This Week’s Schedule
- Lehigh Valley (23-10) vs Worcester (16-16)
- Reading (7-18) @ Binghamton (15-11)
- Jersey Shore (9-16) vs Aberdeen (10-17)
- Clearwater (15-12) @ St. Lucie (15-12)
- FCL Phillies (1-1)
Hitter Spotlight
IF/OF Felix Reyes
5 G 6-15 2 2B 1 HR 0 BB 1 K 1 HBP .400/.412/.733
Reyes is a prospect that has always fascinated me. He began the season on the Development List playing games in Extended Spring Training, was then activated by Reading and was hitting cleanup at the end of this week. He topped this all off with a walk-off home run on Sunday. Reyes is a large man who combines plus raw power and plus contact ability, all while swinging at a rate that should undo any player. This was more interesting back in 2023 when Reyes was 22 and not 24 with a very disappointing Jersey Shore campaign in the middle. Reyes spent the last 2 years becoming a corner infielder, but now is in a corner outfield spot with injuries decimating that position across the org. There is very little chance Reyes is an actual prospect again, but I find his combination of skills fascinating and in Reading he could put up a truly amazing season of just putting a bunch of balls in play and seeing what happens.
Pitcher Spotlight
RHP Saul Teran
2 G 4.1 IP 2 H 0 R 1 BB 6 K
Saul Teran is not a real prospect in the traditional sense. He is in his 3rd season with the Threshers after reaching them late in 2023 and then having an injury marred 2024 season. This season he has appeared in 8 games with the Threshers and has put a dominant line of 10 IP 6 H 0 R 2 BB 18 K. One of the biggest factors in his success has simply been healthy, in 2023 his fastball averaged 93.2 mph, but in 2024 that was 91.8, and this year it is back up to 93.8 mph. Long a slider heavy reliever, Teran is actually throwing his slider at his lowest rate this season, just 47.2% of the time, but it has bounced back up to 86.6 mph and has become a true sweeper, and has posted an incredible 44.8% CSW% (Called and Swinging Strike %) with a 48.8% chase rate and 29.9% swinging strike rate. With Teran throwing his slider less, he has compensated by throwing his sinker more than ever with a small tick back in 4-seam usage. Teran does not have a dominant fastball shape, but his 4-seam fastball and sinker have a good horizontal difference and he has used his sinker in the zone and his 4-seam to expand it. Given this sort of arsenal, it is not surprising that Teran has large platoon splits, with the 11 lefties that have faced him batting .400/.455/.500 with 1 walk and 14 strikeouts, but he has struck out 14 of the 25 righties he has faced (56%) with only 1 walk and that has led to a .091/.167/.182 batting line. All this means that Teran is probably more of a AAAA reliever upside, but he is having a fun and really dominant run.
Notes and Thoughts
- The IronPigs are the best team in the International League with a 23-10 record and a +65 run differential. This past week they played the Rochester Red Wings and went 4-2 with two walk off losses. The Red Wings, the Nationals AAA affiliate, is the worse team in the league at 8-24 with a -92 run differential, and the worst pitching staff in the league. Over the 6 game series the IronPigs had 72 hits and scored 64 runs. If my math is correct the team hit .335/.411/.549 over the week.
- Over the week, Otto Kemp hit .448/.500/.862 with 3 home runs, bringing him to 10 on the season. He continues to smash left handed pitching (1.446 OPS vs LHPs) and really feast on mistakes. Feasting on mistakes is a way to make a living, but we continue to see concerning trends in his approach.
- On the note of poor approaches, Justin Crawford is posting some of the worst swing decision metrics in AAA, but he also went 9 for 22 this week. He is still posting good line drive rates with poor ground ball rates, which leads to high BABIP (his is currently .415). He is really struggling with fastballs.
- On the note of hitting mistakes, Gabriel Rincones Jr. did not feast this week, hitting .208/.231/.292 with 1 walks and 7 strikeouts this week. He is hitting .097/.121/.097 in 33 PAs vs left handed pitching.
- Mick Abel got the two start week, and his second appearance was less good as the Red Wings did not expand as much. He only allowed 2 earned runs over 11 innings, and you can also say he was hampered by his offense planting him on the bench.
- Max Lazar directly led to both walkoffs by allowing the first and blowing the save that led to the second. His last 4 appearances have not be great for him, and while he is still is probably the first call up if they need a reliever, he is looking more and more just like an up and down arm.
- Week 2 in the bullpen was less good for Seth Johnson as his velocity was less dynamic and he had a two walk appearance. It will be a process for Johnson and there will be good weeks and ok weeks.
- DSL RHP Rene Yrish was 96 to 99 this week in an intrasquad game, which is notable because his control was just merely poor (he did hit a batter with 99) and not horrendous, and 99 is a Phillies DSL complex record (a thank you to Steve Potter for checking with the Phillies).
- A 4-19 week easily qualifies for as the worse week of the season for Aroon Escobar who had a double, a home run, and walked 5 times to 4 strikeouts.
- Eduardo Tait continues hit the ball hard, adding two doubles and two home runs to his season totals, but he continues to expand the zone more.
- Erubiel Armenta recorded one out and allowed 4 runs in his first appearance back. He has two perfect appearances this week and over his last 3 appearances he has recorded 11 straight outs via strikeout, with only a walk on April 25th. He is sitting in the low 90s and has been devastating with all of his pitches including a 0% zone contact rate on his changeup.
- The strikeouts are starting to come down some for Aidan Miller, who is also walking more, but he he is not hitting for power and has now gone two weeks without an extra base hit.
- That is now back to back good starts for Alex McFarlane as he went 4 IP 3 H 0 R 1 BB 6 K this week. It looks likes 4 innings is his currently limit. The stuff still is not as dynamic, but the control is improving.
- On the control improving front, Mavis Graves still walked 3 batters this week, but it was over 5 scoreless innings.
- Devin Saltiban has been struggling, and he went hitless in 2 of the 5 games he played this week and struck out 5 times, but he also had two 3 hit games and had 3 doubles and a home run. Hopefully it is a sign of life.
- He was still mostly 90-92 touching 93, but Moises Chace put up 4 scoreless innings this week. While good for control and lengthening him, he needs to find last year’s velocity at some point.
- Brad Pacheco had just a disastrous opener for the FCL Phillies, tipping pitches and hanging breaking balls in a start that saw him give up 7 base runners and 7 run while recording only 1 out. It likely will taint his entire season line, but he was 92-95 in the appearance. The Phillies still lost, but the rest of the pitchers went 8.2 innings scoreless with 0 walks.
- In game 2 of the FCL season Juan Amarante went 5 scoreless with 5 strikeouts and just a pair of hits allowed. He was good in this league last year, and you have to think he might be in line for a second shot at the Florida State League.
Injuries and Transactions
- Enrique Segura was traded to the Texas Rangers for Daniel Robert
- Jose Cuas was released
- Tommy McCollum (REA) and Yhoan Escalona (FCL) were assigned to new teams
- Ryan Degges was activated from the Development List
- Raylin Heredia, Eiberson Castellano, Wilmer Blanco, Jaeden Calderon, and Andrew Walling were added to the 7-day IL
- Naoel Mejia and Danny Wilkinson were added to the 60-day IL
- Andrew Schultz and Christian Arroyo were activated from the IL
- Nick Vespi and Erik Ritchie were added to the Development List
- Orlando Gonzalez (FCL), Angel Mata (FCL), John Spikerman (FCL), Payton Henry (JS), and Paul McIntosh (JS) began rehab assignments
Links and Things
Minor Thoughts
Around the Web
- Ranking The 20 Hottest MLB Prospects | Hot Sheet (5/5/25) – Otto Kemp – Baseball America
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