The Phillies give pitcher David Buchanan ‘a chance for me to complete my story’

Phillies pitcher David Buchanan with catcher Garrett Stubbs in Clearwater, Fla., on Thursday.

CLEARWATER, Fla. — A few weeks ago, David Buchanan was dropping his son off at school when he got an unexpected phone call. It was his agent, Keith Grunewald, who told him that the Phillies wanted to sign the 34-year-old right-handed pitcher to a minor league deal. He didn’t need much time to deliberate.

“That’s where I want to go,” he said.

It felt fitting. Buchanan and his family live in Allentown. His in-laws are Phillies fans. But beyond that, there was a unique pull he felt to the organization. The Phillies drafted him in 2010. They gave him his first taste of the big leagues in 2014. They released him in 2016, which was tough at the time but helped Buchanan learn some important lessons.

“This was a chance for me to complete my story,” he said. “Do it all over again, from a completely different vantage point.”

A lot has changed over the last eight years. The Phillies broke their 10-year playoff drought with a trip to the World Series in 2022. Buchanan was playing in Asia at the time. After he was released, he signed with a team in Japan. He was reluctant to go, because he felt capable of pitching in the big leagues, but came to love it. In 2020, he and his family moved to Korea, where he pitched for the Samsung Lions for four seasons.

It was there that Buchanan improved his command and saw his velocity tick up, but it was also where he found his identity. He realized that it wasn’t tied to baseball. It was tied to who he was as a father and a husband, a teammate, and a friend. This took him a while to learn. Buchanan still remembers the intense pride he felt when former manager Ryne Sandberg named him the Phillies’ third starter in 2015. That pride quickly turned into fear. He felt intense pressure, as if he had something to lose, and slowly and surely, he did.

Phillies pitcher David Buchanan throws in the bullpen Thursday in Clearwater, Fla.

Buchanan lost his first five starts of the 2015 season. On April 9 against Boston, he allowed six earned runs over three innings. On Aug. 11 in Arizona, he became the third Phillies pitcher since 1900 to allow 11 runs in an inning. He was sent to Lehigh Valley the next day.

“I was doing so many things out of fear,” Buchanan said. “Like, ‘Man, I hope this guy doesn’t get a hit here.’ Or, ‘I hope I don’t walk this guy.’ Or, ‘Man, if I do this, I might get sent down.’ It was all of these negative thoughts, over things that I couldn’t control. I couldn’t control whether I got sent down or not. Or whether the guy hits the ball or not.

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“In Korea, I learned not to get ahead of myself. If I have a bad game, that doesn’t define me. If I have a great game, that doesn’t define me, either.”

There was a freedom that he felt while playing overseas. All of a sudden, Buchanan wasn’t worried about what the front office thought, or what the fans thought. He embraced his role wholeheartedly, no matter what it was, and felt no intense pride or shame in it. That allowed him to find success.

In four seasons with the Lions, he pitched to a 3.02 ERA with 539 strikeouts and 191 walks. He made 113 starts over 699⅔ innings pitched, while also making a few appearances out of the bullpen. His last season, 2023, was his finest: Buchanan pitched to a 2.54 ERA with a career low 5.5% walk rate.

When Buchanan stepped into the big league clubhouse at BayCare Ballpark this week, he did so as a different person. At age 34, he feels better equipped to help the Phillies than he did at age 26.

He doesn’t care if he’s the No. 1 starter or the No. 5 starter, the long man or a depth piece. He is not on the 40-man roster. He knows there are no guarantees about his future with this team and he is fine with that. Buchanan is here to help, and he is confident he can.

“I finally feel like I’m where I need to be, as a pitcher and a person,” he said, “and all of a sudden, I’m right back where I started.”

Extra bases

The Phillies signed right-handed reliever Austin Brice to a minor league deal on Sunday morning, according to a report by The Athletic. … They also signed right-handed pitcher — and former Phillie — Ricardo Pinto to a minor league deal. Both deals include an invite to big league spring training.

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