Phillies Notes: De Fratus accepting of long-man role in bullpen

SAN FRANCISCO - A week to 10 days ago, Phillies interim manager Pete Mackanin sat down with Justin De Fratus and explained he would be used in longer spurts, in relief appearances lasting potentially as long as three innings.

De Fratus' role has been different most of the season - last year's seventh-inning man has logged nine multiple-inning appearances - but it wasn't until this recent conversation the 27-year-old righthander really accepted it.

"It was like, 'Hey, it's not a demotion, man. It's what we need,' " De Fratus said before Saturday's game against the Giants at AT&T Park. "That message wasn't relayed to me" before.

"Earlier on in the year, you're sitting there going, 'I had a good year last year. I don't think I did anything to lose my job.' . . . A lot of it was immaturity on my part, not understanding exactly the whole big picture. But it was never communicated to me, the purpose of it."

Now that it has been, De Fratus said he is finding value and taking pride in his role as a long reliever. His job, in part, is to help preserve the other arms in a Phillies bullpen taxed by short outings from the team's starters. The result has been more innings and more pitches than any other reliever in the major leagues. His 4.96 ERA is much higher than where he finished in 2013 (3.86) or 2014 (2.39).

De Fratus' 54-pitch outing in Friday night's 15-2 loss gave him 894 pitches for the season, 111 more than the reliever with the next-most, Texas Rangers righthander Anthony Bass, going into Saturday's games. De Fratus is just 32/3 innings off his career high for major-league innings in a season (522/3 last year).

Despite the heavy workload, De Fratus said he feels strong and reports no fatigue. This season he increased his strength program and also cut down on the intensity with which he throws long-toss in an effort to save bullets.

"Is it a role I want to be in for the foreseeable future? No. Definitely not," he said. "I don't want to be in the big leagues to be a long guy. But if that's what's going to keep me here, that's cool, too. I don't care. But obviously there are higher goals, personal goals, for me. But I play for the Phillies. This is what they need right now. It's up to me to find value in that."

Chase Utley (ankle) is "taking it in baby steps," Mackanin said. "I'm sure he's going to hit it a little harder after the all-star break and work his way back to game-ready." The second baseman took light ground balls before Friday's game but was not seen on the field during batting practice Saturday.

- Jake Kaplan