Jeremy Hellickson named Phillies opening day starter
KISSIMMEE, Fla. - When it came down to deciding the rotation order for a rebuilding team that could lose 100 games, the Phillies prioritized experience over youth. The fact that the Phillies open the season on the road factored into it, too.
And, if the best-case scenario unfolds, the team's opening-day starter could be pitching for another team by July for the second straight season.
Jeremy Hellickson will pitch opening day for the Phillies on April 4 in Cincinnati. It is not Aaron Nola, Phillies manager Pete Mackanin said Wednesday, because the team would like him to pitch the home opener at Citizens Bank Park on April 11.
"That's the main thing," Mackanin said.
The coronation of an opening-day starter is nothing more than a symbolic gesture. Hellickson, 28, was acquired in a trade with Arizona last winter and has never started the first game of a season. He is not an ace, but he is a veteran of six major-league seasons and a former rookie of the year.
The Phillies hope he pitches well enough in 2016 that a contending team trades for him in July. Hellickson, a free agent at season's end, has major financial implications on a consistent performance.
"I mean, I'd be lying to you if I said I don't think about free agency, but I don't think about it a lot," Hellickson said. "It's definitely an opportunity. I couldn't ask for a better situation to come into."
He is the first Phillies pitcher not named Hamels, Halladay or Lee to start an opening day since Brett Myers in 2009. Hellickson's 49 career wins are the fewest for a Phillies opening-day starter since Robert Person in 2002.
"Nobody is better than the next guy as far as we're concerned," Mackanin said. "Hellickson has experience. He's been pitching really well, so we'd like him to be the opening-day starter."
After Hellickson and Nola start against the Reds, Charlie Morton is slated for the third game. The rest of the rotation is still undecided; Jerad Eickhoff will be somewhere in it.
Nola, 22, would have been the Phillies' youngest opening-day starter since 1906, when 20-year-old Johnny Lush pitched against the New York Giants at the Baker Bowl. Robin Roberts, 23, started opening day in 1950 against the Brooklyn Dodgers.
Mackanin made one more proclamation Wednesday: The Phillies will not employ a six-man rotation to start the season. The fifth spot will come down to Vince Velasquez or Adam Morgan. The reason, Mackanin said, is for other roster implications. An extra starter means one fewer bench player or reliever.
The Phillies, as currently constructed, cannot afford that.
"In the National League, if you pinch-hit in the fifth inning that leaves three guys on the bench and two are limited, so we can't afford to do that," Mackanin said. "We'd like to do it, I mean I'd like to have a six-man rotation, but it's just not practical in the National League."
Hellickson has a career 3.94 ERA in 142 games (135 starts). He made 27 starts for the Diamondbacks in 2015 and posted a 4.62 ERA. He will make $7 million this season.
When he was traded last November, he said the last thing on his mind was a potential start on opening day.
"It's definitely a huge honor," Hellickson said. "I've been a part of five opening days now. Just the atmosphere of standing on the line seeing everything, you kind of just think, 'Hopefully I can pitch one of these game some time in my career.' It's exciting, that's for sure."
@MattGelb