If you were to list the two most important skills for a hitter to have it might start with raw power and contact in the strike zone. Felix Reyes hits the ball very hard. This year he has a max exit velocity of 115.0 mph and a 90th percentile exit velocity of 105.4 mph. Given that power, it is extremely impressive he has a zone contact rate of 84.4% this year, which is actually low for him historically. This combination of power and contact is rare and exciting, and it is at the core of why the Phillies are now calling him now up.
Felix Reyes first popped onto radars in 2022 when he looked the part in the complex, but didn’t translate it to games. In 2023 the underlying numbers started to be appealing, but he was held back by poor contact quality. His 2024 season saw him fall off the radar and he looked like he was on his way out of the organization heading into 2025. Instead he fixed the contact quality and had a massive year at Reading. This year, he is hitting the ball very hard for Lehigh Valley with 8 doubles and 6 home runs in 18 games.
So this all sounds very optimistic and good, so why was he the #34 prospect in the system entering the year?
We can start with the easy. He just isn’t a great defensive player. An outfielder historically, he has a fine arm, but his range and instincts are below average in both corners. He attempted to add third base to his defensive repertoire and it wasn’t a complete disaster, but it shouldn’t be on his list of positions. He can play first base in a pinch, but that is unlikely to come up with the Phillies right now. That sort of positional inflexibility just is not valued when a player isn’t an established hitter.
The harder part is that Reyes swings a lot, and has always done so. His 64% swing rate this year is higher than the 56% he has been the last few years. He does swing at pitches in the zone a lot, and he can do damage on them. The problem has been that he has swung at pitches outside of the strike zone 53.1% of the time. That currently leads all AAA hitters with at least 20 plate appearances. It is also why he has 2 walks and 17 strikeouts in 84 PAs in AAA last year (2.4% and 20.2% respectively) and why he has a 4.8% BB% in 2025. Major league pitchers are likely to throw him junk on nearly every pitch, and he is going to need to show just poor patience at least. For reference, free swinging Edmundo Sosa has a chase rate of 45% and 43% the last two years and an overall swing rate close to 57%.
While Reyes hit righties last year and this year, the Phillies are not going to ask him to do too much. He is up to replace Otto Kemp vs left handed pitchers. In 2025, he hit .371/.406/.685 off of southpaws and the Phillies are asking some of that to carry over to the majors. The also are going to cross their fingers and hope that he can be better than Otto defensively, even if that bar is incredibly low. The Phillies are looking for a spark, and Reyes could absolutely do that and run with the platoon LFer job, he just will need to close what is usually a fatal weakness.