CARROLLTON - Sam Coonrod, a native of Carrollton who was drafted by the San Francisco Giants in 2004, was traded on Saturday by the Giants to the Philadelphia Phillies in exchange for right-handed pitcher Carson Ragsdale.
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Coonrod, a hard-throwing pitcher, is expected to give a boost to a Phillie bullpen that ranked at the bottom of most of the National League In statistics culled from the Major League Baseball website, Coonrod's four-seam fastball averaged 98.4 miles per hour, fourth fastest in the big leagues in last year's abbreviated season.
Coonrod and lefty Jose Alverado, recently acquired from the American League champion Tampa Bay Rays, will provide a badly needed one-two punch for Philadelphia, who finished third in the National League East Division with a 28-32 record, seven games behind the division champion Atlanta Braves.
Coonrod has pitched for two years in the Major Leagues, coming up in 2019 to the Giants, and in his rookie year, had a 5-1 record with a 3.58 earned run average in 33 appearances for San Francisco. He missed much of the 2020 season with a muscle strain, but returned in September to record his first three career saves for the Giants before finishing the season on the injured list, due to a shoulder strain. Last season, Coonrod was 0-2 with a 9.82 ERA in 18 games, striking out 15 batsmen.
In his two years with the Giants, Coonrod had a 5-3 record with a 5.74 ERA in 51 games, striking out 35 in 42.1 innings pitched. Opposing batters have a .234 average against him.
Coonrod was drafted from SIU-Carbondale in the fifth round of the 2004 Amateur Draft by the Giants, and worked his way up the minor league system before being called up by San Francisco in 2019. The Phillies are scheduled to open their 2021 season at home Apr. 1 against the Braves, and are scheduled to visit St. Louis for a four-game series Apr. 26-29.
