The Phillies have re-signed right-hander Nabil Crismatt, according to Francys Romero of BeisbolFR.com. The veteran righty opted out of a separate minor league pact with the Phillies a few days ago.
Crismatt, 30, has been a reliever for much of his minor league career but the Phils have been utilizing him as a starter this year. He made 15 Triple-A starts before opting out of his deal last week, logging 80 1/3 innings with a 3.81 earned run average. He only struck out 16.3% of batters faced but limited walks to a 5.1% clip. His 39.2% ground ball rate was close to par.
Despite those generally solid results, the Phils haven’t needed him at the big league level. Their rotation is one of the best in the big leagues. Zack Wheeler, Jesús Luzardo and Cristopher Sánchez have been there all year. Ranger Suárez spent about the first month of the season on the injured list but has been healthy for over two months now. Aaron Nola has been on the IL for a while but Taijuan Walker and Mick Abel have gotten the chances to take that spot.
Crismatt decided to see what other opportunities were available to him but has circled back to the Phils. On the one hand, he gets the consistency of staying with the club he’s been with all year, but his path to the big leagues remains blocked. Even if another injury or two develops, the Phils could look to make deadline acquisitions and they also have prospect Andrew Painter making Triple-A starts. Coming up and taking a relief role is perhaps possible but the Phils seems likely to bolster the relief corps at the deadline.
Regardless, Crismatt will presumably do his best for the IronPigs and see what happens. He has thrown 177 big league innings over the previous five seasons with a 3.71 ERA, 21.5% strikeout rate, 7.2% walk rate and 50.3% ground ball rate.
Photo courtesy of Nathan Ray Seebeck, Imagn Images
MERRY CRISMATT !!
Welcome Back, Crismatt.
Was hoping a big deal was coming.
Needle mover.
Happy to have him back – you always need depth, and despite the fact that he cannot break a pane of glass with his fastball he has had a bit of success in the show.
He’s been a horse at Lehigh, innings are starting to get to him ERA has risen each month after a pretty amazing start. If the Phillies are going to trade for rentals, they should try to get a young LH pitching prospect in the deal. We’ve seen what the staff has done with Ranger and Sanchez and Strahm. Like if they trade for Chapman or Refsnyder, see if they can send a position prospect for Brandon Clarke. At least try to get a player or prospect they can groom at AA/AAA – so we don’t have to keep using openers and RP’s to start games at Lehigh – if nothing else.