One of the riskiest demographics of player is young pitcher. Whether it is in the draft or international signing, teenage pitchers have many obstacles in development and health before they can contribute to the major leagues. Teams often opt for college arms in the draft or signing older international pitchers for cheaper after they start to break out. The current Phillies front office has not avoided the high school pitching ranks, whether that is Mick Abel, Andrew Painter, or Matthew Fisher on big bonuses or bets on Mavis Graves and Micah Ottenbreit for slightly less. They have also signed plenty of international pitches for cheap to add lottery tickets into the system.
However, in 2026 the Phillies have given $1,205,000 to Korean high school RHP Chan-Min Park making him the biggest pitching signing of the cycle, and now are prepared to give $500,000 to Taiwanese RHP Hua Ho. They also signed Cuban RHP Cristian Rego in April for $300,000 nearly 3 months after the opening of the signing period. On their own, those signings might not raise an eyebrow, but in a collective there is a real pattern. Since the signing period moved to January in 2021, here are all the international signing bonuses for $250,000 or more the Phillies have given out.
- 2023 RHP Wen-Hui Pan – $350,000
- 2024RHP Julio Polanco Jr. – $275,000
- 2025 RHP Geremy Viloria – $425,000
- 2026 Justin Burgos – $300,000
So that is an average of $350,000 spent a year on a notable pitcher, and now if we include Burgos that is about $2,300,000 on large bonuses for teenage pitchers this cycle. Given the Phillies signing pool amount of about $6.6 million that is over a third of their pool allocated towards the riskiest demographic of signing type. Or it would if the Phillies had not made the following moves.
- 7/4/26 – RHP Ryan Degges traded to Cleveland Guardians for $250,000 of international signing pool
- 6/11/26 – OF Dylan Campbell and IF Jose Colmenares traded to the Chicago White Sox for OF Derek Hill and $250,000 of international signing pool
- 5/22/26 – RHP Andrew Baker traded to Colorado Rockies for $250,000 of international signing pool
- 4/14/26 – RHP Griff McGarry traded to Los Angeles Dodgers for $500,000 of international signing pool
That is $1,250,000 of international bonus pool acquired in a set of 4 trades sending out 5 prospects of note, but not particularly high standing, while also acquiring Derek Hill. The order of operation saw the Phillies sign Park first, after the Baker trade, but it reporting seems to indicate they might have had to have broken or delayed the deal with Ho to make that happen, so we can look at the amount acquiring and really see this as 5 prospects for Chan-Min Park and Hill. Park ranks 18th on Baseball America’s new Top 30 and 26th on my updated list, making him the highest ranked of the 6 prospects involved. He also is by far the youngest and probably highest upside of the group.
The are still questions about why spend that money on a pitcher and not a safer demographic like hitter. That gets more into what is available and the cost of money at certain times of year. On January 15, the Mets traded RHP Franklin Gomez to the Guardians for $1.5M in bonus pool money to make their signings. Gomez is having a good season and is better than any of the players the Phillies traded. Last year the Phillies acquired Dylan Campbell for $1M in space the Dodgers used to fully pay Roki Sasaki. Campbell was a better prospect at the time, but also the Phillies didn’t have anyone to spend that money on after losing out in their own conversation with Sasaki. This all is part of the dance of major prospects from Latin America who largely agree to their deals at age 14 and are spoken of when the signing period begins. This second signing period is largely Korean and Taiwanese players that must be bought out of being drafted and playing in their domestic league. Often these are pitchers and not hitters as a premium hitter will cost much more just like they do in other markets. Essentially, this was the available pool of players.
Their are two other major factors at play. The first is that the Phillies are near desperate to insert themselves into signings in the Pacific Rim beyond their relationships in Australia. They have made inroads in Taiwan with the recent signings of Hao-Yu Lee and Wen-Hui Pan, but have largely lacked name recognition and interest in Korea and Japan, despite expressing interest in professional players from those two countries. It seems the team is willing to spend a bit more to insert themselves as a player so that they can get meetings for players they want in the future.
The other reason is that development and talent acquisition is getting squeezed. The 165 man domestic roster limit means that each roster spot is precious. In theory, if a team has determined that player is not worth the development time or that they would like to use that spot on developing another player, moving on is a gain. Teams also know that in about 3 weeks they will need to fit in about 20 new drafted players into an already full 165 man roster. With the roster limits curtailing bringing in volume to augment traditional acquisition it forces teams back to the limits of the draft and the international bonus pools. With draft picks unable to be traded at this low level (and this is a whole different discussion when it comes to slot amounts vs hard slot picks) it really only leaves trades for international money and trades for prospects. Given prospect for prospect trades are relatively rare, we find the Phillies trying this method of churning the middle of their 165 man roster for everyone else’s spare change to make these signings.
If the Phillies were signing international pitchers in the high school range at the expense of their normal hitting signings then this would be much more concerning. However, the Phillies still spent $4M on Francisco Renteria and $500k on Juan Parra, as well as their host of low 6-figure signings. This is all mostly additive in this space and that makes it an interesting bet on their scouting and development both external facing and internal evaluation.
As a bonus, here is the report from the spring on Degges, who was traded today. He has struggled overall with Jersey Shore and made the second start of his rehab with Clearwater yesterday where he average 94 on his fastball with good ride while throwing a slider and sweeper.
Degges is a bit of a project, as he is just transitioning to being a starting pitcher. He is throwing his fastball more than he probably should, but after a dead arm period in the middle of the season he saw an increase in velocity. His slider shows promise, and his changeup was very good against low minors hitters. His control needs work as well, but he is someone to watch to see if he takes a jump forward in 2026.