A Critical Look at the Phillies Organization and Minor League Baseball
Matt Winkelman There is a large gap at the top of the system from 5 to 6. Nori is the near consensus #6 prospect in the system due to his combination of position and hit tool. Rounding out this bottom half of the top 10, there are the two 2025 draftees who received 2nd round level bonuses, … Read more
Starting tomorrow (January 15, 2026) teams can make official signings for international players using their 2026 bonus pool if they turned 16 before the end of August 2025. Typically the players getting notable amounts of signing bonus will be those newly eligible, but the Phillies will typically sign a handful of older players, typically pitchers. … Read more
If you want a microcosm of the Phillies system, this part of the list is probably it. It is pitching heavy, but that pitching comes in the form of future back end starters, relievers with command issues, and just drafted arms. Some of this is good, since it has been a while since the Phillies … Read more
If the bottom of the system started (or starts, depending on the order you are reading this) to make you question what a prospect is, this part of the list gets into real prospects with MLB upside. That said, the shallowness of the system is clear, as is some of the work the Phillies have … Read more
When I sat down to the yearly exercise of putting together this list, I was under no delusion that I was writing up a strong farm system. The Phillies are a competitive team that has struggled with development while not having the depth to cycle out players for influxes of talent like the Dodgers have … Read more
There is a repeated adage that teams are generally populated by smart people and when they make a puzzling move you should probably take a second look at it and see what the team saw and why they did it. When the Phillies acquired Jonathan Bowlan for Matt Strahm the general consensus was that it … Read more
In a flurry of work before everyone goes home for the holidays the Phillies remade the middle of the bullpen in a set of three moves that really should all be packaged together. In: RHP Brad Keller, RHP Jonathan Bowlan, LHP Kyle Backhus Out: LHP Matt Strahm, OF Avery Owusu-Asiedu The Phillies got about $5M … Read more
Winter Leagues Australian Baseball League 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 … Read more
Not all projections come true in the Rule 5 draft, but it looked like the Phillies might lose Griff McGarry and were likely to select a RH reliever with their own pick. Both of those things came to pass. They also acquired a live armed potential reliever convert from the Rays in a trade after … Read more
The Rule 5 draft typically ends the Winter Meetings, and in this case that will be Wednesday 2pm ET, and so we continue the series of offseason posts entirely related to the transactions around it. For the major league phase, the Phillies have not selected and kept a player in a number of years, but … Read more