Zach Eflin

BIOGRAPHY

Zachary Adams Eflin was born on April 8, 1994, in Orlando, Florida. He is a pitcher in the MLB.

Following his high school career, the San Diego Padres selected Eflin in the first round, with the 33rd overall selection, of the 2012 Major League Baseball draft. Rather than enroll at UCF, Eflin signed with the Padres, receiving a $1.2 million signing bonus. 

December 18, 2014, the Padres traded Eflin, Joe Wieland, and Yasmani Grandal to the Los Angeles Dodgers. The Dodgers then traded Eflin, along with Tom Windle, to the Philadelphia Phillies. Baseball America named him the 4th-best prospect in the Phillies minor league system prior to the 2015 season. The Phillies invited Eflin to spring training as a non-roster player. Eflin spent the 2015 season with the Reading Fightin Phils of the Class AA Eastern League, and pitched to an 8–6 record with a 3.69 ERA and a 1.21 WHIP (tied for 9th in the league), with 68 strikeouts in 131.2 innings. He was the April 12 Eastern League Pitcher of the Week and a mid-season Eastern League All-Star. He pitched for Team USA in the 2015 Pan American Games, which won the silver medal.

Eflin once again opened the 2018 season in Triple-A Lehigh Valley, but he returned to the major leagues by the end of April. Armed with a new approach on the mound, he recorded career-high strikeout totals throughout the season and spent almost the entire remainder of the season with the big-league club. For the season, Eflin was 11–8 with a 4.36 ERA, and 123 strikeouts in 128 innings. With Lehigh Valley, he was 2–2 with a 4.05 ERA and 15 strikeouts in 20 innings. From 2019 onward, Eflin remained entirely in the major leagues. He began the 2019 season in the starting rotation before being placed on the disabled list on May 31 with a back injury. In 2019 with the Phillies, Eflin was 10–13 with a 4.13 ERA. In 28 starts, he pitched two complete games (leading the National League) and one shutout. In total, he pitched 163+1⁄3 innings and gave up 28 home runs, eighth most in the National League. During the 2018 and 2019 seasons, Phillies manager Gabe Kapler and pitching coach Chris Young advised Eflin to try to be a power pitcher, overpowering hitters with high fastballs and hard-breaking pitches. Although the approach initially showed signs of success, leading to speculation he could be an all-star candidate, he eventually began to struggle before suffering an injury midway through the season and losing his spot in the Phillies' starting rotation. He eventually abandoned that approach, returning to focus on his sinker and not being afraid to pitch to contact during the abbreviated 2020 season. He also, for the first time in his career, became more aggressive in throwing a curveball that became central to his repertoire. He ultimately made 11 starts in 2020, and the Phillies won eight of them; he also posted a career-best 10.9 strikeouts per nine innings to accompany a 3.97 ERA and 4–2 record.

Entering the 2021 season, analysts, coaches, and teammates suggested Eflin could be a candidate for a breakout season near the top of the Phillies' starting rotation. New Phillies pitching coach Caleb Cotham said in his opening press conferences that the Phillies' starting rotation has three potential candidates for the Cy Young Award, which the media has interpreted to mean Nola, Zack Wheeler, and Eflin. Eflin worked to a 4-7 record and 4.17 ERA with 99 strikeouts in 18 starts for the Phillies in 2021.

In the 2022 regular season he was 3–5 with one save and a 4.04 ERA over 75.2 innings in 20 games (13 starts). But later Eflin suffered a right knee contusion and he was placed on the 60-day injured list. After reactivated in September, Eflin was moved to bullpen, and he had a 3.38 ERA over 10 2/3 playoff innings in 10 games, and earned a save in Phillies' series-clinching win over Cardinals in Game 2 of the NL Wild Card Series.