36.2 innings pitched across eight appearances, seven of which came as a starter.

It was hours before the start of the 2025 season — March 26, 2025, to be exact — the Marlins were able to acquire Phillips for cash considerations after Philadelphia had designated him for assignment after pitching to a 7.59 ERA across seven appearances that spring.

Interestingly enough, despite the struggles, the Marlins were willing to trade for the out-of-options pitcher and keep him in the big-league bullpen. Credit to Peter Bendix and the Marlins’ scouting staff for identifying the potential in Phillips.

To this point in his Marlins career, across 126 innings in the last year and a half, Phillips has posted a 2.43 ERA, struck out 93 batters, and has a 174 ERA+. It has been quite the turnaround for someone seemingly tossed aside.

In his first season with the Marlins, Phillips made one start for the team, which, funny enough, came against his former team.

In that start against Philadelphia on September 7, 2025, Phillips pitched 2.2 innings, allowing one earned run while striking out three. As a whole, the 2.78 ERA across his 77.2 innings last season left the Marlins incredibly hopeful for what he would be able to do for them this season.

Valuable Versatility

What he has been able to do is help make up for the team’s shortcomings in the rotation that have come about in large part due to the injuries.

Three of his last four appearances have come as a starter, where he’s pitched to a 1.98 ERA in 13.2 innings. He’s been just as good out of the bullpen for Miami this year, too, pitching to the tune of a 1.82 ERA in 34.2 relief innings.

His most impressive start was his latest one against the Diamondbacks, where he went five innings of two-hit, scoreless ball while punching out five.

Phillips relies on a five-pitch mix. He throws the sinker the most (27.2%), and the pitch sits in the mid-90s. Then, depending on the handedness of the hitter, his approach changes.

Against right-handed batters, it’s primarily a sinker-sweeper combination, which, uniquely enough, comes from a lower-than-normal arm slot. It’s versus lefties that the arsenal expands to a four-pitch mix derived from his sinker, sweeper, four-seam fastball, and taste-breaking splitter.

Though he separates the sinker from the traditional four-seam fastball, both pitches have sinking action, which pairs well with the sweeper-curveball mix that actually profiles with more vertical movement than horizontal.

This was a big contributing factor to his 55.7% ground-ball percentage last season that ranked in the 93rd percentile, per Baseball Savant.

I had mentioned the arm slot earlier, which is relevant considering he has raised it this season.

He went from a 30-degree arm angle in 2025 to 33 degrees this year. What this has done is create more separation between the five pitches that he’s featured in 2026.

Another significant change has been the uptick in splitter usage, going from 13.6% last year to just shy of 25% this year.

He’s not inducing ground balls as often as he was last season, though he is still well-above average in that department at 47.1%, but his hard-hit rate has dropped seven percent, and his average exit velocity is down 1.4 mph from last season.

Given where the Marlins’ bullpen stood on Opening Day, even after the signing of Pete Fairbanks to be the team’s closer in 2026, Phillips was going to be relied on heavy following the aforementioned injury to Henriquez.

Despite not being named the team’s closer, it was looking like he would be at the top of the list of options in high-leverage situations. Not only has he filled that role, but his versatility as a starter has been crucial for Miami.

Among all of the qualified pitchers on the roster, Phillips posts the lowest ERA of the group with a 1.86. Though the walk numbers have almost doubled with his new role, he has continued to find success whenever he is called upon, regardless of the situation.

If Phillips can continue to build off this start against Arizona and replicate the success he has had this season, there is reason to believe that he will continue to be a significant part of the Marlins’ starting rotation this year, even when Eury and Junk return from their injuries this summer.

Face-slapping antics aside, seeing how Tyler Phillips has been able to positively impact this roster has become quite the watch, and it’s another tip of the cap to the Marlins’ pitching development with how they have continued to revamp the arms in the organization even after the changes to the staff.