Dante Nori

Role: Everyday Center Fielder
Risk: High – Nori currently hits for zero power and is already 20 and physically mature. He should have the glove, speed, and contact to not need to be a slugger, but he will need to hit for some power.
Summary: The Phillies have never shied away from older prospects in the draft, and Nori was one of the oldest high schoolers when they took him with the 27th pick and signed him to about the smallest deal they could for a player who went to the combine. He is an already polished player who should be a plus defender in center field thanks to plus plus speed. At the plate he already has the advanced approach you would hope for from an older player. In his brief time in Clearwater he had a 92.5% zone contact rate and did not chase much or struggle with offspeed pitches. He was probably too passive, and an area of improvement will be finding pitches to do damage with. Which gets to the real negative of Nori as a prospect, he does very little damage at the plate. In his 14 games in the Florida State League he had a 90th percentile exit velocity of 93.2 mph with a max of 96.9 mph, both of which would have been in the 1st percentile of all FSL hitters. When you watch him hit, his swing is not geared to drive the ball, instead focused on contact, and it looks like he should have more power if he actually swung with more intent. He shouldn’t be a max effort hacker, but he needs to find a way to swing with the goal of driving the baseball. Unless Nori makes a transformative change, he is probably a low ceiling prospect, and assuming center field remains as bleak as it is now and he maintains his defense, he probably has a fairly high floor.
2025 Outlook: Nori should start the year in Clearwater, but is older and polished enough that he could prove he needs a midseason challenge against older competition.