Entering the season, most prospect lists had 3-4 Phillies prospects listed amongst their top-100.
Baseball America had three: shortstop Aidan Miller (No. 14), starting pitcher Andrew Painter (No. 32) and outfielder Justin Crawford (No. 75).
Baseball Prospectus was a bit more bullish, listing five: Miller (13), Painter (51), starter Gage Wood (77), infielder Aroon Escobar (78) and Crawford (98).
But with 50 MLB games now under their belts, Painter and Crawford have graduated and are no longer considered
prospects. Therefore, some of the updated lists are light on Phils prospects.
This week, MLB Pipeline released an updated Top 100 on which there were only two prospects represented: Miller (16) and Wood (71), and ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel updated his Top 50. Not surprisingly, Miller (16) was the only Phillies prospect listed.
Perhaps it’s not terribly surprising news, given the departure of Painter and Crawford, but it’s still a bit depressing when you consider Miller has yet to come close to playing an actual baseball game this season.
There were encouraging reports this week that Miller’s back issue was slowly getting better. Don Mattingly said Miller is “beginning to do light baseball activity,” which everyone hopes is more than playing catch with the Iron Pigs’ ball boys. But it does not appear he is swinging a bat as of yet.
Miller’s back injury is a cause for concern, even as the Phils attempt to downplay it. Information about it has been scant so far this spring, and it’s obvious Miller could lose a significant amount of important development in AAA. At this point, there should be no expectation of him joining the big league club at all in ‘26.
With Miller out, Wood is scheduled to make his first start for Reading since his promotion tonight (Friday), and is the only prospect in the system deemed worthy of inclusion among the game’s best.
That’s not to say there aren’t some intriguing prospects in the system, particularly at AA, where Escobar, center fielder Dante Nori, reliever Alex McFarlane, shortstop Bryan Rincon and Carson DeMartini.
- Rincon: .263/.389/.511 .900 OPS, 7 HRs, 20 RBIs, 15 SB
- Escobar: .255/.328/.369, .697 OPS, 3 HRs, 25 RBIs, 10 SB
- Nori: .245/.301/.387, .688 OPS, 2 HRs, 16 RBIs,
- DeMartini: .274/.361/.432, .793 OPS, 4 HRs, 11 RBIs
- McFarlane: 16 games, 0.57 ERA, 15.2 IP, 21/7 K/BB ratio
At the moment, none of the four position players listed project as potential All Stars. McFarlane could be a bullpen piece as soon as this year, so there is some hope there. But a top 100 prospect he will not be.
One of the items Dave Dombrowski was supposed to address was the farm system and, with Painter and Crawford in the Majors, the hope is those two will be the first promotions to make a major impact on the big league club. So far, the results are mixed, but plenty of time remains.
But entering the season, the Phils’ farm system, even with Painter and Crawford included and Miller’s back injury largely unknown, MLB Pipeline ranked it No. 20. They wrote:
It’s a good thing when your top three prospects — all Top 100 guys — will have the chance to contribute to the big league roster this year. Two of them, Andrew Painter and Justin Crawford, should make the Opening Day roster. Just beyond the Top 100 prospects, there’s excitement brewing with 2025 first-rounder Gage Wood and 2026 international signee Francisco Renteria, who is already creating buzz in the organization.
Renteria is certainly an intriguing prospect the team has sunk a lot of money into ($4 million for a 17-year-old), but he’s only just begun playing in the Phils’ Dominican Summer League.
Clearly there’s a lot of work still to do to get the organization’s farm system to a point it’s among the game’s best. The first step would be for Aidan Miller’s back to start cooperating.
