TALL, LARGE FRAME. BROAD BACK, SHOULDERS. WIDE HIPS. STRONG, THICK LOWER HALF. LONG, LOOSE MUSCLES. NO WINDUP, HIGH 3/4. SIDE STEP TO START, HIGH LEG LIFT. HIDES BALL WELL. QUICK, COMPACT, LIVE ARM. SHORT IN BACK. SITS ON 90-91, OCCASIONAL PLUS 92-94. SOLID MECHANICS W/ GOOD BODY CONTROL. FLASHES MAJOR LEAGUE SLIDER W/ LATE BITE, GOOD DOWN PLANE. GOOD MOTION ON CHANGEUP. BIG, STRONG-ARMED PITCHER W/ PROJECTABLE MAJOR LEAGUE OR BETTER PITCHES ACROSS THE BOARD. AROUND PLATE W/ ALL PITCHES, CHANCE FOR PLUS CONTROL.

This, plus an 0.69 ERA with 83 strikeouts through 10 starts at Foothill HS in Santa Clara, California, propelled senior Phil Hughes to number 16 among undrafted prospects according to Baseball America.

The 2004 draft comes around. Justin Verlander goes at number 2, Trevor Plouffe at number 20, Glen Perkins at 22 with a compensation pick (from Everyday Eddie Guardado) and at 23, the Yankees take our protagonist; passing on Gio Gonzalez, Hunter Pence and Dustin Pedroia.

So, the Yanks started to use their new toy. Hughes spent 2005 whipping 86 1/3 innings in Rookie A, bolstering a 2.19 ERA, .86 WHIP and 9.7 K/9. Good stuff. Baseball America responds with placing him at 39 on the Top 100.

2006 comes and he rockets into the FSL with a 1.80 ERA and 30K’s in 5 starts. Yanks moved him to AA. John Sickels wrote this about Phil.

“Hughes is extremely mature for his years, with a reputation for thriving under pressure…His command is outstanding… Hughes has had nagging injuries as a pro, including a sore shoulder in ’05 and a sore elbow in ’04… in the aggregate they lead to unavoidable concerns about his stamina…”

Phil dominated AA with a 2.25 ERA, 10.7 K/9 and 2.5 BB/9 in 21 starts. Baseball America responded by ranking Hughes as the best minor league pitching prospect in the game. Over a great list of: Homer Bailey, Tim Lincecum, Matt Garza and Clayton Kershaw. Kevin Goldstein of Baseball Prospectus raved about his 92-96 MPH Fastball, major league quality movement and nearly flawless mechanics but was quick to point out, Hughes has not stayed healthy over a full season.

Hughes made his MLB debut in April of 2007, giving up 6 hits and 2 runs. He notched his first win in Texas in his next start, no hitting the Rangers, whose first 7 batters had all ended the season with an OPS+ over 100, AND Nelson Cruz. Unfortunately, Phil pulls his hamstring and has to leave the game. He did not return until August, showing a 6.40 ERA in that month. However, he found his stride back in September, pitching a 2.73 ERA and earning some playoff exposure.

2008 comes. This year was the year Hughes was going to come out and show that he was the best prospect in baseball; right? How bout a 6 word memoir.

9.0 ERA, 6 starts, fractured ribs

Okay so what he couldn’t stay healthy? It’s a new year! 2009! He’s back in the rotation after Spring Training. What is that? Is that the ice cream truck I hear? Alright Phil, what do you want? I’m sorry what did you say, you want rocky road?

5.45 ERA into June. A slow start at the very least. Hughes gets bumped to the pen, setting up Mariano Rivera. Turns out, he did that pretty well. The best starting pitching prospect in baseball setting up the best closer in baseball; and it worked. Hughes pitched a 1.40 ERA and batters only hit .172 against him. In 44 games. Things were looking good for the Yankees, who leveraged their success over the success of Phil Hughes’ career. The playoffs came and Phil served a meatball pie of a 8.53 ERA in 9 games of work. Nonetheless, the Yankees won. Phil Hughes was a world series champion, but was he a starter?

The Yankees put him back into the rotation for the 2010 season, boasting a 2.71 with 68 strikeouts in 11 starts. His OPS against was a .577. It seemed like Hughes was starting to become the Ace he was expected to be. Hughes started to slump once June began but, his earlier play garnered him a trip to the 2010 All Star Game.

Coming back from the break, Phil started 18 games, to a 5.15 ERA with 21 Home Runs, but it’s the Yankees, so he still recorded a 10-7 record.

Okay, Okay, so what, he pitched a career high amount of innings and went 18-8? How can you be upset with a 4.19 ERA?

2011. 3 Starts. 19 Hits, 16 Runs, 4 Home Runs, 13.94 ERA. The Yankees shut him down due to shoulder fatigue. He made 11 more starts going for a 4.55 ERA, but was very inconsistent.

2012 wasn’t much better, going 5.64 in the month of May. Hughes went through a long streak of 12 consecutive starts giving up at least on home run. Not encouraging in the least.

However, baseball is a stupid sport.

June 3rd, Hughes pitches a 4 hit complete game against the Tigers. 22 more starts with a 3.70 ERA over that span. Don’t look at the 35 Home runs against.

2013, contract year. 5.19. -0.9 WAR. 4-14. 1.5 HR/9. Hughes earned a reputation of getting a count to 0-2 and either walking the batter or giving up a hit. His season was so bad the Yankees didn’t even give him a qualifying offer for 14.1 mil.

Enter Terry Ryan.

“He probably wouldn’t be sitting here if he had an average year. So maybe this is a good omen for us” -Terry Ryan on Phil Hughes

The Twins had the worst collective ERA in the major leagues in the 2013 season, and Ryan set out to fix that. Phil Hughes and the Twins penned a 3 year, 24 million dollar arrangement. Hughes and the Twins thought that Hughes would have a much better time pitching in a ballpark more fit for pitching like Target Field as apposed to the hitters Chuck-E-Cheese known as Yankee Stadium. Hughes was only 27 and the Ryan’s were ready to take a med risk high reward chance on him.

Really, he wasn’t bad at all. Pretty good actually. 16-10 on a god awful Twins team with a 3.52. He had over 200 innings pitched for the first (and only) time in his career. He kept his home run tallies down to 16 on the whole year. He set a league record in strikeout to walk ratio with a BLAZING 11.63. He even finished 7th in AL Cy Young voting.

The Ryan’s had felt that they found their guy.

So they paid him.

Christmas 2014, Hughes and Ryan re-structured the contract. Instead of 8 million a year for the next two seasons, he inked in a deal that paid him 1.2 million more for the remainder of the existing deal, and 4 million more than that for 3 seasons after. Like this:

OLD DEAL

2014: 8MM

2015: 8MM

2016: 8MM

NEW DEAL

2015: 9.2MM

2016: 9.2MM

2017: 13.2MM

2018: 13.2MM

2019: 13.2MM

And really, at this point how can you blame the Ryans for being excited? He pitched himself into a 6.1 WAR that was tied with David Price and John Lester; elite company.

However; the signs were there.

Hughes never pitched two consecutive healthy seasons, and his first time getting near 200 innings, he had an awful next season. Also, Phil did not really pitch well at all, at home. He had a great 2.78 ERA on the road but at home he pitched 4.25.

Phil got the nod on Opening Day 2015 over shiny new Free Agent Signing Ervin Santana (who was soon banned 82 games for failing a drug test).

Hughes only slung 155 innings due to, you guessed it, intermittent injury. The 29-year-old pitched to a 11-9 record, 4.40 ERA, 5.4 K/9 (down drastically from 8.0 in ’14), and 29 home runs, 1.7 per 9 innings pitched. The anxietal roosters had come to hatch; Phil Hughes could not keep the ball inside the park. Hughes had one more year until he was to be paid $13,200,000 every year.

2016 comes, Hughes does not look good. at all. 1-7 with a 5.95 in the middle of June.

June 9th, 2016. West Minneapolis. The beginning of the end.

The Twins are losing handily, Phil Hughes comes in, in the bottom of the 9th. J. T. Realmuto is at the plate. Hughes with the pitch, lined back to the mound. J. T. Realmuto’s hit fractured Phil Hughes left femur. His planting foot. Shut down for the season basically. July he has season-ending surgery that takes some ribs out and relieves shoulder discomfort.

2017 starts, Hughes is in the rotation. He starts.. eh. I actually saw him pitch in person and it was not very great. Eventually he had an injury flare up, and was out for the season with shoulder issues. 5.87, 4-3, 6.4 K/9, 2.0 HR/9.

This year, his 3 year extension comes in. Hughes starts season on the DL. The Twins were patient though waiting for him. 7 appearances when he did play, most from the pen. 6.75 ERA, 12 innings pitched, 14 hits, 9 earned runs, 3.0 HR/9. And now, he has been designated for assignment. The Twins have until the 29th to trade or release Phil.

The Hughes Era has ended, and the Twins must swallow 22 Million Dollars because of it. Ho Hum.

On Monday, Hughes tweets:

“Baseball can be a harsh and humbling game. Respect to the Twins organization and fans for always treating me so incredibly well. We will miss you guys. ❤ -@PJHughes45

It’s really easy in sports fandom, to forget that these players are people with complex thoughts, dreams and aspirations. The Battery wishes best of luck to the Hughes family.

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