Pre-Holiday Phillies Winter Check-in and Mailbag

Winter Leagues

Australian Baseball League

• LHP Camron Hill – 11.2 IP 6.94 ERA 4 BB 15 K
• RHP Giussepe Velasquez – 11.2 6.17 ERA 5 BB 14 K
• RHP Danyony Pulido – 6 IP 4.50 ERA 4 BB 8 K
• CF Devin Saltiban – 71 AB 7 2B 3 HR 5 BB 15 K – .338/.400/.563
• 1B/C Alirio Ferrebus – 55 AB 2 2B 2 HR 0 BB 4 K – .273/.281/.418

Saltiban has been on fire over the last week, but the walk and strikeout numbers are concerning given prior knowledge. Ferrebus is swinging freely and making plenty of contact. He needs to find a better approach, but also he is not striking out either.

Joining the Giants this week will be Jose Colmenares, Raylin Heredia, Manolfi Jimenez, and Mitch Neunborn. Heredia and Jimenez will both make the back of the top 50 and really need the at bats to prove they can hit some pitches with spin. They won’t face particularly good ones, but the at bats will be important.

Dominican Winter League

• OF Johan Rojas – 124 AB 3 2B 3 HR 15 SB 13 BB 12 K – .315/.390/.411
• 1B/LF Felix Reyes – 57 AB 3 2B 2 3B 2 HR 4 BB 11 K – .246/.286/.474
• OF Bryan De La Cruz – 139 AB 7 2B 1 3B 7 HR 16 BB 30 K – .309/.377/.525
• IF Robert Moore – 15 AB 1 2B 1 HR 5 BB 6 K – .133/.381/.400
• IF Jose Rodriguez – 36 AB 2 2B 1 3B 4 BB 5 K – .306/.366/.417

It has been a good offseason for Rojas who is having his second straight good winter league campaign. Big difference to last year is the strikeouts are down. It would be ideal for Reyes to get more playing time, but he seems to be doing Reyes things. Given their dearth of RH OFs there is a chance that new signing gets a chance.

Venezuelan Winter League

• LHP Cristhian Tortosa – 8.1 IP 8.64 ERA 8 BB 8 K

Mexican Winter League

• RHP Orlando Gonzalez – 14.2 IP 1.23 ERA 7 BB 15 K
• LHP Erubiel Armenta – 3.1 IP 0.00 ERA 1 BB 4 K
• RHP Alan Rangel – 7.1 IP 4.91 ERA 3 BB 11 K

Gonzalez is an interesting low minors reliever who seems to have taken nicely to the bullpen last year with a mid 90s sinker.

Puerto Rico Winter League

• RHP Andrew Baker – 11.2 IP 4.63 ERA 11 BB 14 K
• LHP Tristan Garnett – 2.1 IP 7.71 ERA 3 BB 2 K
• RHP Jose Pena Jr. – 12.1 IP 4.38 ERA 8 BB 17 K

Pena missing a some bats is good and it would be good to have seen Baker throw more strikes.

Roster Moves

The Phillies signed Adolis Garcia this week, and probably more pertinent for this blog’s purpose was Dave Dombrowski saying that the Phillies are planning on Justin Crawford being the opening day center fielder. There are worries about how good Crawford can be in center, and the Phillies will almost certainly be giving him extra work on his reads and jumps. At this point, Crawford’s wonky swing and ground ball tendency is not going to be tested by AAA pitchers. If Crawford can play average-ish center field defense with some hits and some speed on the bases that is probably a decent value out of what will likely be the 9th spot in the lineup.

The Garcia signing itself seems to be an acknowledgement of a horrendous market for RH outfielders, and a move to provide some defensive floor and better clubhouse vibes than Nick Castellanos. Given the amount of left handed platoon bats in the organization, a right handed bat with more track record against LHP would have been my preference in a move to run more platoons. Garcia is equally meh against both righties and lefties and for now looks like he will be an everyday guy and Marsh will be getting a platoon partner. That part I always expected to happen, and would be a good thing because Marsh can put up a 3-4 WAR season in left field and you can get 150 or so plate appearances for a righty with a platoon advantage on days he sits.

Steve Potter has reported the Phillies have signed RHP Trevor Richards, RHP Lenny Torres, RHP Jonathan Hernandez, RHP Kyle Brnovich, and RHP Bryse Wilson. Richards is a veteran who likely will compete for a spot in the major league bullpen. Torres throws a bunch of a fastball that averages about 96 with just ok results. He does not throw his changeup or slider for strikes enough and maybe there is some growth in changing the pitch usage and location. Hernandez is a sinker-slider reliever who is probably more of a AAA depth guy these days despite having some MLB success in the past. Brnovich had a good 2024 and poor 2025 and looks like AA/AAA swing starter depth. Wilson is not a good major league starter, but he has made major league starts, and the Phillies are very thin in that area in AAA right now.

Mailbag

@papergreat.bsky.social: Apologies if this has been answered elsewhere: What positions do you think Aidan Miller is capable of playing at the MLB level and what position(s) do they think they’ll play him at LHV in the first half of 2026?

It sounds like third base is where he will be playing in the spring. He should be able to easily translate what has worked at shortstop over to the hot corner. He is still capable of playing shortstop, but unless Trea Turner’s defense falls off the only short he will play will be if there are injuries or days off. I suspect in AAA he will play 5 days a week with 4 at third and a start at short. Second base is probably within his skill set if they keep Bohm and then Stott has a catastrophic injury.

@akhil-is-mad.bsky.social: I know a lot of prospects have specific/known issues they need to work on (i.e. Aidan miller vs offspeed, crawford lifting the the ball, etc) and I know teams come up with specific plans for them.  How closely do those plans focus on primary weaknesses and how much of them are specific in scope?

The Phillies are often cagey about specific programs and it is much easier to see what a pitcher is working on because we can see pitch usage and location. I do think based on conversations with people over the years that this tends not to be as direct as you might think. Instead the plan is going to deal with some of the base issues, so that could be hunting pitches in a certain location or looking to hit balls in a certain way because it will get their hands and hits in a better position for the long term goals. Also these guys are playing games that they want to win, so you can only tie a guy’s hands so much behind their back while keeping them in a positive place day after day. The best coaches are those that communicate what a player needs in a way that the player can process and use.

@rhosetintedcheeks.bsky.social: Who do you think can be 2026’s Aroon Escobar?

How quickly do you expect the college arms the Phillies drafted to move through the minors (especially guys not named Gage Wood)? Are any of them potential internal relief options at the MLB level in ’26?

Last offseason Escobar was a talented guy who just needed to put it all together over a longer sample size. There isn’t that type of obvious sleeper lurking with most of the candidates (Devin Saltiban, Griffin Burkholder, etc) having large hit tool concerns. There also isn’t a lurking international hitter with track record, but lack of high level performance. The best candidate for top 100 breakout is probably a guy who was on the edge of that rating already. Moise Chace’s poor start and Tommy John surgery put him out of mind. He will be out for much of the 2026 season, but if he comes back in July or August looking like the guy he was at the end of 2024 he could easily jump back up into the upper echelon of Phillies prospects.

I don’t know if any of the starting pitchers move extra quickly based on what we know now. Obermueller, Bowker, and Youngerman all have secondary pitches they need to improve to stick in the rotation. If one of them cones out of the offseason with a jump in a pitch and/or velocity then that calculus changes. Gabe Craig and James Tallon are pure relievers, and Craig is older and was one of the best relievers in college last year. He should move quickly if he has success. He currently does not profile as a late inning arm, but he could be depth quickly. Tallon has more work to do and is probably more of a 2-3 year timeline. The wild card is Brian Walters who was mostly a reliever in college. There has been some rumblings that Walters was good in the fall and that the Phillies will give him a chance to start. Even if Walters ultimately ends up in the bullpen, taking time in a rotation will slow down his path in a similar way to Alex McFarlane (without the injury).

@paulsocolar.bsky.social: What will become of Keaton Anthony?

He will go to AAA and will likely be the primary first baseman. The reports have been much less glowing this year and looking at the underlying numbers I have been less than impressed as I have gone through the offseason process. He just does not hit for big power and at each level his walk and strikeout rates have trended in the wrong directions. He is a line drive machine, which is going to get him doubles and hits overall, but if the number of balls in play is going to go down then the impact of the good contact quality is going to go down. He will make my offseason list, but he is probably closer to a non-prospect and very minor trade asset.