The Atlanta Braves announced a three-year, $35 million deal with reliever Evan Phillips on Thursday. Eight years ago they shipped him to Baltimore as a secondary piece in the trade that brought back Kevin Gausman.
That is modern bullpen building in two sentences. Atlanta drafted Phillips in the 17th round in 2015 out of UNC Wilmington, gave him six and a third innings in 2018, then packaged him with Jean Carlos Encarnacion, Brett Cumberland, Bruce Zimmermann and international money for Gausman and Darren O’Day. Now they are paying $11 million a year to get him back.
The Deal
The structure is $11 million in 2027, $11 million in 2028 and $13 million in 2029. No options or incentives have been reported. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported Phillips agreed to donate one percent of his salary to the Atlanta Braves Foundation.
MLB Trade Rumors puts Atlanta’s 2027 commitments at roughly $228 million after the signing, up from about $217 million.
Why Pay This for a Pitcher Coming Off Tommy John
Phillips is 32 and spent 13 months rebuilding an elbow. The Dodgers activated him on July 6 after Tommy John surgery in 2025, and he threw 26 innings across 31 appearances with a 3.46 ERA, 33 strikeouts and a 1.077 WHIP.
The surface numbers undersell him. Over his final 14 appearances he ran a 1.46 ERA with 19 strikeouts in 12 and a third innings. He made five scoreless postseason outings. His average fastball sat at 96.8 mph, his chase rate hit a career-high 35.4 percent, and hitters went 2-for-34 against his sweeper.
The four years before the surgery are the real argument. From 2022 through 2025 with Los Angeles he threw 184 and two-thirds innings with a 2.14 ERA, a 29.6 percent strikeout rate and 45 saves in 50 chances. His 2.31 ERA over the last five seasons is the best of any National League reliever with 200 or more appearances.
He has also thrown 18 and a third consecutive scoreless postseason innings, a streak only Joe Niekro has bettered in American or National League history.
Nineteen Days to Spend Before Everything Stops
The collective bargaining agreement expires Dec. 1 at 11:59 p.m. ET, and the widely expected outcome is a lockout that freezes signings and trades the way the 2021 version did. That calendar is why a reliever coming off elbow surgery got three guaranteed years on Nov. 12 instead of a prove-it deal in January.
Atlanta is moving faster than most. Alex Anthopoulos has now added Phillips to a bullpen that already includes Robert Suarez on the three-year, $45 million deal he signed last December, plus Dylan Lee, Reynaldo Lopez and Didier Fuentes. Raisel Iglesias, who closed in Atlanta for five seasons, is a free agent, and this signing makes bringing him back harder.
Who finishes games in 2027 is unsettled. It is probably Phillips or Suarez, and Walt Weiss can sort that out in March.
The Braves Are Not Rebuilding Anything
Atlanta went 94-68, won the NL East and lost the division series to the Dodgers 3-1. One of the pitchers who got them out of that series now works for them.
Eleven million a year for a reliever who missed a full season looks reckless in a vacuum and sensible in a market with 19 days left on the clock. Anthopoulos has watched this bullpen decide Octobers before. He paid the premium rather than find out whether Phillips would still be sitting there on the other side of a work stoppage.
No quotes from Phillips, Anthopoulos or Weiss came with the announcement. The $35 million says it clearly enough.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
