Phillies Minor League Recap (Week 5 4/21-4/27)

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This Week’s Schedule

Hitter Spotlight

C Alirio Ferrebus

8-21 2 2B 2 HR 9 RBI 0 BB 1 K 2 HBP .381/.417/.762

Over the first few weeks of the season, Ferrebus has been one of the best hitters in the FSL, with a season line of .308/.395/.538. In his repeat appearance through the league he has hit the ball harder (90th percentile EV from 102.5 to 106.2), while maintaining the best zone-contact rate (92.9%) among players with at least 50 PAs. His chase rate is still too high, but has improved, but more than anything he is swinging often against pitches in his zone. He also closed his hole against premium velocity. Historically Ferrebus has struggled with poor contact quality, and this year he has cut both his ground ball rate, and pop up rate while pulling the ball more. The question around Ferrebus is whether he can stick behind the plate (he has been at DH when Will Vierling catches). He has made improvements behind the plate, and has plenty of arm, but his receiving can look rough at times. He is athletic enough that he might be able to play another position, but for now the Phillies look like they will see if he can stick at catcher for now.

I love everything about this swing from Alirio Ferrebus. Hanging breaking ball that he drives over the wall to center. It goes 415 feet at 103.9 mph. Third homer of the season for Ferrebus

— Mitch_Rupert (@mitchrupert.bsky.social) 2026-04-26T17:43:14.706Z

Pitcher Spotlight

RHP Andrew Baker

2 G 2 IP 1 H 0 R 0 BB 3 K

It took 24 pitches for Baker to record 2 inning this week. Through 7 games he has his best line of his career – 1.08 ERA 8.1 IP 5 H 1 ER 1 BB 12 K. When he last was on prospect radars, Baker was routinely throwing over 100 with a power curveball. His velocity is down a bit from there, with his fastball sitting more 95 to 97 with a 98 mixed in. He is also rarely throwing it, instead he is leaning on a high 80s cutter that has had much more success landing in the zone. He has been able to handle right handed batters for much of his career, but this change has led to more success against left handed batters. He still will mix in a curveball or two (though it trends more like a slider these days). Baker hasn’t jumped back up to being viewed as the next Ken Giles, but he is looking like a potential major leaguer again, even if it is more as a lower leverage arm.

Notes and Thoughts

  • It was the first real stumble of the year for Gage Wood, in his first start of the week. He breezed through the first two innings using almost entirely just his fastball and slider. He didn’t get the gaudy whiff rates, and his slider was not as effective at getting chases. However, a lot of it was similar to the Phillies team with a full count walk, two ground ball singles, one very weak, and then a soft double with all of the runners coming home to score. He was on the two start schedule so he came back with a planned 2 inning appearance on Sunday that had a leadoff triple, but was otherwise fine.
  • After last week’s 4 hit game binge, the swing and miss caught up with Matthew Ferrara who started his week with a 2 hit game with a double and triple, but ended it 0 for 15 with 8 strikeouts.
  • Aroon Escobar has struggled to get hits this year as a he has been ground ball prone. This week he was 2 for 16, but he did get on base with 6 walks in 5 games. On the season he has a career high 14.0% walk rate thanks to a career low swing rate and whiff rate. He just now needs to actually do damage and avoid becoming too passive at the plate.
  • Sometimes it is the little things that matter, and even though most of Bryan Rincon’s success has come at home (.930 OPS with 7 BB / 9 K vs .513 OPS 2 BB 10 K) and that includes this week (.353/.421/.882 with 2 HR 2 BB 3 K), he is hitting more this year. It is all small samples, so it is too early to lock him in as a Reading only creation.
  • After weeks of Dante Nori not hitting like Dante Nori, this week he returned to that with a .300/.391/.400 batting line with 2 walks and just 1 strikeout. He also stole 5 bases and was caught only once. His season walk rate is still low, but his strikeout rate is near back in line. He is popping the ball up too much, but otherwise his batted ball data is trending towards previous seasons.
  • Mavis Graves fell slightly off of his strikeout pace, with only 6 strikeouts in 4 innings with 15 patters faced. He also gave up a pair of home runs leading to 3 runs in those 4 innings. However, he got 15 whiffs and it only took 51 pitches to go 4 innings and 38 of them ended up being strikes.
  • After signing with the Phillies in the middle of last year, Alex Binelas hit 8 home runs in 68 games for Reading, he has 8 in 17 games this year, including 3 this week. He has 11 walks to 13 strikeouts on the season, and has always had a decent approach. Warning signs beyond it being his 4th season in AA is that his OPS is 1.504 at Reading and .942 on the road and his OPS is similarly up 500 points vs RHP than LHPs. He is in the early running for guy getting the Reading park boost, so this is more of a good thing for Reading’s game results than his prospect status so far.
  • After missing all of 2025, Wen-Hui Pan returned to the mound this week. His fastball lacked zip, averaging just a bit over 94 mph, and he struggled with feel on his splitter. It is mostly just good to see him back on the mound.
  • No pitcher in the organization has been as dominant over the last week and a half than Marty Gair. He isn’t throwing 100 like he did in his 2 inning appearance on April 10, but he is averaging about 97. After 3 poor appearances, his game last week and two this week has seen him strike out 9 of the 12 batters he has faced. Opposing hitters have made contact on just 55% of their swings against his fastball in the strike zone. His control is still a major problem.
  • Given his lack of velocity, throwing upper 80s from the right side, Reese Dutton can’t really be described as a prospect of any note. That said, he has now not allowed a run in his 18 innings (4 games) to start the season.
  • Second week in a row with 0 walks and 7 strikeouts for Brad Pacheco, this time with only the one run given up. He is settling in with the new arsenal, the next step will be if he starts to work deeper into games and how the velocity and command hold up.
  • It was another good start for Braydon Tucker (6 IP 3 H 1 ER 3 BB 8 K). He sat 91-93 with decent command of his fastball, but really he is thriving by mixing and matching his sweeper and harder slider.
  • It wasn’t a dominant or clean outing for Ramon Marquez in Extended Spring Training, but he was sitting 95-97 with his fastball, and his whole arsenal is up 1-2 mph on 2025. He was a breakout arm last year and might be working on a good follow up.
  • It was a big week for Caleb Ricketts who was 7 for 15 this week with 3 doubles and 3 home runs. He can hit the ball decently hard but the underlying numbers point to more of a good org guy than a breakout. His arm is unplayable at catcher (28 for 34 on stolen base attempts against him in 10 games), and he has some pretty large swing and miss and approach problems.

Injuries and Transactions

Links and Things

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