Tyler Phillips has looked like one of those players who was just on the verge of putting it all together before he would return to a lesser shell of himself and you would start to wonder if he was going to ever become a finished product. Possibly the best thing that could have happened to Phillips happened Wednesday when the Phillies traded the right-hander to Miami for those ever popular “cash considerations.”

The 27-year-old made seven starts and one relief appearance in his first trip to the majors last season when he joined the Phillies in early July. His first outing was in relief against Atlanta and he allowed one earned run over four innings while striking out seven batters. After a shaky start against Oakland, Phillips threw six shutout innings in Pittsburgh and then tossed a complete game, four hitter against Cleveland.

That’s where things fell apart.

Phillips struggled in starts against Seattle, the Dodgers, and Miami and was optioned back to Triple-A. He returned for a start in Toronto in early September and was again hit hard. In those final four starts, Phillips was able to pitch just 11.1 innings and gave up six home runs, pitching to a 17.74 ERA in those games, which pushed his season ERA from 1.80 to 6.87 and ended his season.

The same type of inconsistent results in both Double-A and Triple-A plagued Phillips throughout his career with the Phillies and earlier, when he was in the Texas organization after being taken by the Rangers in the 16th round of the 2015 Draft.

The Marlins may be a good landing spot for Phillips. The team is short on arms because of injuries and although he may have struggled at times, Phillips was somewhat of a workhorse over the past two seasons going from 122.2 innings in 2023 to 155.1 total innings between Lehigh Valley and the Phillies last season. The Marlins have not announced whether they will use Phillips at the back end of their rotation or out of the bullpen, but he will be in the majors hoping to figure out whatever has kept him from gaining the consistency that he has lacked in his career.