Top Prospects
2B Devin Saltiban – The Phillies moved Saltiban from the outfield to infield after he was drafted in 2023, and he has settled in at second base. He has the tools to make it work, but he does not always look natural. Hopefully another year will help him feel more comfortable there. At the plate, Saltiban has solid raw power, and will hit some lasers. He has a good approach at the plate, but showed some swing and miss vulnerability to breaking balls. He tops it all off with plus speed, which should make center field his position if he has to move back to the outfield. Given the lack of competition that he faced in high school, it wasn’t surprising that Saltiban struggled some last year. The hope is that in his second full season he starts to really close those gaps and cement himself as one of their best hitting prospects after Aidan Miller.
SS Bryan Rincon – A early hamstring injury caused Rincon to miss most of the 2024 season. He was able to come back for the AFL, but never got his feet under him. Rincon is a switch hitter, with a pretty good (if sometimes a bit passive) approach and moderate power. He is likely to be a below average offensive performer, but he is a plus defender at shortstop thanks to good actions and strong arm. Depending on how his bat develops he could end up a utility player or a bottom of a lineup starter.
3B Carson DeMartini – DeMartini gained a reputation for plus raw power thanks to a pull heavy approach and questionable contact skills. In pro ball, DeMartini showed greatly improved contact skills with some reduced power output. If he can tap into the power fully again, he could be a real steal for the Phillies. In addition to the offensive improvements, DeMartini looked like a good defender at third and surprisingly playable at both second and short. He is almost certainly a third baseman, but he could be a good one.
LHP Mavis Graves – Graves has been a bit of a project and slow burn of development. He spent all of 2024 in Clearwater, and despite fading late struck out 117 batters in just 84 innings. Like most Phillies starting pitchers, Graves throws two fastballs. Both will sit in the low 90s, getting up 95, with poor shape, and really serve to support the rest of his arsenal. He throws two breaking balls, a mid 80s cutter and a low 80s sweepy slider that both had high whiff rates. His changeup rounds out his arsenal with another bat missing pitch and way to keep hitters off the fastballs. If Graves can add more velocity and command, he could be an interesting mid rotation starter, but for now he might be more of a back of the rotation junk baller.
RHP Alex McFarlane – McFarlane missed much of 2023 to injury and all of 2024 to recovery from Tommy John surgery. He is back fully healthy and was sitting 97-99 this spring with a 4-seam fastball and sinker. His slider has the chance to be at least a plus pitch, and he has flashed an interesting changeup. Given the injury and some command issues over the years, he fits more as a reliever, but the Phillies may opt for him in a starting role to get him innings for now.
Under the Radar
OF Dylan Campbell – Campbell came over from the Dodgers for international money, and is a solidly built outfield who gets the most out of his raw power. He has some speed, and can play some center field, but has mostly played the corners.
OF Raylin Heredia – Heredia had an injury and whiff marred 2024 season after a breakout 2023. He has solid raw power and plays a good right field with a cannon arm. He is trending more towards a bench outfield ceiling, but 12 months ago he had a path to be a regular.
OF Jordan Viars – Viars hopes his return trip to Jersey Shore is better than the nightmare trip he had last season (he had just two extra base hits in 27 games with 41 strikeouts in 105 PAs). He is more DH/LF than OF, but he might have the most raw power in the organization. Viars is unplayable vs LHP, but if he can just mash RHPs there is a path forward in some org, he just is going to have to actually mash them.
RHP Casey Steward – Steward was one of the breakout players out of the Phillies minor league side of camp. Last year he was 92-96 with a pair of fastballs alongside the full suite of offspeed pitches in a sweeper, gyro slider/cutter, and changeup. In the Spring Breakout he was sitting 97-98 with his other pitches up a few miles per hour as well. He struggled with command with the BlueClaws last year, but he threw quality strikes early in the year. He has a workhorse frame and if he can hold these velocity increases he could be one of their better pitching prospects.
RHP Micah Ottenbreit – In his first full year back from Tommy John surgery, Ottenbreit was mediocre for the Threshers. He has feel for spin, but his sinking fastball might have been one of the worst pitches in the org last year. This spring he has added a cutter which compliments the rest of his arsenal well, and should help protect his fastball. He was up to 95 last season, and if he can move more towards that, he has some interesting back of the rotation upside.
Offensive Expectations
Outside the players above, there isn’t much. There is a chance one of Zach Arnold, Bryson Ware, and Pierce Bennett is solid. Eduardo Lopez is now in his third season in the South Atlantic League, and was solid last year. The catching situation involves 4 names in Luis Caicuto, Jordan Dissin, Luke Davis, and Jared Thomas, none of which are established or great, but could cobble something together. Jersey Shore is also a terrible place to play for hitters, and even among the named prospects there isn’t a sure thing here. The bats will probably put up some big games and highlights, but there is also a chance this could be a bad offensive teams for long stretches of time.
Pitching Expectations
The pitching staff lacks real firepower. McFarlane might have great stuff, but with an undefined role and likely some innings caps he isn’t going to carry anything. Joining Steward, Ottenbreit, and Graves is likely to be some combination of Luke Russo, Braydon Tucker, and Aaron Combs, all right handed starters with average at best velocity and interesting breaking balls. All are probably more reliever than starter, but they might throw enough slop for A-ball.
The bullpen is light on known names, othere than the demoted Andrew Baker and Tommy McCollum, but there are intriguing arms here. Luis Avila has been up into the upper 90s, and Jaydenn Estanista looks to be putting some things together. Ethan Chenault has a good slider and can miss bats. Augusto Calderon has velocity and is new to the org. Brandon Beckel, Drew Garrett, and Paxton Thompson are perfectly acceptable A ball relievers. The wild care is Estibenzon Jimenez who had a really good season out of the bullpen for Adelaide (26 IP 2.77 ERA 4 BB 44 K) this winter and might be showing a bit more velocity.
Looking Ahead and Overall Thoughts
It isn’t a terrible BlueClaws team, but it also isn’t a great one. On the pitching side, this is probably the rotation, with the exception of maybe Steward moving up early in the year. The bullpen reinforcements are likely to be more of the org arm variety unless there is an unexpected breakout. On the hitting side, if any of the big prospects in Clearwater (Eduardo Tait, Aroon Escobar, Dante Nori, Griffin Burkholder) hit their way to the shore that would be a big help. It appears they may be getting Joel Dragoo soon which make the outfield situation more crowded (though Lopez can move to first), but he should be solid. Maybe some of the arms or bats breaks out, but it is probably not going to be as good as last year.
I saw DeMartini make a great play at third last week, at the complex, against the Tigers MLers. he dove to his right over the foul line to get a grounder, popped up and threw the runner out at first. had a gun for an arm.