This Week’s Schedule
- Lehigh Valley (31-14) vs Buffalo (17-26)
- Reading (13-23) @ Portland (20-15)
- Jersey Shore (14-23) vs Brooklyn (26-12)
- Clearwater (21-18) @ Bradenton (17-21)
- FCL Phillies (3-9)
Hitter Spotlight
4 G 19 PA 3-14 2 HB 4 BB 1 K 1 HBP
It was mostly a quiet week for Ferrebus outside of a two home run game (two opposite field shots on fastballs). He is only hitting .238 on season, mostly due to a high ground ball rate (a trend the last two seasons over a small sample 22 games at the complex). However, he has 8 walks to 6 strikeouts in his 12 games this season, which is a continuation of the trends he has shown over the last two seasons. His swing looks good and he can routinely hit the ball with exit velocities over 100 mph, which makes the ground ball rate look a bit more like a timing and approach issue than a concerning long term trend. Ferrebus has been the primary catcher for the FCL Phillies this year, and has largely kept the running game in control and has looked passable, but not great, behind the plate. As the deadline gets closer and the Phillies start to talk trades, in particular more minor ones for relievers, expect Ferrebus’s name to come up because of the good bat but defensive concerns. For now, he continues to move up Phillies lists and has been up to billing as the best prospect on a rather poor FCL Phillies team.
Pitcher Spotlight
RHP Ryan Degges
1 GS 5.1 IP 3 H 2 ER 1 BB 7 K
The Phillies selected Degges in the 17th round of the 2024 draft, but he did not make his pro debut until this season. He was a bit of a project, as he was a two way player in junior college before moving to pitching full time in 2024 as a reliever for UNC Charlotte. He showed promise, but put up a 6.33 ERA and 7.0 BB/9. The Phillies started him out in more of a bulk relief role this year, but with injuries and trades he has moved into the rotation for his last three appearances. Overall on the season he has a 1.16 ERA over 23.1 innings with 12 walks and 29 strikeouts. The arsenal is a bit of a muddled mess. Savant says he throws a 4-seam fastball and a sinker, others have just a 4-seamer, and the pre-draft report mentions just a riding 4-seamer. He does get solid vertical movement on the pitch, but the release point is not as flat as advertised, and as a starter he is averaging about 93, but can get it up to 96. The pre-draft report mentions a plus sweeper, but it is hard to find it in the data, but there is a gyro cutter/slider and some sort of sweeper in a mess of breaking balls. Depending on how you bucket them, you can find two solid pitches, or one good and one poor pitch, but there is feel for a breaking ball of some sort there. What is a surprise is a mid 80s changeup that has missed a ton of bats in low-A, but doesn’t display any particularly exciting movement profile. This all comes together as a bit of a confusing profile, until we go back to him being fairly new to all of this. There aren’t markers that make him look like a future breakout ace, but he seems to be a lump of clay that is starting to show some hints of the shape it could take in the future.
Notes and Thoughts
- Andrew Painter was up to 5 innings this week, but he still hasn’t dominated with strikeouts the way you would want. He still is holding his velocity, and this week he threw less fastballs than he has so far. There isn’t anything to worry about yet, but it would be good to see some dominance and him pitching more than on 6 days rest.
- It is now 4 straight dominant outings for Alex McFarlane who took a loss in a 6 inning complete game as part of a double header. Over this stretch he has gone 18.1 innings with 4 walks, 20 strikeouts, and just a 0.49 ERA. The velocity has also crept up, with him sitting mostly 96-97 a week ago and reportedly touching 99 this week.
- The swing and miss is creeping up for Justin Crawford with 1 walk and 7 strikeouts in 5 games last week. He did hit his first home run of the season, and it was not a cheapy and it was off of Nolan McLean a notable prospect.
- While his whiff and swing rates have not changed much for Otto Kemp, his strikeout rate continues to climb as well. Though that isn’t the real concern. Kemp had two doubles this week, and after 21 extra base hits in the March/April (28 games) he has 6 extra base hits in 15 games in May. His average exit velocity is down 6 mph this month and all of his damage metrics have decreased. His is batting .339 thanks to a .513 BABIP which is obscuring the slump.
- Gabriel Rincones Jr. has already doubled his number of walks from the April in May (6 in April, 13 in May). He is batting just .186 on the month, but has a .379 on base percentage. He had a two home run game this week, and those were all of his hits, but thanks to 7 walks it was a .154/.476/.615 week.
- It had been a bit of a slump for Aroon Escobar, but he ended the week with a 5-5 day and his 8th home run of the season. His May has not been quite as scalding as April, but with just 3 strikeouts this week he is still seeing the ball well. With Devin Saltiban down for a while, it feels like a promotion should happen soon.
- Griffin Burkholder got his first pro home run on an inside the park home run where the left fielder probably failed on the ground rules. It is still a lot of strikeouts, but he played 4 games this week and finally added a respectable week to his season with a .267/.353/.533 line.
- You can take issue with the walk and strikeout rates for Keaton Anthony (a respectable, but not outstanding 8.1% and 21.1% respectively), but he is doing what you want to see otherwise. He is not hitting home runs (just 2 on the season), but his 4 doubles this week bring him to 15 on the year. He has a .393 BABIP, but he also has a 32.5% line drive rate so it isn’t like he is just getting lucky.
- Hendry Mendez has already tied his home run total from the last two seasons at 3 with two home runs this year. His ground ball rate has crept up slightly, but at 48.5% it is still well below where he has been for his career. It is concerning that much of his power has come at home in Reading and that he has not hit lefties (though it seems that Reading has not seen many lefties, more on that later).
- It was a good start this week by Angel Liranzo with 5 innings of scoreless work. He sat 88 to 91 and threw mostly a steady diet of changeups, while working in some sliders.
- It was a relatively quiet 2024 season for Francisco Loreto, but the Phillies still brought the 17 year old stateside. They have trusted him enough to bat him leadoff for the FCL team, and he matched Ferrebus’s two home run game with a 5-5 day with a home run of his own. He has a fairly easy right handed that flashes power. Last season he mostly played catcher, but dabbled at second. With the lack of infielders on the FCL team he played infield all spring. It has not gone particularly great despite effort, as he has 8 errors at third in just 6 games there.
- Aidan Miller is quietly hitting .275/.351/.431 this month and went 6-17 this week with a double and a home run to go with 4 more stolen bases. He is striking out too much while sporting a 39% swing % which indicates he is being too passive and putting himself behind in counts. It is also concerning he is hitting much better at home than on the road, but also he is a right handed batter who has a total of 12 plate appearances vs left handed pitching this entire season.
- Felix Reyes has been pushed back down the lineup and got a start at 3B as he only started 3 times this week. His flaws are starting to show back up again as his free swinging ways have led to a .887 OPS this month, but 0 walks to 10 strikeouts.
- The Phillies selected Isaias Dipre in the minor league phase of the Rule 5 draft off the Pirates DSL teams. He isn’t being prioritized in the lineup, but he has 5 doubles in 8 games so far. This week in 4 games he had three of those doubles to go with 4 walks and 1 strikeout.
- Ryan Dromboski was a UDFA signing last year out of Penn after he had a good run in the Cape Cod League. Pitching as a starter now after being a bulk guy (much like fellow Ryan Degges). He has a 1.83 ERA this year with 6 walks to 33 strikeouts in 34.1 innings. This week he went 5.1 innings with 1 walk and 9 strikeouts. He doesn’t have big velocity with a sinker sitting 91 (but he can get up to 96), but his sweeper has great metrics and his changeup has been devastating (35.2% swing strike%). It is low-A hitters, but the offspeed pitches have been very good.
Injuries and Transactions
- Max Lazar (MLB), Mick Abel (MLB<->AAA), Ramon Marquez (FCL), Luke Russo (AA), and Daniel Robert (MLB<->AAA) assigned to new levels
- Yhoan Escalona activated from development list
- Yhoan Escalona added to development list
- Eli Trop activated from 7-day IL
- Marcus Morgan, Alexander De Los Santos, and Moises Chace added to 7-day IL
- Danyony Pulido was assigned on rehab assignment to FCL
- C Rey Cruz signed as an international free agent and assigned to DSL Phillies White
- Lou Albrecht and Jared Thomas added to 60-day IL
- Samuel Estevez released
- LHP Cristian Tortosa signed to a minor league contract and assigned to Jersey Shore
- Carson Taylor and Naoel Mejia moved to full season IL
Links and Things
Around the Web
- 7 Up-Arrow MLB Prospects Who Could Be No. 1 Overall In 2026 – Baseball America – Josh Norris
- Mick Abel shines in history-making Phillies debut after overcoming rocky 2024 season – The Athletic – Charlotte Varnes
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