Philadelphia Phillies Pitching Prospect Falls In Latest Top 100 Rankings

Philadelphia Phillies pitching prospect Mick Abel took a bit of a drop in Baseball America’s latest adjustments to its Top 100 prospect rankings.

The site tweaked the rankings based on the first month of the season, which included prospects rising, falling and graduating.

Abel took a small drop in the latest rankings, as he slid from No. 67 in April to No. 78 in May. He was noted as one of the biggest sliders among Top 100 prospects.

The site wrote that Abel’s biggest issue at the moment is putting hitters away.

The 22-year-old right-hander, who is pitching for the Triple-A Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs, went 1-2 with a 6.53 ERA in his first five starts. He has struck out 22 but walked 12 in 21.2 innings. He’s also allowed 17 runs, 15 of which are earned.

Notably, batters are hitting .294 off of him. Last year Abel held batters to a .192 average. Before this season he had never allowed batters to hit better than .229 against him in a season.

Last season Abel played for Double-A Reading and Lehigh Valley, as he went 5-6 with a 4.13 ERA in 23 starts. He struck out 132 — his second straight minor league season with at least 130 strikeouts — and walked 65.

The Phillies’ top-ranked prospect is still pitcher Andrew Painter, who is out for the 2024 season due to his recovery from Tommy John surgery. He was No. 13 in the current rankings.

The only other Philadelphia prospect in the Top 100 was outfielder Justin Crawford, who moved up from No. 66 to No. 54.

The 2022 first-round pick and son of former Major Leaguer Carl Crawford is slashing .268/.358/.394/.752 for High Class-A Jersey Shore with two home runs and eight RBI. He has struck out 20 times and walked nine times. He also has eight stolen bases.

One prospect to watch is shortstop Aidan Miller, last year’s first-round pick. He is not the Top 100, but he moved up 16 spots in the overall rankings. He is slashing .305/.364/.475/.839 with two home runs and nine RBI for Class A Clearwater.