Phillies invite top 3 prospects to big league camp
The Phillies announced 23 non-roster invitees to Spring Training on Tuesday, including each of their top three prospects: Shortstop Aidan Miller, right-hander Andrew Painter and outfielder Justin Crawford.
The Phils have been open about their expectations that Painter -- the club's top pitching prospect and the No. 32 prospect overall, per MLB Pipeline -- will make his big league debut at some point this season after missing the past two seasons due to Tommy John surgery. President of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski recently said that the organization has put together a plan for Painter that does not involve pitching in any Spring Training games.
Painter, however, will throw in Clearwater and go through a specific pitching program that will have him ramp up a bit later than other pitchers. He is fully healthy, but the Phillies would rather save his arm for later in the season -- with Dombrowski citing "July-ish" as a possible target for Painter to join the Phillies.
¡°We think it¡¯s a good plan,¡± Dombrowski said on Dec. 23. ¡°He¡¯ll build up at some point through the Minors, but we¡¯re going to save a lot of his innings until we get to July-ish for the big league level. It might be June, it might be August, but you can¡¯t use too many of them at the Minor League level.¡±
As for top prospect Miller, the 20-year-old shortstop will be in big league camp for the first time. The 27th overall pick in the 2023 Draft began last season with Single-A Clearwater, where he impressed enough to quickly move up to High-A Jersey Shore before finishing the year by playing a handful of games with Double-A Reading.
Crawford, the club's No. 3 prospect who turned 21 on Monday, will also be making his first appearance in Major League camp. The No. 17 overall pick in the 2022 Draft split last season between High-A Jersey Shore and Double-A Reading, slashing a combined .313/.360/.444 with 42 stolen bases in 110 games.
Here's the full list of non-roster invitees (club prospect rank in parentheses):
Infielders (5): Rodolfo Castro, Otto Kemp (No. 25), Rafael Lantigua, Miller (No. 1), Carson Taylor
Outfielders (2): Crawford (No. 3), Gabriel Rincones Jr. (No. 10)
Utility (1): Matt Kroon
Right-handers (9): Nabil Crismatt, Jos¨¦ Cuas, Joel Kuhnel, Griff McGarry (No. 20), John McMillon, Nicholas Padilla, Painter (No. 2), Austin Schulfer, Guillo Zu?iga
Left-handers (2): Tristan Garnett, Nick Vespi