Kaplan changing how Phils develop pitchers

CLEARWATER, Fla. -- Brian Kaplan’s path to the Phillies started more than 20 years ago as a pitcher at Notre Dame.

Kaplan, whom the Phillies hired in November as assistant pitching coach and director of pitching development, had high hopes when he got to South Bend, Ind. He was a highly regarded high school right-hander from Florida. He wanted to be a “dude” for one of college baseball’s best teams. But Kaplan posted a 10.80 ERA in three appearances in 2001.

He never pitched again because he lost feeling in his right hand.

Today, somebody would have identified Thoracic Outlet Syndrome as the cause. Back then, nobody knew much about the condition, so Kaplan's pitching career ended there.

“My arm, my body, it wasn’t working with me,” Kaplan said this week at the Carpenter Complex. “It was working against me. The wheels started turning. I told guys earlier in camp, 'I want to make sure that I give you all the ability to stay healthy, stay on the field, let everything about your stuff, your delivery, your command, all that come out, and not be hindered by any type of injuries or issues.' And that kind of all spurred from what I went through in college.”

Kaplan spent a few years after college away from baseball, selling fitness equipment and designing gyms in Florida. Parents learned that he played baseball, so they asked him to help their kids. He enjoyed it. He founded Athletic Development Performance, a sports training facility in Jupiter, Fla. It eventually led to co-founding Cressey Sports Performance, a popular and highly regarded training facility for professional baseball players, including pitchers Max Scherzer, Justin Verlander and Corey Kluber.

Kaplan spent his last day at Cressey last month. The Phillies want him to help their big leaguers, but also their Minor Leaguers by integrating multiple groups within player development (strength and conditioning, athletic training, etc.) to create individualized plans for success.

“It’s clearly a high-impact, high-value role,” Phillies general manager Sam Fuld said.

The Phillies last year made sweeping changes in player development. The group previously lacked cohesion. Too many people had too many different ideas. Players suffered. So, the Phillies hired new people. Player development director Preston Mattingly and Kaplan are two of the most notable additions.

“Brian really understands how the body works,” Fuld said. “He understands what things need to be done in the weight room, the training room, to accomplish what you want on the bump. He knows what questions to ask. He can speak the same language and work with people in multiple departments and help connect the dots.”

But it isn’t just about the body. It is about performance and toughness. Mattingly alluded to it last month. Asked if the Phillies planned to piggyback starters in the Minors like last season, he said no.

“Our starting pitchers are going to start,” Mattingly said.

“Our guys need to learn how to compete,” Kaplan said. “They need to learn how to get outs on the field. How do we make guys a little more resilient, a little tougher? How do we make guys handle 162 games, 60 appearances out of the bullpen or 30-plus starts?

“Guys spend a lot of time training. They get themselves immersed in pitching labs and they think that’s what’s necessary to be a big leaguer. It’s not. You’re not always going to be the biggest and strongest. It’s not always the guy who throws the hardest or hits the ball the farthest. It’s the guy that knows how to control his body, knows how to repeat it, knows how to manage it over the course of the season.”

It goes back to Mattingly’s thoughts on having his starters start.

“I think we’ve made the mistake of coddling guys for the wrong reason,” Kaplan said. “I think there’s always a fear of somebody getting hurt or something going wrong and our knee-jerk reaction is, 'Well, we’re just going to do less. If we do less, we won’t expose them to that.' I think the issue is that guys are going out and learning to be much more physical, but if they learn to manage that more effectively, if they learn how to warm up, if they learn how to recover, that physicality should be easier to manage. So it’s not about lessening the workload. It’s making them more understanding of their bodies. And that will allow them to push the envelope knowing that they can handle it.”

Like every spring, the Phillies opened Minor League camp with optimism. Maybe this year things really will be better.

“Culture-wise, philosophically, how do we develop guys from when they’re really young all the way through to the big leagues?” Kaplan said. “Keep them healthy, keep them on the field and accentuate what makes them them. On the field, it’s really cool when a player starts to understand some of that stuff, why it’s an advantage and how they can embrace it, how they can manage it and how they can stay durable and compete and dominate on the field.”