Here's the Phillies' Spring Breakout roster
Todd Zolecki
@ToddZoleckiCLEARWATER, Fla. -- A few weeks ago, before MLB announced the Phillies’ Spring Breakout roster, Preston Mattingly was asked a simple, albeit obvious question.
Is Mick Abel going to start?
Mattingly smiled.
“I expect a really competitive game,” said Mattingly, who is the Phillies’ assistant general manager of player development. “I don’t want to tip our hand yet. But we could potentially line up Mick to pitch a few innings.”
Spring Breakout is a new four-day event from March 14-17 that will showcase baseball’s future stars. A team of the Phillies' top prospects will play a team of the Tigers' top prospects on March 16 at Joker Marchant Stadium in Lakeland, Fla. The Phillies' roster will include 19 of their top 30 prospects, including Abel (No. 2), Aidan Miller (No. 3), Justin Crawford (No. 4), Starlyn Caba (No. 5), Devin Saltiban (No. 7), Bryan Rincon (No. 8), Eduardo Tait (No. 9) and Gabriel Rincones (No. 10).
Abel (No. 49), Miller (No. 61) and Crawford (No. 77) rank among the top 100 prospects in baseball.
Abel, Miller and Crawford are each former first-round Draft picks, so Phillies fans are pretty familiar with them. But there are plenty of other prospects scheduled to play on March 16 who aren't as well-known, like Tait, a 17-year-old catcher from Panama.
He is somebody that Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski has mentioned several times, whenever he is asked about players that other organizations request in trades. Mattingly said he understands why.
“He’s somebody I think every Phillies fan should know about,” he said. “Just start with his work ethic. He’s an extremely intelligent kid. I’m calling him a kid because he still is. He has a chance to have a hit-power combo. And obviously the catching position is a very difficult place to find offense. So a guy like that who works very hard, who’s very smart and who has a chance to hit and hit for power is why we like him so much.”
What is Spring Breakout? MLB Spring Breakout is a four-day event showcasing baseball’s future: the current stars of Minor League Baseball. The inaugural edition will be held from March 14-17 at Grapefruit and Cactus league stadiums during Spring Training. A series of 16 exhibition games will be played between teams comprised of each MLB organization’s top prospects, creating a new touchpoint on the baseball calendar that celebrates our sport’s budding talent.
Here's the Phillies' Spring Breakout roster with MLB Pipeline's rankings: