This story was excerpted from Todd Zolecki’s Phillies Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

Everybody expected Mick Abel to be placed on the Phillies’ 40-man roster last fall.

But nothing is official until it’s official. Abel got the official word in mid-November, after being called into Preston Mattingly’s office at Carpenter Complex in Clearwater, Fla.

Mattingly spent the past three seasons running the organization’s player development department before being promoted to general manager. He thanked Abel for his hard work and leadership. He congratulated him for throwing 100-plus innings in each of the past three Minor League seasons.

Then, he told him the good news.

“Really excited for your future ahead,” Mattingly said. “You’ve been through a lot. It’s really exciting to think about what you’re going to do going forward.”

The Phillies selected Abel, 23, with the 15th overall pick in the 2020 MLB Draft. He remains one of the Phillies’ top prospects (No. 5), although he no longer ranks among MLB Pipeline’s Top 100 prospects in baseball. (He ranked 48th in 2023.) Abel’s climb to the big leagues has slowed because of his struggles with command. He went 3-12 with a 6.46 ERA in 24 starts last season with Triple-A Lehigh Valley. He struck out 117, but he walked 78 in 108 2/3 innings.

“I definitely think he’s still in the mix,” Phillies pitching coach Caleb Cotham said earlier this month. “He’s still young.”

Abel recently attended MLB’s Rookie Career Development Program, alongside Phillies prospects like Jean Cabrera and Moisés Chace, who were also added to the 40-man roster. Afterward, Abel spoke with MLB.com about joining the 40-man roster and the upcoming season:

MLB.com: Did the news about the 40-man change your day at all?

Abel: It totally did. I mean, all throughout last year, that was one thing that I had thought about when I was struggling. I’m like, man, this was the year to kind of put myself in that conversation and I thought I blew it. Having the conversations that I had with everybody in our system … I got a lot of confidence from that. And just knowing that the team still believes in me -- I still believe in myself, that’s one thing -- but the team still believing, it feels really good. It lit a fire under my butt this offseason to push myself a little harder.

MLB.com: Caleb said he’s talked to you quite a bit this offseason. What have those conversations been like?

Abel: It’s been great. Everything that he says is very true. It’s not getting me away from analytics and data, because that stuff is always going to be there. It’s more just the way of being, how I talk to myself on the mound, how I’m going about my routine on a day-to-day basis. Going back to that consistency thing. It’s something I feel I’ve had in the past and then get away from it sometimes. That doesn’t lead to success. Inevitably, you’re going to find yourself in low points. I saw plenty of that last year. It’s been a lot about how I go about my business in a professional manner. It’s really the art of pitching and not so much the numbers.

MLB.com: Caleb said something like, “What’s it like not to try so hard? … Maybe a little different way of being.” It sounds like a way of saying don’t think so much. What does “maybe a little different way of being” mean to you?

Abel: It’s just not overthinking everything and being able to take in information and process it in a very simple manner and decide, is this going to help me or is this going to hurt me? … The key to it all is just simplifying the approach, not overthinking, knowing that I’m on a mound to compete.

MLB.com: He said his conversations with you are like the ones he has with Zack Wheeler. It’s nothing fancy, nothing analytically driven. It’s, how do I get really good at getting hitters out? What do I need to do more of? Less of?

Abel: It’s literally just simplifying everything to where all that matters is getting guys out and understanding why something happens because of a certain feel.

MLB.com: Mattingly, Cotham and player development director Luke Murton have each mentioned your workload the past three years and how it will serve you well in the future. Do you agree?

Abel: That’s something I take pride in. … I think if there’s one thing that I’ve done really well, it’s staying healthy. I had my hiccup in 2021 with my shoulder, but since then I feel like I’ve put pedal to the metal as far as understanding, ‘OK, this is how I need to recover, this is how I need to go about my days in a good way.’ … Yeah, the results haven’t been there, but later on I can look back and say, ‘I went through three years of that.’ Or, ‘I went through three straight years without missing a start really.’ … It’s just all that more experience under my belt, all these little lessons, all these little failures that I can look back on and say, ‘Wow, I can understand these scenarios now when I’m pitching in games. I’ve been through this before.’ I’ve had all these innings to learn from that.”