Is that starting pitcher depth, or doth mine eyes deceive me?
We here at The Good Phight are “celebrating” the 2015 Phillies this season as a sort of memoriam of how far the team has come. Some of you choose to revel in the horrid memories, while others are turned away, scarred by the games and lost years and lost hours.
If you were there and still remember it, you remember the starting pitchers that toed the rubber for the team that season – Kevin Correia, Sean O’Sullivan, Severino Gonzalez. These “pitchers” were used by the Phillies to actually try and win games that season. As you can surmise, the team had nothing in the way of actual, usable pitching depth to cover 162 games, so players like this were summoned to try and fill the gaps.
Flash forward to today. The Phillies have five capable major league starters, one “starter” who is likely headed for a different uniform before camp is over, a top prospect will start games as soon as he is ready and several options in the minors ready to go in case a need arises. Our next prospect on this list, Jean Cabrera, is one of those arms. I’ll admit: I’m not familiar too much with Cabrera, but reading any kind of report on him, there has to be some kind of encouragement that the team has something on their hands with him. Would he survive for an entire season at the major league level? Probably not, but he could at least serviceably cover innings if need be.
We’ve come a long way since 2015.
With each new post, we’ll reveal who won the voting for that particular slot, then post new players for you to vote on, adding another one to the list each time until we get to our final tally of 20. Once we get to 20 top prospects, we’ll do an honorable mention post at the end. If a player gets traded to another team, we’ll just chuck him right on outta here and all the players will move up a spot. If a prospect gets acquired, we’ll ask where he should go on the list.
Probably the most important thing about this whole process – please vote. Give us a few minutes of your time, just click a button and then we can discuss other players and things in the comment section, but don’t forget – VOTE!
Here are five candidates for the team’s second best prospect along with scouting reports from Fangraphs (or Baseball Prospectus where indicated).
Gabriel Rincones, Jr., OF
23 years old, 2025 expected level: AA Reading, 2024 stats: .252/.347/.453, 11 HR, 32 RBI, 23 SB
Rincones has plus left-handed power, but he struggles too much with secondary stuff to consider him a lock to be a suitable 400 PA platoon guy. Rincones’ limited amateur baseball reps and his time missed due to injuries leave room for him to improve a bit into his mid-20s, enough to be a lesser option of this sort.
Griffin Burkholder, OF
19 years old, 2025 expected level: A Clearwater, 2024 stats: .500/.500/.500 (he had two PAs)
He’s a long-levered speedster whose swing has tended to be on time to pull the baseball even though Burkholder is a lankier guy. Per Synergy Sports, he ran a roughly 73% contact rate on the showcase circuit, which is just south of the big league average. Burkholder’s hitting hands fire a little late, but they work well; they’re snappy through contact and give him surprising pop for someone his age who is as sinewy as he is. Right now, that manifests as gap-doubles power, and there might be more thump on the way via added strength and perhaps even a tweak to his mechanics. There is currently very little happening with Burkholder’s lower body during his swing, and he could stand to have a more athletic cut and see what kind of power arrives…Burkholder easily has the speed to play center field, but his balls skills are middling. The likelihood that Burkholder and Dante Nori, who is more obviously a center field fit, traverse the minors together will probably mean they split reps out there, with Nori taking the bigger piece of chicken.
Dante Nori, OF
20 years old, 2025 expected level: A Clearwater, 2024 stats: .240/.424/.280, 0 HR, 9 RBI, 4 SB
Nori has some exciting catalytic qualities, namely his speed. He’s a flat 70 runner and makes some of the fastest little strides in pro baseball. Though his feel for center field is a little unpolished, Nori has the wheels to be an impact glove out there at maturity. His offense is probably going to be a little lighter than that of most everyday center fielders, who tend to have some power. Nori’s hitting hands work in such a way that it causes him to spray lots of oppo contact. He’s going to pepper the gaps and the left field line with liners, and produce extra-base hits more with his legs than his power.
Mick Abel, RHP
23 years old, 2025 expected level: AAA Lehigh Valley, 2024 stats: 24 GS, 108 2⁄3 IP, 117:78 K:BB
There are still starter components here. The arm-side action of Abel’s curveball gives it utility against lefties, and his best sliders are 87-90 mph darts. Abel’s fastball velocity still peaks in the upper-90s, but it doesn’t sustain there, and his command and lack of explosive movement cause it to play down. He also has very little feel for locating his changeup, or really any of his offerings with any consistency. These have been Abel’s issues for several years now.
Michael Mercado
25 years old, 2025 expected level: AAA Lehigh Valley, 2024 stats (AAA): 32 G (10 GS), 69 2⁄3 IP, 64:35 K:BB
Late in the season, Mercado’s seldom-used changeup took an enormous step forward. Once the calendar turned to August, it quickly became Mercado’s most-used secondary pitch, and it performed like a plus-plus offering during the last month of play. One in every three or four of Mercado’s changeups is really nasty, while the others aren’t in enticing locations. But he’s barely used it, so his command of it should improve, and I think it’ll be a consistently plus pitch soon. Given that his cutter and curveball are also pretty good, it’s plausible Mercado could revisit a starter role in the future now that he more clearly has the repertoire depth. But he was also routinely reaching back for 97 at the end of the year in single-inning bursts, has the tools to deal with hitters of either handedness, and seems likely to be a very successful reliever from the jump. There’s more upside here than that of just a generic middle reliever, be it via Mercado working four or more outs at a time or eventually stretching out as a starter again. He’s a sneaky candidate to be the Phils’ third or fourth best reliever this year.
So now, it’s your chance to vote. You’ve got 48 hours – go on and vote! If you have an option that isn’t listed here, let us know in the comments. If he gets enough recs to beat out of the other five, he’ll be crowned as the next top prospect.