July 31, 2025
After months of anticipation regarding how the Phillies would patch a frustrating bullpen to gear up for a pennant race, President of Baseball Operations Dave Dombrowski made his most significant midseason trade since taking over the Phillies, sending prized catching prospect Eduardo Tait and resurgent starting pitcher Mick Abel to the Minnesota Twins for Jhoan Duran, one of the sport's elite closers powered by a triple-digit fastball and nasty splitter.
Duran, 27, has been a stellar reliever since his dominant rookie season in 2022. Things only went up from there, as the righty was named Minnesota's closer and ran with the opportunity. Duran has amassed 223 major-league appearances, posting a pristine 2.47 ERA and 1.10 WHIP while striking out nearly four batters for every walk he issued.
Between Duran and the signing of 40-year-old veteran David Robertson, the Phillies appear satisfied with the work that has been done to fortify their bullpen, as Dombrowski told reporters in Chicago on Wednesday night that he expects the team to be done adding relief pitching while continuing to survey the market for help in other areas.
No one player can fix an entire array of bullpen woes on their own, and there is no doubt that the package of Tait and Abel is a steep price to pay for any reliever. But it is hard to find a bigger upgrade in any bullpen market than Duran, who very well may be the best reliever traded at this year's deadline — and comes with two more years of control after this season ends. But just how dominant has Duran been this season and in his career? The numbers paint a compelling picture:
Sometimes the simplest statistic can tell the best story. Duran has done an extraordinary job of preventing runs on the mound for his entire major-league career; a blip last year (3.64 ERA) is the only time in his major-league career his ERA has cleared 2.50. His consistent dominance from the outset has been remarkable.
Duran's ranks among relief pitchers with at least 200 innings pitched since the beginning of 2022 are as follows:
| Category | Duran | Rank |
| ERA | 2.47 | 7th |
| FIP | 2.77 | 5th |
| GB% | 63.2 | 2nd |
| WHIP | 1.10 | 5th |
| K/9 | 11.25 | 10th |
| K% | 30.6 | 8th |
| BB/9 | 2.85 | 16th |
| B% | 7.7 | 16th |
| HR/9 | 0.65 | 9th |
| Fastball velocity (miles per hour) | 101.0 | 1st |
By just about any measure, Duran is elite. He has the elite swing-and-miss stuff which the Phillies are desperate for right now and which is typically the driving force behind this kind of sustained success. But he has that electric stuff without shaky command. It is a recipe that is as marvelous as it is rare.
So much of the battle is here. Duran is having far and away his best season in the majors in terms of keeping the ball in the yard, but it has always been one of his greatest strengths. Duran never allowed more than 0.9 homers per nine innings with the Twins, but that figure is down to 0.2 in 2025.
No pitcher can put up a zero every single time, and no pitcher is immune to mistakes. But Duran's overwhelming arsenal gives him a tremendous margin for error in that, even if he does not locate a pitch properly, it will be hard to do serious damage on it. Naturally, the only player to hit one out against Duran this season is a pretty good one:
Shohei Ohtani homers in 4 straight games for the first time in his career! pic.twitter.com/JLKA7euC2p
— MLB (@MLB) July 23, 2025
In the long run, Duran's second-strongest asset — behind his ability to generate whiffs — will be the fact that his stuff is so powerful that it is nearly impossible to hit over the fence.
It is hard to find any red flags within Duran's statistical profile because there are none. Some are concerned that someone throwing so hard so often for so long is more prone to an injury, but as far as performance is concerned, there is nothing indicating he cannot continue to be dominant for years to come.
If there is anything that even vaguely qualifies as a warning sign within Duran's numbers, it would be his relative lack of strikeouts this season relative to years past. Duran still averages more than one strikeout per inning, but his strikeout rates went from nearly unparalleled to merely very good:
| Year | Innings | Duran strikeouts per nine innings |
| 2022 | 67.2 | 11.8 |
| 2023 | 62.1 | 12.1 |
| 2024 | 54.1 | 10.9 |
| 2025 | 49.1 | 9.7 |
The sample remains relatively small, and Duran has carried a larger workload so far this season than he has in prior campaigns. This is not a serious cause for concern, rather something to note for anyone inclined to worry.
If not for Athletics closer Mason Miller and his otherworldly fastball, Duran would still be the velocity king in the majors. He will have to settle for second place now, but it does not make his fastball any less outrageous. He has been just above 100 miles per hour consistently throughout his major-league career, aside from an absurd uptick in 2023:
| Year | Four-seam fastball average velocity (mph) |
| 2022 | 100.8 |
| 2023 | 101.8 |
| 2024 | 100.5 |
| 2025 | 100.2 |
Duran has also developed a knuckle curveball and sweeper as ancillary pitches, and both of them have been extremely effective. But there is one pitch that, paired with the high-octane fastball, makes Duran special...
Duran throws a pitch somewhere between a splitter and a sinker, which has naturally been dubbed a "splinker." And when watching it move, it becomes impossible to imagine hitting it at all:
Jhoan Duran, Gross 98mph Splinker. 🤮 pic.twitter.com/nXQ7eIBlei
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) June 26, 2025
The splinker is not just an outrageous pitch to watch dance in the air, but a tremendous weapon against left-handed hitters. It is the primary reason why, oddly, Duran has been notably better against lefty bats than righties during his time in the majors. He is instantly the Phillies' most trustworthy reliever against every single hitter they will face between now and the end of the season:
| Duran vs. RHB | Duran vs. LHB |
| .229 AVG | .202 AVG |
| .292 OBP | .288 OBP |
| .346 SLG | .280 SLG |
Duran has been especially dominant against left-handed hitters this season, holding them to a .181/.284/.284 line in 2025. Righties are only slashing .258/.309/.270 against him, though, and while he has allowed six more hits to righties than lefties, he has only given up one extra-base hit to a right-handed hitter all season.
MORE: Phillies reportedly one of four 'primary teams' in race for Eugenio Suárez
Just watch and enjoy:
Bad news for Edwin Diaz, there’s a better closer entrance happening in Minny — Jhoan Duran 🔥 pic.twitter.com/5I0nfvD8Lh
— Razzball (@Razzball) May 4, 2024
