Can one pitch change your opinion of an entire season?
2025 stats
66 G, 62 1/3 IP, 2.74 ERA (2.99 FIP), 0.72 HR/9, 27.3 K%, 7.8 BB%, 1.5 fWAR
What went right
For most of the season, Strahm was one of the better
relief pitchers on the team, if not in the game at large. His 1.5 fWAR was 18th among all relief pitchers in the game, not the greatest of overall evaluation tools, but it does show that he was pretty valuable. He showed a better ability to get batters to chase pitches and he was one of the best to miss the barrels on bats. There weren’t really stretches in his season where he didn’t look as though he could get big outs and for a reliever, that’s a remarkable talent, to be able to stay consistent in a 162 games, especially one called on as much as Strahm is.
What went wrong
One pitch to Teoscar Hernandez.
That was all it took to suck the life out of the Phillies this past postseason. They were riding high in Game 1 of the NLDS, shutting down Shohei Ohtani, scoring a few runs off of him and it looked like they were going to secure a pretty hard fought victory in the series.
Then Strahm missed his spot.
Does that derail what was actually quite a successful season for Strahm? It shouldn’t. Even if there were times when his appearances got a little, pardon the pun, hairy, he still got that job done when the team needed him to.
But there are a few things to keep an eye on once the curtain rises on 2026 when it comes to Strahm’s performance. His velocity dipped by almost a full mile an hour. His whiff rate dropped rather significantly. His groundball rate, never really that good to begin with, is now in the first percentile in the entire game. Those are ingredients that he may not want to keep mixing together if he can prevent it.
The future with the Phillies
The Phillies finally have their closer at the end of games in Jhoan Duran. It makes building out the rest of the bullpen a bit easier since they’re basically looking for specific roles to fill. Rob Thomson likes to use his pitchers in different spots depending on what the situation calls for. Strahm has filled several of these roles capably: fireman, LOOGY specialist, closer. He has been one of the better relievers in the game these past few years and doesn’t look like he’ll slow down. He’s only under contract for 2026, so beyond that year is in question, but while he remains in Philadelphia, look for him to continue to be one of the trusted arms Thomson calls upon when the game is on the line.
