At the time I write this, the 2026 DSL Phillies are 33-18 and are 3 games up on postseason spot with 5 games to go. Over the last month and a half they have been one of the best teams in the league and very fun to watch. Given that the 2022 Phillies White team went 40-19 and won the championship before going 42-13 the following year, it is a tough road to say that the current consolidated DSL Phillies team is the best one they have put on the field, but it is worth an argument when you discuss the circumstances of each team.
Since 2020, the international signing date has moved from July to January, and limits were imposed on both domestic and international rosters. Gone are the days of signing 70 players and putting them through the meat grinder. There are still players well beyond the big bonuses and ranked lists. The roster limits have squeezed pitching as evaluations must be quicker and teams carry more developmental arms than older veterans. More franchises have consolidated down their teams to one affiliate as well, which is something the Phillies did. A poor showing in 2025 coupled with a small class led to some late releases and trades and one team that is very different than any other they have put together.
| Year | DSL/White Record | DSL/White Pitcher Age | DSL/White Hitter Age | DSL Red Record | DSL Red Pitcher Age | DSL Red Hitter Age |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 36-20 | 18.8 | 17.9 | 33-24 | 19.2 | 18.0 |
| 2022 | 40-19 | 19.2 | 17.9 | 36-23 | 18.4 | 18.3 |
| 2023 | 42-13 | 19.1 | 18.4 | 27-26 | 18.9 | 18.0 |
| 2024 | 26-29 | 18.9 | 17.5 | 21-34 | 18.8 | 17.5 |
| 2025 | 13-42 | 18.7 | 17.3 | 25-31 | 18.2 | 17.6 |
| 2026 | 33-18 | 17.6 | 17.5 | N/A | N/A | N/A |
In general, hitters are always pretty young in the DSL, but they have trended even younger. This is the youngest pitching staff they have ever had. It is almost a year and a half younger than the 22 and 23 pitching staffs dominated by guys like Maxwell Hernandez and Wilmer Blanco. Only 4 members of the current pitching staff were signed prior to this year with one, RHP Filippo Sabatini having missed the entire 2025 season due to injury. The hitters have some repeats, but also 3 players who missed all of the 2025 season as well. On some level, that means they are doing all of this on hard mode, but it also makes following all of this exciting.
It isn’t just exciting because of the potential future of the franchise, we will get to that later, but because it is largely an enjoyable experience to watch and follow. Almost every major league team has a DSL feed on YouTube now, with varying levels of data present on them. None have audio, it is just baseball from a pair of fixed camera angles. It is a different type of zen than listening to baseball on the radio, but it scratches a lot of the same itches. I usually am tracking pitch speed and types for all games, with some passing by without close scrutiny of the action on the field. Others I am watching the players more intently, going back to plays to get a better opinion on the player and what they did. The team plays with personality and energy in a way that reminds you that you are watching a game. It is also often not good baseball from a performance standpoint. There is bad defense, poor pitching, tons of walks, and less extra base hits than would make it exciting. It can be high paced and it can be slogging.
The Phillies are not a high slugging team. They get one base, they run, and they can hit them into the gap and down the lines. The team has 30 home runs in 51 games, 9 of them are by Francisco Renteria. He also has 8 triples, 20 stolen bases, and an energy and recklessness on the base paths that makes you worried he is going to hurt himself. It has been a deep lineup, that is often only playing 1-2 hitters with an OPS that doesn’t start with a 7 or higher. The pitching staff lacks experience, but the starting pitching has some real arms and the bullpen gets dicey real quick (it is still the DSL after all). Without doing a deep dive on a bunch of teams I can’t say whether they will be a favorite in the postseason, but they will be at minimum competitive.
There is long term excitement around this team both for the players on the team and the process that got them here. Francisco Renteria’s $4 million dollar bonus is functionally equal to Jhailyn Ortiz’s 2015 bonus for the largest given out to an international amateur player, and Renteria was probably the highest rated, at time of signing, prospect they have had. It isn’t just Renteria, the Phillies spent over $7.5 million on bonuses this year, which is the most they have ever spent. That does include $1.7 million to Chan-Min Park and Hua Ho who are not on the DSL roster, but even without that, this is one of the most expensive DSL rosters they have ever assembled. More than just the bonuses, this year it looks like they have had much more immediate success from their signings.
Now this whole system could upend with the new CBA. The Phillies have big name, and big money, prospects lined up for the next few years and a draft would ruin those plans. Additionally it remains to be seen if trades will be an available pathway and how this affects the Asian market. For now though it seems the Phillies are allocating nearly as many signing resources into the International Free Agent market as they are into the draft.
Now the Phillies have spent in the past, and ultimately this does come down to signing and developing the correct players. In Renteria, they look to have a potential star. He is tall, athletic, projectable and is statistically tearing through the DSL. He does have some warts when it comes to contact, and whether he can play center field is a matter of debate. Still, he is a high energy player with impact tools who is repeatedly praised for his makeup on and off the field, making him on the most exciting hitting prospects they have had in a while.
Juan Parra has been in Renteria’s shadow for much of the season, and is now mired in a slump, but is a very solid prospect in his own right. Signed out of Bobby Abreu’s academy, Parra is a solidly built shortstop with an advanced feel for the game. He has pull power in his left handed swing along with a good approach at the plate. He isn’t the most fleet of foot and his arm strength is just ok, which might push him to second base.
Beyond those two, there are plenty of interesting bats. OF Edwin Ramirez has a quick bat and has been a double machine hitting over .400. C Nelson Prieto has come back from a missed season to show power, albeit with some swing and miss. OF Elian Adames is a big athletic outfielder with good power who has taken a large stride forward this year. C Sebastian Saenz is a solid defensive catcher who is hitting .306/.381/.396 since going 2-24 to start the year. Top 2025 signing Nieves Izaquirre has looked solid since returning from injury. Then there is Jose Tovar, who doesn’t have much power but has the defensive flexibility to play any position, with time logged everywhere but first base.
The pitching staff is young, as mentioned above with the full rotations of Samuel Ortiz, Justin Burgos, Yilmar Samudio, and Cristian Rego all 17 year olds who were signed this season. Their best reliever might be funky lefty Yoel Zambrano who turned 17 in mid July. They group has a mix of polished arms and guys with stuff just learning. All of those rotation arms were signed to low 6-figure bonuses showing an organizational push to make some targeted pitching investments. There isn’t a Sixto Sanchez in this group yet, but even Sixto wasn’t Sixto in the DSL. The youth does drive some inconsistencies, but in international terms it is a pitching staff full of high schoolers and not college seniors.
For those that like some good stories, the team also has a pair of Italian players in Patrick Silva, a tall lanky, somewhat stiff 17 year old third baseman, and RHP Filippo Sabatini, a high 80s bulk reliever/starter with a sinker, sweeper, and changeup. There is also Japanese RHP Alexandre Moreti who went from looking totally lost to open the year to being just poor.
It isn’t all sunshine and roses for the big league team, and someone telling you about a bunch of teenagers that will likely never make it is probably not going to change a depressing outlook. But sometimes it is nice to just watch some fun baseball without someone saying inane things in your ear for 3 hours. I might suggest tuning into some of this DSL postseason run or pulling up an old game and just remembering that baseball is actually just fun and can be enjoyed. And maybe, it will make you feel a little better about the future.