Phillies 2025 Minor League Spring Training

[andyb]

Lehigh Valley starts first (Friday).

3/25/25 : Lehigh Valley Initial 2025 roster

Rincones does make it along with Crawford. Abel, Seth Johnson and Kemp round out the prospects.

[andyb]

Will have a larger IronPigs preview later in the week, but beyond the notable announced moves (Crawford and Rincones), it is surprising to see Erick Brito start there and McGarry and Garnett start in AA.

— Matt Winkelman ( @mattwinkelman.bsky.social ) March 25, 2025 at 12:39 PM

I think Brito is more about plugging in solid defensive SS onto the roster in the same way we often move catchers around when needed. Moore looks to be in AA and he is more of a 2B anyway. Maybe Miller takes the spot shortly (June?).

[phillychuck]

Assuming Clemens gets the last MLB spot, who is starting where for the IPs this spring:

C - Stubbs/Breaux
1B - Carson Taylor/Otto Kemp
2B - Christian Arroyo
SS - Robert Moore
3B - Buddy Kennedy

LF - Oscar Mercado
CF - Justin Crawford
RF - Marcus Lee Sang
DH - Cal Stevenson

Others - Matt Kroon, Gabriel Rincones (maybe AA), Weston Wilson (injured), Luis Verdugo

Seems like a very good defensive team for AAA, lots of OF who have seen time in CF, but no AAAA mashers to anchor the lineup. Solid defensive IF, too. The rotation is going to get hammered, though. Mick Abel is the #1 starter according to the reporters.

https://static.wixstatic.com/media/0fa902_da0ed55439454551b4e6bec8186e8eb6~mv2.png/v1/fill/w_1211,h_1185,al_c,q_90,enc_avif,quality_auto/0fa902_da0ed55439454551b4e6bec8186e8eb6~mv2.png

I'm surprised Moore didn't make it. Brito, Castro, and Lantigua are all non-prospects and not useful MLB depth, so I thought they'd give Moore a shot in LV. I think he looks ok at SS based on the eye test, but that can certainly be wrong or biased by small sample.

Did I miss Buddy Kennedy's release, or his he DFA'd right now and we're waiting? I'm also surprised Marcus Lee Sang is still at Reading. He's at least a C-level prospect and is aging out.

[andyb]

Yes Kennedy is still in DFA territory and they are trying to trade him. Probably less than 50-50 he gets to LHV.

[Austinfan]

I'm sure Rincones will play every day until he proves he can't hit LH pitching.
He's 24, so they probably want to see what they have in him.
Kemp will probably play 1B, 2B and 3B, since they're grooming him for a utility IF role. Wouldn't be surprised if they gave him some starts in LF.

[gmwannabe]

Had a great day at the Carpenter Complex watched some BP. Ferebus sp? Crushed 3 out to left. Tait drilled one out to right but everything he hit was hard. Then watched infield, the organization of the practice runs real smooth. Saw Lee Sang talking to a fan, the players were very accommodating. I talked to Wes Wilson. He said he was doing great. His timeline to be back is 2 weeks. Saw Nori hit and Saltiban. Saw Burkholder walk by, no action yet. Painter ran by. He looks even taller then when I saw him at reading.saw Aidan Miller walk by to get on a bus. The one squad was traveling today. Lee Sang was on that bus. Graves was loosening with the plastic water jugs. They’re pretty cool. Then watched some of the young kids play the Tigers young kids. They didn’t hit much. The Tigers had a real good pitching against them. Randall. As I was leaving I talked to a tigers coach walking by and said that Randall looked real good. He stopped and said yes he did”he’s definitely Major League material. Great day.

[zambonir]

Technically they don't have to DFA Kennedy until Opening Day I guess? I would think he's more likely to get traded off the wire than to draw a better offer rto keep him from hitting it. At least he's used to it.

[andyb]

I'm sure Rincones will play every day until he proves he can't hit LH pitching.

It is actually a little concerning that both he and Crawford sat against LHP fairly often last year. Whenever they found playing time for the backups it tended to be against their weak platoon. Rincones had only 40 PA (out of 294) against LHP and Crawford was only 61 out of 497.

Looks like the managers need to some organizational direction to play the better prospects all the time rather than try to win every single game.

[Matt_Winkelman]

I think you are severely underrating how few LHPs there are in the majors. Aidan Miller saw more lefties and less righties, but it is still only 98 PAs out of 462 for vs lefties. Otto Kemp who played across many of the same leagues had 92 PAs out of 529 against LHPs. There is a chance that off days corresponded with a lefty, but no one is benching these players vs LHPs and more often their off days corresponded with days of the week than opposing pitchers.

[zambonir]

Yeah, that's interesting. Miller had exactly the same percentage of PAs against LHP as Castellanos did in the majors, so it seems 25% is probably the rough number of times a LHP is on the mound. Crawford maybe could have gotten 20 or 30 more, but that's really it.

[andyb]

In 2023 Crawford had 101 plate appearances out of 390 or 25.9%. That dropped to 12.3% in 2024. Rincones went from 19.3% against LHP in 2023 to 13.6%. I can't imagine the L/R split shares have changed that much for the leagues. Rincones probably sat more at all times against LHP. The Crawford usage is what is concerning. Miller was at 21.2% in 2024.

Clearly the Reading manager was playing L//R splits in Crawford's usage in a way that did not occur in 2023. For a player like Crawford it should really be closer to 20% if they want to develop him to play every day. I really doubt that random off days were a factor. Guessing much more it was the manager choosing Crawford's off days when a left-handed starter was on the mound.

[Matt_Winkelman]

Here is Crawford's distribution of day of the week playing in games

Monday: 1 (week of July 4th)
Tuesday: 21
Wednesday: 21
Thursday: 17
Friday: 17
Saturday: 21
Sunday 12

He got Sundays off half the time and often a mid week day off. That pattern is true in both Readying and Jersey Shore, which indicates that it is an org plan for rest.

[zambonir]

I will grant you there's reason to expect the worst of Phillies' player development but there is no way the AA manager is doing anything that Mattingly (at the time) didn't sign off on, especially for a top prospect.

Isn't there also something to be said for letting him excel and focus on adjusting his hitting approach against RHPs and not struggle to do either against LHP, even in the minors?

[andyb]

He got Sundays off half the time and often a mid week day off. That pattern is true in both Readying and Jersey Shore, which indicates that it is an org plan for rest.

It looks like he got one day a week off on either Sunday, Thursday, or Friday. It still looks like that day was chosen when there was a left-handed starter (please don't waste time researching that because it really is not that important.....).

Luck is probably involved, but his plate appearances could definitely have been closer to 20% against LHP. To his credit he had only modest platoon splits. Clearly Rincones is more likely to be a platoon player than Crawford based on performance and not usage.

[Squire]

Decent day yesterday

Guys that seem to be hitting consistently (Leandro Pineda, Devin Saltiban, Dylan Campbell, Alirio Ferrebus). Also happy to see Marty Gair and Marcus Morgan pitching. Unfortunate that Camron Hill is on the 60 day DL

3/27/25 : Minor League Game Recaps from 3/26/25

[andyb]

I was just reading that. In the low A game I noticed Sam Highfill had 3 pretty good innings touching 95.. UDFA from North Carolina State last year who is already 24. Stick him in Jersey Shore I guess and hope he gets to Reading quickly. Guy pitched 5 full years for NC State without much success.

Dylan Campbell and our young catchers (Tait, Ferrebus) seem to be hitting very well each game.

[Squire]

MLB.com has confirmed the below assignments of Top 100 Prospects

Andrew Painter - Extended Spring Training
Aidan Miller - AA Reading
Justin Crawford - AAALehigh Valley
Eduardo Tait - Low AClearwater

[andyb]

Happy minor league opening day to all who celebrate. Lehigh Valley starts at 6:05 PM. The other 3 leagues start a week from today (4/4).

And Matt's LHV preview.

2025 Lehigh Valley IronPigs Season Preview

[Squire]

Reading Roster

https://x.com/s_m_potter/status/1906762697347154418

[phillychuck]

https://t.co/NkhcvEw6l3

FYI for those who don't want to click.

Pitching staff has its share of actual prospects...Chace, Cabrera, Dallas, Harper, McGarry (still?), Castellano (returning from rule 5), others aren't bad, either. Miller, of course, is an attraction. I'm curious about Anthony myself. Surprised Lee Sang, Pineda, Moore, and Verdugo aren't in LV. Unlike other recent seasons, this should be a strong team.

From Matt's list we have

Miller (2)
Chace (3)
Cabrera (12)
Mendez (19)
Anthony (25)
McGarry (30)
Farquhar (32)
Walling (38)
Harper (40)

Castellano would be on the list somewhere (he was ineligible in January, I believe Matt wrote in comments he'd slot in around 18) and I think the Phils like Jack Dallas a lot, too.