See who's up, who's down in latest Phillies Top 30 Prospects re-rank
PHILADELPHIA -- The Phillies have been in a funk for a couple months, but they still believe they have the talent to win a World Series.
Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski made four trades before the July 30 Trade Deadline to try to improve their chances. He got Austin Hays, Carlos Estévez, Tanner Banks and Minor League pitching prospects Seth Johnson and Moisés Chace for Gregory Soto, Seranthony Domínguez, Cristian Pache and prospects George Klassen, Samuel Aldegheri and William Bergolla.
The Phillies didn’t move any of their top prospects.
“We have some guys I really didn't want to trade,” Dombrowski said. “They're our upper-echelon guys. And that's why I am absolutely thrilled we made the moves that we made. I know we gave up some talent, but we also have [our top prospects] and [Starlyn] Caba and some other guys we're extremely high on. We feel like we really have a good ballclub, and our farm system continues to get better.”
MLB Pipeline on Tuesday revealed its midseason organizational prospect rankings. Here is the Phillies’ midseason Top 30 Prospects list, featuring several new names:
Here’s a look at the Phillies’ top prospects:
- Aidan Miller, SS (No. 29 in MLB)
- Andrew Painter, RHP (No. 34 in MLB)
- Justin Crawford, OF (No. 58 in MLB)
- Starlyn Caba, SS (No. 91 in MLB)
- Eduardo Tait, C
Biggest jump/fall
Here are the players whose ranks changed the most from the preseason list:
Jump: Jean Cabrera, RHP (Preseason: Unranked | Midseason: No. 13)
Not many people knew about Cabrera, when the Phillies named him their Minor League Pitcher of the Year in 2021.
He was just 19 years old then. The Phillies signed him for just $10,000 during the 2019-20 international signing period. Was this just a matter of the Phillies having a bottom-10 farm system? Or did the Phillies really have something in the Venezuelan? It turns out they might have something. Cabrera might be the Phils’ best prospect from that class.
Cabrera went 5-4 with a 3.39 ERA in 14 starts this season with Single-A Clearwater before getting promoted to Double-A Reading. He is 0-1 with a 4.05 ERA in his first four appearances with Reading. Cabrera is only six-feet tall, but he throws hard. His four-seam fastball has touched 98 mph. He also throws a sinker, changeup and sweeper.
Fall: Griff McGarry, RHP (Preseason: No. 11 | Midseason: No. 21)
The Phillies got plenty of interest in their top three pitching prospects before the 2022 Trade Deadline in Painter, Mick Abel and McGarry.
The Phils had no interest in trading any of them. They were that high on them.
Painter will miss the entire 2024 season while recovering from Tommy John surgery. Abel has fallen out of MLB Pipeline’s Top 100 prospects list because of his inability to throw strikes. McGarry has fallen from No. 11 in the Phillies’ preseason rankings to No. 21 in the midseason rankings for similar reasons. McGarry is 2-1 with a 4.18 ERA in 20 appearances with Triple-A Lehigh Valley. He has struck out 32, but he has walked 23 in 23 2/3 innings through Sunday. In his past six appearances with the IronPigs, he has walked eight and struck out seven in six innings. There was a point last season when many thought Abel or McGarry could make a late-season push to earn a big league promotion. A year later, neither is on the radar.
More from MLB Pipeline:
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New to the list
Here are the players added to the Top 30 from outside the organization:
No. 7, Dante Nori, OF (Draft, 1st round)
No. 8, Griffin Burkholder, OF (Draft, 2nd round)
No. 12, John Spikerman, OF (Draft, 5th round)
No. 15, Seth Johnson, RHP (acquired from Orioles in Gregory Soto trade)
No. 17, Carson DeMartini, 3B (Draft, 4th round)
No. 26, Moisés Chace, RHP (Acquired from O's in Soto trade)
Best tools
Players are graded on a 20-80 scouting scale for future tools -- 20-30 is well below average, 40 is below average, 50 is average, 60 is above average and 70-80 is well above average. Players in parentheses have the same grade.
Hit: 55 -- Crawford (Caba, Nori)
Power: 60 -- Aidan Miller
Run: 75 -- Crawford
Arm: 60 -- Bryan Rincon (Miller, Tait, Raylin Heredia)
Defense: 65 -- Caba
Fastball: 70 -- Painter (Alex McFarlane)
Curveball: 55 -- Abel
Slider: 65 -- Painter
Changeup: 55 -- Painter (Cabrera)
Control: 65 -- Andrew Painter