Reliever Evan Phillips ‘glad to be back in Dodger blue’
GLENDALE, Ariz. — It’s like he never left – because he didn’t after all.
“Just glad to be back,” Evan Phillips said, back at his familiar locker in the Dodgers’ clubhouse at Camelback Ranch after a winter spent as a free agent. “It feels like I never left. It felt weird to get all the handshakes and hugs. It’s just another spring training to me. I’m certainly glad to be back.”
Phillips watched from the bullpen as the Dodgers won the 2025 World Series, just an interested observer after undergoing Tommy John surgery in June. Less than three weeks later, he was unemployed. The Dodgers did not offer him a contract before the November deadline for arbitration-eligible players, sending him into the winter as a non-tendered free agent.
“That was something my agent started to brace me for, that final week before the deadline, saying these are kind of the two routes this could go. He laid out the plan for each side of things,” Phillips said. “I didn’t get involved in the details of it but when the Dodgers made that decision, I think it gave them the freedom to go out and do what they needed to do. It’s hard to carry a hurt player with that uncertainty because I was very early on in my rehab plan. That’s where I was just able to lean into that, lean into my throwing program and the ramping up I had to do on my own. When time came to make a decision and sign with a team I was in a better spot to field those calls.”
Phillips had been a free agent before – for two days after the Baltimore Orioles released him in August 2021. The Tampa Bay Rays signed him, then two weeks later, the Dodgers claimed Phillips on waivers and his career path changed dramatically. His successful run in the Dodgers’ bullpen – he had a 2.21 ERA and 44 saves from 2022 through 2024 – made his phone number more popular this winter.
Phillips called it “a very wild ride this offseason” with teams checking in on him early, then “it got quiet for quite a bit.” He focused on his rehab to fend off any anxiety about where he would be making his comeback in 2026. As spring camps opened, he and the Dodgers agreed on a one-year, $6.5 million contract, a slight raise from his $6.1 million salary in 2025.
“It was different,” he said. “It was my first crack at free agency, at least on this side of things. Being a minor-league free agent was probably less attractive to most teams. Yeah, it was different.
“It was nice to gauge interest. Plenty of teams came to kick the tires and check in and see how my rehab was going, how I was feeling. Then when push comes to shove and we started to narrow it down to what we wanted as a player and told my agent what we were going to look for, that narrowed it down too. It was interesting.”
It served as an affirmation too. After false starts early in his career with the Orioles, Atlanta Braves and Rays, Phillips had emerged as one of the most reliable relievers in the National League.
“It was nice to see that I was being measured up to that way, that people sought me out as that kind of impact player,” he said. “I have all the confidence in the world with a new elbow that I’ll be able to get back there, hopefully with a longer runway too. Unfortunately, that’s how the conversation started out last year, that I wasn’t going to be able to pitch like that for too long. Being reconstructed and repaired in there, giving myself some runway for years to come is exciting. It was hard in the moment, but the long-term outlook led me down that path.”
Phillips is still in the first half of the 12-to-15-month rehab that follows Tommy John surgery. He is currently limited to playing long toss a few times a week and could touch a mound for the first time this week just to throw to a catcher standing up. Bullpen sessions are off in the distance with a return to major-league action projected for July or August.
“I’m trying not to set too many expectations at this point. There’s just too many boxes to check along the way,” Phillips said. “I think as we get closer to the bullpens, live BPs, things like that, I’ll have my internal checklist of what I want to do execution-wise, things I think I’m going to need to do to get hitters out when it matters most.
“I’m not too worried about the timeline yet but definitely glad to be back in Dodger blue.”
BATTING ORDER
Roberts indicated he still hasn’t settled on the top of the Dodgers’ batting order. Shohei Ohtani will be back in the leadoff spot and Roberts said he “likes” Mookie Betts as the No. 3 hitter. But he hasn’t decided yet on the second and fourth spots between Kyle Tucker and Freddie Freeman.
THE CATCH
One of the signature moments of the 2025 World Series was Andy Pages’ game-saving, ninth-inning catch in Game 7. The play has been immortalized on T-shirts – and even a Christmas ornament that went on sale before the holiday.
That was news to Pages, who said “this is the first I’ve heard about” the merchandise.
“There were a couple people that reached out and talked to me about it, a couple people that asked me about it (over the winter),” Pages said through an interpreter of the catch. “I’m not on social media, so I don’t really get as many questions about it or many people talking to me about it.”
ALSO
Roberts said he expects Yoshinobu Yamamoto to start one of the Dodgers’ first two Cactus League games – Saturday in Tempe against the Angels or Sunday in Peoria against the San Diego Padres. Shohei Ohtani will DH those days, Roberts said.