What Team Is Sam Coonrod On?
Sam Coonrod plays for the Philadelphia Phillies.
The Philadelphia Phillies acquired Coonrod from the San Francisco Giants on January 9, 2021, in exchange for right-handed pitcher Carson Ragsdale.
Farhan Zaidi, the Giants’ head of baseball operations, later stressed that the trade was made for “plain and apparent baseball reasons” and had nothing to do with Coonrod’s remarks about the Black Lives Matter movement.
Under new president Dave Dombrowski, the Phillies made a point of acquiring power pitchers like Coonrod and José Alvarado as they worked to rebuild their bullpen.
While Coonrod’s velocity made him a viable candidate for a bullpen spot, his control raised some worries. Coonrod was pitted against left-handed reliever JoJo Romero for a bullpen spot heading into the regular season.
Despite the fact that their spring training numbers were practically similar, manager Joe Girardi chose Coonrod over Romero because the former threw more strikes.
On March 28, Romero was optioned to the minor levels, giving Coonrod a spot on the Phillies’ roster.
On April 6, 2021, Coonrod made his Phillies debut, pitching two scoreless innings in a 5–3 win over the New York Mets.
Coonrod began screaming at the Cardinals’ dugout on April 28 after reliever Génesis Cabrera hit both Bryce Harper and Didi Gregorius with pitches, and had to be removed off the field by catcher Andrew Knapp.
In a 2–1 win over the Mets on April 30, Coonrod pitched a spotless ninth inning to earn his first save with the Phillies.
On June 25, Coonrod was placed on the disabled list due to an elbow issue; a month later, he blamed the injury on a new slider he had been experimenting with, inspired by Trevor Bauer.
On August 25, Coonrod was activated from the injured list.