The Phillies took high school pitchers in the first round in each of the last two drafts, the first time they’d done this once since 2010 (Jesse Biddle) and the first time they’d done it in back-to-back drafts since 2001 and 2002 (Gavin Floyd and Cole Hamels). Their 2021 first-rounder, Andrew Painter, started Sunday’s High-A game between Jersey Shore and Wilmington and flashed two plus pitches in a planned two-inning stint.
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Painter is huge — 6-foot-7 and listed at a light 215 — and the ball comes out like you’d expect from a pitcher that physical. He was 95-98 in his 28-pitch outing on Sunday, with the ball getting in on hitters very quickly, and paired it with a plus curveball at 76-81 that had depth and angle to it and that he could use to get a called strike against a lefty. He didn’t throw a changeup in the game or, I think, in warmups. He’s on line to the plate and has a high three-quarters slot that makes great use of his height. He’d skipped a start the previous series as the Phillies try to manage the 19-year-old’s workload in his first full season in pro ball, so this was like a rehab outing as they build him back up to making full starts again. Other than wanting to see a third pitch, I couldn’t have asked for more from him.
• The Phillies’ first-round pick in 2020, Mick Abel, threw on Friday night and pitched into the seventh inning for the second start in a row. He was 93-98, mostly 93-95 over the whole outing, with a slurvy breaking ball that might be two pitches that just ran right into each other, as their break was pretty similar but the velocity range was really wide for a single pitch. It’s best at 79-85 with two-plane break, an above-average pitch but without enough power or sharpness to call it plus. He had a changeup that he didn’t use until the ninth batter he faced, mostly 87-88 without much action or fade to it.
Abel is also pretty big, 6-5 and I’d guess 210-215 by now, certainly more than his listed 190, and he gets very good extension out over his front side, which should help the fastball play up. He gave up a lot more contact than you would expect from a weak Wilmington lineup, with just four strikeouts in 26 batters faced along with four walks, as the Blue Rocks hitters seemed to see his fastball pretty well and at least could put it in play. He’s still young, turning 21 next month, and has the makings of two above-average pitches, but I think his command is still a ways off and he needs to develop the changeup or something else to keep hitters on both sides off the heater.
• The series also included Griff McGarry’s final start for Jersey Shore, after which he was promoted to Double-A Reading. McGarry is an interesting story, as he lost his spot in the University of Virginia rotation at one point last spring because he couldn’t throw strikes, and he walked 42 men in 43 innings on the season, although he was 97-98 with a plus slider in relief. The Phillies saw his athleticism and put him back in the rotation, loosening up his delivery, and he’s been a different guy, with 24 walks and 82 strikeouts in 46 2/3 innings for the BlueClaws — still too many walks, but a 70 percent reduction from his rate in college.
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He came out sitting 95-97 in the first inning, with his first 10 fastballs all in that range, with a little late life, and showed a full four-pitch mix, including a hard slider at 85-88 and a surprisingly good 11/5 curveball at 79-81. His changeup was just OK, 86-88 but maybe a little easy to see out of his hand. It’s not a question of stuff with McGarry, though, or delivery, but command and control. He got away with a lot of poor location against Wilmington, which, not to belabor the point, has the third-worst offense in the High-A Sally League. (The worst? Jersey Shore. Put a pin in that.) I don’t think McGarry can pitch the same way in Double A and have similar results, but I also think that it’s the challenge he needs at this point, because he can miss bats with mistakes in A-ball.
• One more Phillies pitching prospect before we move along. Painter was followed by Ben Brown, who was originally scheduled to start the Sunday game and piggybacked with Painter after Saturday night’s game was canceled due to rain. Brown was the Phillies’ 33rd-round pick in 2017 out of Ward Melville High School on Long Island, but underwent Tommy John surgery in 2019 and missed most of 2021 with another injury, so he came into 2022 with just 100 career pro innings.
After Sunday’s 10-strikeout performance, he has punched out exactly a third of the batters he’s faced this year, and I think he’s doing it largely with his fastball, which is 94-97 and was just about unhittable in this outing. He has a four-pitch repertoire, but none of the secondaries are above-average, and the two breaking balls run into each other — the curveball has power, mostly 83-87, and his slider is 88-90 but more like a cutter. Brown is 6-6 but takes a short stride for someone his height, getting just fair extension. He throws a lot of strikes, though, and with that fastball, I wouldn’t rule him out yet as a starter even without a clear out pitch among his secondaries.
• The BlueClaws lineup, however, is not loaded with prospects. Their best prospect, Johan Rojas, was promoted to Double A on Thursday, even with a .287 OBP at this level. Casey Martin, their third-round pick in 2020, is an elite defender at short with a strong and very accurate arm, and he’s a plus runner, but he has a .253 OBP here as a 23-year-old and kept chasing fastballs up at his eyes. Ethan Wilson, their second-rounder last year, made a bunch of soft contact in the three games I saw, and his line of .239/.301/.367 isn’t going to work for a right fielder. And Baron Radcliff might be better off as a character in the third season of “Bridgerton.”
• The Nationals’ High-A Blue Rocks’ best hitter right now is probably Omar Meregildo, a thick-bodied first baseman who has some real power, but he’s repeating the level and is 24 years old, way too old for A-ball. Among their pitchers, Seth Shuman — part of the deal that sent Yan Gomes and Josh Harrison to Oakland last July — showed a fastball that missed a lot of bats up top of the zone even at 91-92, but his four walks in five innings were his highest single-game total of the year. He doesn’t have a plus pitch, so if his command is there, he could be a swingman. Reliever Jose Ferrer, a left-hander making his full-season debut this year, was 94-95, bumping 98 once, with a very hard slider at 86-91. He was erratic but didn’t allow a baserunner in two innings. Reliever prospects are imaginary creatures but he’s got a chance.
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• On Tuesday night, I caught the White Sox’s High-A affiliate, Winston-Salem, at Baltimore’s affiliate in Aberdeen. Winston-Salem featured shortstop Colson Montgomery, Chicago’s first-round pick in 2021 out of an Indiana high school, who has been outstanding at the plate at two levels so far this year as a 20-year-old. He’s had two hits in four of his seven games so far in High A. I did not get to one of those games, although he did have one hit, so this isn’t a Luis Robert situation, but he played the hell out of shortstop, with a quick first step and a plus arm, making two good plays coming in on softly hit balls. His swing is good, if sometimes long, and he did show he could pull his hands in to shorten up and stay inside the ball. The big question about Montgomery in high school was whether he could hit better pitching, since he hadn’t done so as an amateur, but so far the results are very, very promising.
• Cuban outfielder Oscar Colás, signed this January for a $2.7 million bonus, is also off to a strong start in High A, although at 23 the former NPB minor leaguer should be ready to hit in High A. He’s got a powerful swing and makes a lot of hard contact, but on Tuesday showed some trouble with breaking stuff, chasing the same pitch multiple times while making his contact on fastballs and changeups.
• Aberdeen starter Dan Hammer was Baltimore’s 13th-round pick in 2019 out of the University of Pittsburgh, where he was an unremarkable starter who walked too many guys. He walked 36 batters in 19 2/3 innings last year in the Florida Complex League, and 40 in his first 46 innings this year. So of course I get the first outing of the season where he walks nobody, and looks like a potential fourth starter. He can’t be that if he keeps walking guys, but he was 92-95 with big tail on a low-80s changeup and showed a good enough curveball to make him a real three-pitch guy. I have no idea if something actually changed here or I just got him on the best night of his life.
• I mentioned Orioles infielder Darell Hernaiz in a scouting post in mid-May, saying he was the best-hitting prospect on Low-A Delmarva at the time. He’s since been promoted to High A, and I caught his first three-hit game at the level, with three hard-hit balls, showing plus speed underway on the bases as well. He’s a natural shortstop, but has played second and third as well this year, doing so in about equal measure for Aberdeen; at second base, he looked like someone who hadn’t played the position much before, with poor reads on groundballs consistent with inexperience (or just poor instincts). I said in May that I thought he had a chance to be a utility infielder and I still see that.
(Top photo of Andrew Painter: Mike Janes / Four Seam Images via AP)
