72 thoughts on “2024 Phuture Phillies’ Prospect Lists”

1. Merry Christmas to all! Lets hope there are few, or better yet many, lightning in a bottles here.

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2. Merry Christmas & thanks for all your work this year, Jim. I’m happy to see you have Dominic Pipkin as #7 on your list. It seems like he has quietly and under the radar made significant strides. Am I correct in remembering that he began as a starter and is now strictly a reliever?

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   1. Yes, only one of his 23 appearances was as a starter, and that was as an opener on rehab at the Complex where he gave up 5 of the 15 runs he gave up during the summer. He allowed 2 more runs in his first rehab appearance in Clearwater. Then he steadily improved during the summer. He had one bad appearance in July (4 runs for Reading) but really hit stride in August. His velocity has ticked up. His strikeouts are better than one per inning. And, his walk rate is acceptable.

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3. Thanks for putting this together. Not a subscriber, but I believe Baseball America had Erick Brito as the Phillies best defensive infield prospect, and Yhoswar Garcia as both the fastest and most athletic. Never seen them, myself

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   1. The Phillies have had a lot of slick-fielding middle infielders who couldn’t hit. Unfortunately, Brito falls into that category. He only hit .238 in A-ball. Garcia must have whizzed on somebody’s Wheaties. He didn’t belong in Complex ball. He hit .263 after a slow start that was probably affected by the assignment. I saw him play and he was too good for the Complex league. I assumed he had fallen out of favor.

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4. I wonder if Weston Wilson also meets the criteria above for a “fast guy”?

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   1. Yeah, I know. But, he was pretty successful on the base paths. And, also went 3 for 4 with the Phillies.

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5. Merry Christmas Jim and great article and reporting….very comprehensive.
   You have Cuban 22-year old OF Dariam Gutierrez at 36……can you see anything in him that would suggest he could bean impact MLB player in a few years….or was it that he was a few years older than the kids in the DSL and that worked to his advantage?
   https://www.baseball-reference.com/register/player.fcgi?id=gutier000dar

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   1. I saw him during 2022 Instructs. I liked what I saw. That was before the new roster limitations prevented a lot of young DSL players from coming stateside in 2023. He looked like a promising prospect and I looked forward to his playing in the Complex League. With even stricter limits this year, it will be interesting to see who the Phillies bring over for ST and XST.

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6. Merry Christmas to you Jim and thank you for this present this morning. Opened up my phone like a Christmas gift this morning and this appeared. Best present so far.
   Do you think that Weston Wilson could replace Pache this year?
   Merry Christmas to everyone!

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   1. I think Pache is out of options, so any roster decision regarding Pache may result in his loss to waivers/free agency. But, Wilson with his positional flexibility could still make the roster on the bench with Stubbs/Marchan, Sosa, and Pache in place of Cave, maybe even Sosa. Most of Wilson’s starts were at SS.

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      1. Pache is definitely out of options, and he will be claimed if he goes on waivers.

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         1. I thought so. I was too busy to check. Thanks.

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      2. I think we’ll see a bench of Pache and a lefty hitting OF if Rojas makes the team to start the year so they can play two righties or two lefties to start. I’m not sure Cave will be that guy but he is right now. I’d still rather sign an upgrade and start Rojas at LHV.

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7. Thanks man & merry Christmas!

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   1. Same to you, dude.

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8. Wonder who that trade with De La Cruz was gonna be for?

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   1. It wasn’t any sort of blockbuster deal. More of an attempt to trade a guy that they thought might be selected in the major league portion of the rule 5 draft. The other team backed out just before the November deadline, then didn’t select him when he was available during the draft. Phillies probably would have gotten a lower level player or two they wouldn’t have had to protect in either portion of the draft.

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      1. Thank you! I like De La Cruz is there’s ever a need

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9. Just an FYI on prospects. CBS has an article up just now on 3 potential Japanese prospects in the not-too-distant future. Two pitchers and 3B. I just looked at it and seems like a decent article. Some of you are mentioning getting a foot in now for the future. Seems like these guys are at least a couple years off.

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10. Great stuff, Jim! I have been under the weather for a couple of weeks and hadn’t checked in here. But I appreciate the work that went into this.
    I posted my top 40 on twitter. One guy I missed was Alexis De La Cruz. I should have had him on my top 40. Great size, already up to 96 as a teenager. Have you heard anything on this kid, Jim?

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    1. Feel better soon Hinkie.

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       1. Thank you, Denny.

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       2. 😷👍

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11. Its the Eagles games, right Hinkie ? Feel better !

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    1. 😷👍🗯 Thank you, both.

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12. Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas or Happy Holiday season and thanks again Jim for putting all of this together.

    I’m still intrigued by Simon Muzziotti and even more by a platoon to start the season between he and Pache. Both are excellent defenders both are 25 and neither are long for this organization with Crawford’s projections and status as a 1st round pick.

    I see a future where Crawford and Miller become the impact young players to play along side Harper and Turner at the tail ends of their careers.

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13. DMAR…….”I see a future where Crawford and Miller become the impact young players to play along side Harper and Turner at the tail ends of their careers.”……you are a very good visionary, a prophet of sorts…hopefully!

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14. Johan Rojas…off-season workouts.
    “…..he has been working with Manny Amador, the Phillies’ DR Coordinator, in the DR, and taking live batting practice about two to three times a week. Long says that Rojas is the only player on the active roster who is seeing live pitching right now. “He’s probably taking the most swings of anybody we have up to this point,” he said. “Some guys haven’t even gotten started.”
    ……….looks like he will be ready to go come March.

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    1. Fingers crossed that he can figure some things out.

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15. Why is NPG’s health in question for 2024?

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    1. I don’t want to get my hopes up, or anyone else’s. He was rehabbing a knee injury and while he was taking BP and ground balls before heading home, he hadn’t started running. He hasn’t played at all for the Adelaide Giants this summer in Australia.

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       1. Jim the quality of Baseball in Australia, is it like double a or better?

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          1. rocco Jim may know more about the comparative…I did find this from a few years ago.
             “… It remains at the Single-A level skill-wise, but think more of a High-A team than a Low-A team.”…….Oct 30, 2019

             https://wordsabovereplacement.com/getting-to-know-baseball-in-australia/#:~:text=There%20is%20plenty%20of%20quality,than%20a%20Low-A%20team.

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             1. ty What a guy sick and your still helping me

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          2. I think comparing Australian Baseball to Double-A would be very generous. I would say High-A although I wouldn’t get into an argument with someone who said Single-A.

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          3. I think, but not entirely sure, but MLB teams will send a few of their better hitting prospects there each year…Hoskins, O’Hoppe for example…..but when it comes to their better pitching prospects, they seem to rather keep them at home-stateside to monitor them with their own staff at their own training complex….taking no chances with injury from Aussie coaching, who’s goal naturally is there to win games.
             So the overall caliber of pitching probably suffers in the ABL and drives down the level of competition..
             I really don’t know, just my opinion.

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16. Hinkie, a couple of weeks? I hope it is not serious and hope you feel better soon.

    I did not include any DSL pitchers among the top prospects. Their accomplishments and their stats were compiled behind a curtain of silence. I had no reliable information on their arsenals or their velocity.

    Regarding Alexis De La Cruz, I have heard of his topping out at 94 mph, but nothing much more. I watched some DSL games last summer. But, no one really stood out.

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17. I looked up Rafael Marchan on Baseball Reference and found he has only 1.075 service time but exceeded his Rookie Limits in 2021. I thought players needed a certain amount of service time before they were no longer considered rookies. Does elapsed time count too? Also, is this why he is no longer on any “Prospects” lists? I was wondering bc I thought I’d see him on somebody’s top 30 list.
    Thanks guys,

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    1. Andy, there was a time not too long ago, that the following was displayed on the MLB Prospect Site. Fortunately, I copied and saved it. This is what I used for prospect ranking here at Phuture Phillies. I’m sure that all the other sites that rank prospects follow this or something very similar.

       “To be eligible for a list, a player must have rookie eligibility. To qualify for rookie
       status, a player must not have exceeded 130 at-bats or 50 innings pitched in the Major
       Leagues, or accumulated more than 45 days on the active roster of a Major League club or
       clubs during the 25-player limit period, excluding time on the disabled (injured) list or
       in military service.”

       “The rankings follow the guidelines laid out by the new Collective Bargaining Agreement in
       terms of who falls under the international pool money rules: Players who are at least
       23 years old and played in leagues deemed to be professional (Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Cuba)
       are not eligible.”

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       1. Thanks Jim, that’s very helpful

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18. Fangraphs has its updated Phillies list: https://blogs.fangraphs.com/philadelphia-phillies-top-26-prospects-2024/

    Not too surprising. McGarry has really fallen.

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    1. Eric Longenhagen does not paint a very rosy picture for Justin Crawford at number 7 on his list.
       “….package of contact, speed, and defense is exciting if you anticipate that more strength will come, but it’s imperative that it does. I’ve slowly slid Crawford down from his 45+ FV pre-draft grade because he’s far less developed at this stage than I anticipated, ….”

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       1. Just hoping he’s not the American version of Carlos Tocci!

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       2. LOL the kid is going into his age 20 season. He will organically get stronger but his calling card is not ever likely to be power.

          All he’s done since becoming a pro is 319/383/823 OPS over 3 levels.

          These guys too often measure against the Julio Rodriguez’s and Acuna JRs of the world in terms of superstar potential by age.

          if Crawford was a stock I’m buying more on the dip!

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          1. Yes that could be the case…measuring him vs the Acuna/Julio Rod’s of the MLB world.
             I like to think he knows what he has to do further enhance his ability to drive the ball.

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       3. Based on the criteria that Fangraphs uses, I think that the Pharm system gets underrated due to how young many of our best prospects are and the fact that they are still at lower levels. I agree that Longenhagen was a little harsh on Crawford, but I remember Jim warning us about Luis Garcia when he was in the GCL and we were already annointing him the Phillies Acuna.

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          1. Big difference between Luis Garcia and JC. Garcia never put up numbers beyond GCL. Justin has been excellent and remarkably consistent across the FCL/Rookie the FLOR and SALLY.

             With the most important (IMO) aspect of his game being the way he commands the strike zone.

             But I don’t want to speak for Jim.

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             1. In 2021 with the Clearwater- low full season A by then, he hit .246/.356/.423/.779 as a 20 year old with 11 HR. Did not do as well when they tried moving him up. Spent part of 2022 injured and never played well at any level, being DFA’ed at the end of the year. To the best of my knowledge- out of organized baseball at present.

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          2. More than likely Crawford will be in Reading sometime this summer…..another test for him vs AA pitching.
             With added muscle and strength, perhaps he will be pulling the ball more with authority.

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             1. The concerns about the strength are legitimate. However, the hit tool with this kid is exceptional (probably like a 60 and perhaps higher) and, when I watch a younger player who is the son of a big leaguer, I always err on the side of how the father turned out. Remember Ben Grieve? His father, Tom Great, was a big time prospect and good young player but then petered out very early. Same with Ben. Cecil Fielder was good for a while, but then, the extra weight he carried caused him to have a short career. Same with Prince Fielder. It’s not a hard and fast rule, of course, but the father informs the trajectory of the son.

                The father here was a very strong individual (or appeared to be), so my suspicion is that added strength is coming.

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                1. Tom Grieve that is.

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19. But contrast Longenhagen’s analysis with what Klaw wrote last summer about Crawford: “Crawford’s BP before the Futures Game had him driving the ball out the other way, and once he gets out of the graveyards of the Florida State League he’s going to start putting balls in seats in the games, which is terrifying because he hasn’t begun to fill out.”

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20. BA’s Farm System Statcast Hitting Rankings:
    1. Dodgers 2.Yankees 3.Tigers 4. Phillies 5.Brewers 6.Padres 7.Cubs 8.Twins 9. Cardials 10. Guardians
    Baseball America’s points on their findings regarding the Phillies:
    • It likely comes as no surprise that the Dodgers and Yankees rank highly on an analytical analysis. However, the Tigers and Phillies are pleasant surprises.
    • The Phillies and the Tigers are the only two organizations that rank highly in both contact and 90th percentile exit velocity, helping to explain why both organizations rank as highly as they do in overall hit score. [Baseball America]
    https://www.baseballamerica.com/stories/2023-mlb-farm-system-statcast-hitting-rankings/

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21. BA’s Farm System Statcast Hitting Rankings:
    1.Dodgers 2. Yankees 3.Tigers 4. Phillies 5.Brewers 6.Padres 7.Cubs 8Twins 9.Cardials 10. Guardians
    Baseball America’s points on their findings regarding the Phillies:
    • No surprise that the Dodgers and Yankees rank highly on an analytical analysis. However, the Tigers and Phillies are pleasant surprises.
    • The Phillies and the Tigers are the only two organizations that rank highly in both contact and 90th percentile exit velocity, helping to explain why both organizations rank as highly as they do in overall hit score. [Baseball America]

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22. BA’s Farm System Statcast Hitting Rankings:
    1.Dodgers 2. Yankees 3.Tigers 4. Phillies 5.Brewers 6.Padres 7.Cubs 8Twins 9.Cardials 10. Guardians

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23. BA’s points on their findings regarding the Phillies:
    • “… no surprise that the Dodgers and Yankees rank highly …. However, the Tigers and Phillies are pleasant surprises.
    • The Phillies and the Tigers are the only two organizations that rank highly in both contact and 90th percentile exit velocity, helping to explain why both organizations rank as highly as they do in overall hit score

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    1. Good info, Romus. Hope you’re feeling better.

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       1. thanks Hinkie….on z-pack now

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          1. Glad to hear, Romus. Guess that means I don’t get your Cadillac. Hope y r right on Crawford. We need to get some young, cheaper talent to help

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             1. rocco….Crawford’s peripherals are good over the 450 plate appearances so far…18%K and 9% BB…SLG could show more improvemnt once he gets stronger and adds power. Maybe he is working out over the next month in Vegas with Harper, Stott and the rest of the MLB Vegas contingents…at least I hope he is.

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                1. Just read an article that Harper is moving/has moved to Knoxville, TN. TN has no income tax and is a short 2-hour flight from Philadelphia. If Nashville ever gets an MLB team that would probably require another 2-3 hour move along route 40.

                   (update: A friend whose son lives in the same neighborhood as Harper contacted me with correct information that Harper lives in Nashville. I got my information from a Bob Nightengale article. Should have known better.)

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24. https://www.baseballamerica.com/stories/2023-mlb-farm-system-statcast-hitting-rankings/

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25. Bleacher report is much more optimistic for the Phillies prospects and Crawford then Fangraphs: BR rankings for the Top 100 prospects:

    PHI (4): RHP Andrew Painter (19), RHP Mick Abel (37), OF Justin Crawford (47), 3B Aidan Miller (91)

    -Outfielder Justin Crawford hit .332/.392/.467 with 33 extra-base hits and 47 steals in 87 games between Single-A and High-A in his first full professional season after going No. 17 overall in the 2022 draft. He is the son of former All-Star outfielder Carl Crawford.

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    1. None of these rankings are surprising. Painter is lower due to the TJ surgery. But for that, he’s a clear top 10 prospect or already an established big leaguer. There are very few pitching prospects who have Painter’s upside. Painter’s upside – seriously – is a Hall of Famer. Not saying he’ll do that (so many things can go wrong), but that’s his ceiling. Abel is precisely where he belongs. Top 40 prospect who is still working on control and command but with an arsenal that could make him a perennial all-star candidate if he puts it all together – which he easily could. Crawford is an intriguing, athletic prospect with an elite or near elite hit tool, who could be a star if he gains enough strength. Miller is a promising young hitting prospect – he could be an extremely fast riser this year or next.

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       1. Concerninng Miller….Eric Lonenhagen of Fangraphs I trust to be a fair evaluator who probably has obseved thousands of prospects over the years…who knows how many.
          He seems to draw a comparison of Miller’s swing pattern to that of former Nat’s prospect Carter Kieboom and basically claim, vs minor league pitching the swing plays well….but vs MLB pitching there is serious doubts.
          I trust the Phillies will be watching Miller very closely over the next few years, and just hope Eric L. is wrong in that regard when it comes to Miller.

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26. Can’t resist……….wrong thread……please don’t excommunicate me!😂🤣😅

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    1. My comment responded to a hope that Crawford (a minor leaguer) was working out with a couple of major leaguers in Nevada. It pointed out that Harper has a new home in Tennessee and implied that it was unlikely that Crawford (a minor leaguer) would be working out with Harper during the offseason.

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27. Regarding Garcia, I saw him in the GCL and reported that a good portion of his batting average was propped up by ground balls through the infield and fly balls (soft line drives, if you will) that didn’t travel deep enough to reach the outfielders. I cautioned that better infield defense might cut off some of his grounders as he moved up the affiliate ladder and that his soft liners might start reaching outfielders as he gained strength.

    Now, granted, Garcia did not live up to the hype his .369 batting average in the GCL generated. But, I did not predict that he would hit as poorly as he did over the rest of his career. I merely tried to slow the hype that his GCL season created.

    Crawford is a different story. His detractors are many. I am not one of them. Again, I have watched him at two levels now. I did report that he (and Emaarion Boyd) were very thin when they were drafted … out of high school. Crawford has a great swing and makes solid contact. Sure, some of his hits are infield hits but that doesn’t mean he can’t or won’t hit for power. Crawford is starting to fill out. His power will come. And, if it takes a couple of years that doesn’t matter. What matters is that he continues to gain bulk and power and continues to improve.

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28. Did everyone know McFarlane had TJ and is out for 2024? I might have just missed that.
    The good news with fangraphs is that they like our young kids so well. It’s exciting to see Caba and Tait so high on their list.

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    1. The Phillies don’t make a habit of reporting the injuries of players and prospects below Triple-A. But, since the cat’s out of the bag, yeah McFarlane is recovering from TJ. So is Painter which everyone knows. And so are RHP Guissepe Velasquez, LH Erubiel Armenta, RH Marty Gair, and RH Alex Garbrick. Another dozen or so players who finished the season on the 60- or Full Season Injury Lists will likely start the 2024 season on the IL. Some of those will be pitchers some of whom probably had TJ, too.

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29. Surprised, that Atlanta ranks so low on the fangraphs lists

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