Will Phillies Continue Their Recent Trend With Early Selections in 2025 MLB Draft?

The Philadelphia Phillies have been in win-now mode ever since Dave Dombrowski took over the front office as president of baseball operations on Dec. 11, 2020.

They have seen their regular season win total increase each year, finding a ton of success from March through September. But they haven’t been able to get over the hump when it matters most in October yet.

The Phillies made the World Series in 2022 but were defeated by the Houston Astros. In the subsequent postseason, their exits have been earlier and earlier.

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In 2023, they blew a 3-2 lead against the Arizona Diamondbacks in the NLCS at home. Last year, their National League East rivals, the New York Mets, eliminated them in four games in the NLDS.

This season, they will be looking to make some noise in the playoffs on the back of a dominant starting rotation.

But there are some needs the team should be looking to address ahead of the trade deadline, with their bullpen being the No. 1 priority.

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Luckily for Philadelphia, they have a strong farm system to dip into if they find a team to make a trade with.

The Phillies have done a wonderful job keeping their minor league system stocked with talent by hitting on several early draft picks with a clear plan in place: targeting high school players in the early rounds.

That leads to the biggest question facing Philadelphia entering the 2025 MLB draft: will they continue that trend of selecting prep players early on?

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“The Phillies made the most surprising first-round pick last year, taking Dante Nori at the 27th pick. Their next-highest bonus went to another prep center fielder, Griffin Burkholder, while their top three bonuses in 2023 also went to prep position players and their top pick in 2022 was a prep position player. They found solid value in 2021 and 2020 taking prep right-handers with their top picks, so it's a safe bet the Phillies will take a high school player with their first pick this year,” wrote Kiley McDaniel of ESPN.

Philadelphia will be on the clock at No. 26 with their first selection, and they have two more picks on Day 1 of the 2025 MLB draft at Nos. 63 and 100.

The odds are they will select a prep player, but will he be of the positional player or pitching variety?

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They have found value in selecting both, and several options will be on the table this year as well.

“There are a number of prep position players who could fit for their first pick (Kayson Cunningham, Xavier Neyens, Quentin Young, Sean Gamble, Slater de Brun) but also a handful of prep pitchers, with Matthew Fisher the one connected to Philly the most,” McDaniel added.

Continuing to restock the farm system with high-upside high schoolers will not only help keep them near the top of the rankings, but it will also provide Dombrowski with the kind of depth necessary to pull off trades to bolster the Major League roster with established players.

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