PHILADELPHIA — Matt Strahm will proceed to be no matter pitcher the Phillies want him to be via at the least 2025.
The membership introduced Sunday morning that they signed Strahm to a contract extension via 2025 with a vesting/membership possibility for 2026. Strahm, who’s within the last yr of a two-year, $15 million deal, will make $7.5 million in 2025. The membership possibility is $4.5 million. It mechanically vests at $7.5 million if he pitches 60 innings in 2025.
“Philly simply suits my character,” Strahm stated. “It’s a grindy, gritty metropolis and I really feel like I match that fairly nicely. It’s the Metropolis of Brotherly Love. Inform me once I’m doing dangerous, I ain’t afraid to listen to it.”
Strahm, 32, has been a invaluable piece to the Phillies’ pitching workers due to his flexibility and sturdiness in a number of roles, going 9-5 with a 3.29 ERA and two saves in 56 appearances (10 begins) in his first season with the group. He began final yr within the rotation as a result of Ranger Suárez opened the yr on the injured checklist. Strahm returned to the bullpen in early Could, the place he pitched a number of innings successfully. Later within the season he pitched in additional high-leverage late-inning conditions.
He pitched the ninth inning in Sport 4 of the NLDS, when the Phillies clinched the best-of-five sequence with a 3-1 victory over the Braves.
The Phillies see Strahm pitching nearly completely out of the bullpen this season as a result of they’ve higher beginning pitching depth within the group.
“He’s so invaluable,” Phillies supervisor Rob Thomson stated. “I feel it’s going to be somewhat simpler to deal with this yr. We needed to construct him up, then needed to again him down when he got here out of the rotation. That may be robust on a man. Knock on wooden, it’ll in all probability be somewhat simpler to deal with, handle his innings.”
Requested if he thought of ending the yr with the Phillies and attempting for an even bigger payday in free company, Strahm stated no.
“When’s it sufficient?” Strahm stated.
Strahm stated he informed his representatives to provoke talks with the Phillies as a result of he didn’t need to fear about defending his arm all through the season with free company on the horizon. Now, he stated, he can simply pitch.
“Simply let me do me,” he stated. “I need to throw the ball about as a lot as I can. That’s about it. That’s what makes our bullpen nice. We don’t have guys worrying about roles.”