The Phillies had a problem with the fifth spot in their rotation in the second half of the season. Taijuan Walker got most of the starts but was flat out awful. In his place, the Phillies tried a bunch of different pitchers, and it felt like each was worse than the last.
Out of that group which included the likes of Seth Johnson and Michael Mercado, Kolby Allard shone through by being non-horrible in a few appearances.
Signed as a minor league free agent in January, there wasn’t a high demand for Allard’s services. His six previous seasons were spent bouncing between the majors and minors, because he couldn’t seem to get major league hitters out.