The team released the right-hander in 2016, but he grew his game by playing in Japan and Korea. Now he's back in Clearwater.
The team released the right-hander in 2016, but he grew his game by playing in Japan and Korea. Now he's back in Clearwater.CLEARWATER, Fla. — A few weeks ago, David Buchanan was dropping his son off at school when he got an unexpected phone call. It was his agent, Keith Grunewald, who told him that the Phillies wanted to sign the 34-year-old right-handed pitcher to a minor league deal. He didn’t need much time to deliberate.It felt fitting. Buchanan and his family live in Allentown.
It was there that Buchanan improved his command and saw his velocity tick up, but it was also where he found his identity. He realized that it wasn’t tied to baseball. It was tied to who he was as a father and a husband, a teammate, and a friend. This took him a while to learn. Buchanan still remembers the intense pride he felt when former manager Ryne Sandberg named him the Phillies’ third starter in 2015. That pride quickly turned into fear.
“I was doing so many things out of fear,” Buchanan said. “Like, ‘Man, I hope this guy doesn’t get a hit here.’ Or, ‘I hope I don’t walk this guy.’ Or, ‘Man, if I do this, I might get sent down.’ It was all of these negative thoughts, over things that I couldn’t control. I couldn’t control whether I got sent down or not. Or whether the guy hits the ball or not.“In Korea, I learned not to get ahead of myself. If I have a bad game, that doesn’t define me.
In four seasons with the Lions, he pitched to a 3.02 ERA with 539 strikeouts and 191 walks. He made 113 starts over 699⅔ innings pitched, while also making a few appearances out of the bullpen. His last season, 2023, was his finest: Buchanan pitched to a 2.54 ERA with a career low 5.5% walk rate.