Philadelphia Phillies closer, quickly found a new home after being released earlier this week. In fact, Héctor Neris has caught on with a painfully familiar playoff adversary for the Phillies, the troublesome Houston Astros.
According to Ari Alexander of KPRC2 Houston, Neris is returning to the AL West-leading Astros, where he has been the most prolific and successful in his career thus far.
Not only did Neris have his greatest season with Houston last year, but he is now back with the same team that won his only World Series title in an 11-year career.
Furthermore, he accomplished it in the World Series against the Phillies in 2022, when the right-hander hurled three scoreless innings.
Now back in Houston, Neris will carry his 2.69 ERA and 1.03 WHIP, as well as 156 strikeouts in 133 2/3 innings, and will look to recreate some of those figures in his second season with the Astros.
More importantly, he now has another opportunity to win a World Series championship with the same team he previously played for.
This year, Neris had some on-and-off troubles with the Cubs, and it appeared that he never fully settled in with his new team. Nonetheless, he had a good 8-4 record with 17 saves, a 3.89 ERA, and 46 strikeouts in 44 innings. However, he did have some command issues, which resulted in an unexpectedly high amount of walks (26), as well as a gaudy 1.52 WHIP.
From 2014 to 2021, Neris spent parts of eight seasons with the Phillies, putting up a 3.42 ERA and 1.19 WHIP while striking out 520 in 407 2/3 innings. He made 84 saves in red pinstripes, including a career-high 28 in 2019.
The Phillies had every opportunity to re-sign Neris to give much-needed bullpen help, but they opted not to do so. Hopefully, that decision will not come back to haunt them if the Phillies face the Astros again in the World Series this season.
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