Phillies Prospects Dot New Top 100 Rankings

The Philadelphia Phillies had four players listed in the new MLB Pipeline Top 100 prospects released on Friday night.

MLB Pipeline usually releases its new Top 100 every January, with an update at midseason.

The Phillies’ Top 100 prospects included right-handed pitcher Andrew Painter (No. 27), right-handed pitcher Mick Abel (No. 49), infielder Aidan Miller (No. 61) and outfielder Justin Crawford (No. 77)

Before the new Top 100, the Phillies had four prospects listed — Painter (No. 28), Abel (No. 45), Crawford (No. 77) and Miller (No. 90).

Painter’s ranking comes in spite of the fact that he is unlikely to pitch in 2024 after he had Tommy John surgery last summer.

Even with the injury, the Phillies expect Painter to pitch for them in the Majors at some point. Recently, MLB executives rated Painter as tops among right-handed prospects in control.

For his minor-league career, the former first-round pick is 6-2 in the minors with a 1.48 ERA and 167 strikeouts in 109.2 innings. He’s walked just 25.

Abel is another highly touted right-handed pitcher and another that could be Major League ready soon. Those same executive rate his curveball as a high-level secondary pitch among right-handed prospects.

He reached Triple-A Lehigh Valley last year, which puts him in position to challenge for a MLB role. In his minor-league career he is 14-20 with a 4.09 ERA and strikes out 11.1 hitters per nine innings.

Miller was the Phillies’ first-round pick last summer and coming out of high school he played in 20 minor league games and batted .303. He even did a little time with Class-A Clearwater.

Crawford is the son of former MLB star Carl Crawford and has already played his way to High-A Jersey Shore after the Phillies took him in the first round in 2022.

He is one of minor league baseball’s fastest players. He participated in last year’s MLB Futures Game and ended 2023 by slashing .332/.392/.467/.859 with three home runs and 64 RBI. He hit 22 doubles, eight triples and stole 47 bases in 87 games.

Rankings were created based on input from scouts, scouting directors and other talent evaluators. It also takes into account skill set, upside, proximity to the Majors and potential immediate impact to their teams.

The Top 100 includes players with 2024 rookie status, which includes players that debuted in 2023 that don’t have the service time (45 days on the active roster), at-bats (130) or innings pitched (50) to graduate.