Categories: Minor Leagues

3 Phillies land on Baseball Prospectus’ Top 101 prospects list

Three former Phillies first-round picks are featured in Baseball Prospectus’ 2022 Top 101 prospects list. 2020 first-round pick Mick Abel ranks the highest at No. 41 while 2021 first-round choice Andrew Painter is at No. 81. Bryson Stott, the Phillies’ 2019 first-round pick, is at No. 93.

Bryson Stott is a Top 100 prospect in baseball, according to Baseball America and Baseball Prospectus. (Cheryl Pursell)

Abel and Stott made the cut on Baseball America’s 2022 Top 100 list. Abel came in at No. 51 (up from No. 99 in 2021). Stott ranked 67th on Baseball America’s list.

Last year’s Baseball Prospectus’ Top 101 list featured Abel at No. 54 and Spencer Howard at No. 65. Howard, along with minor league pitching prospects Kevin Gowdy and Josh Gessner, were traded at the deadline in 2021 from the Phillies to the Rangers for Kyle Gibson, Ian Kennedy and Hans Crouse.

The Phillies, Mets and Nationals all had three prospects in BP’s list while the Braves had five players. The Marlins led all of baseball with six prospects in the top 101. Kansas City Royals shortstop prospect Bobby Witt Jr. was Baseball Prospectus’ No. 1 prospect. Mets catching prospect Francisco Álvarez was the top-ranked prospect in the division at No. 10.

Stott, 24, won the Paul Owens Award in 2021 as the organization’s top minor league hitter. He began his first full season in the Phillies system at High-A Jersey Shore and finished at Triple-A Lehigh Valley. Overall, he slashed .299/.390/.486 across three levels in the minor league system. The Phillies brass is bullish on his defensive skillset at shortstop. Dave Dombrowski told reporters at the GM meetings that Stott will have an opportunity to win the starting job at shortstop during spring training.

Abel, 20, was the top high school pitcher in the 2020 draft. He spent the 2021 season with the Low-A Clearwater Threshers, striking out 66 batters in 44 2/3 innings. Phillies scouting director Brian Barber expressed excitement on behalf of the organization for Abel’s future.

“I saw Mick in instructional league last year and then I saw him pitch in spring training this year, and I would just tell you he’s exactly what we thought he was going to be come this time,” Barber said in July 2021

. “He still has a long ways to get to the big leagues and he still has a lot of different things to learn, but as far as the talent level that’s on the field, he’s exactly what we thought it was going to be.”

Painter, 18, was drafted by the Phillies with the No. 13 pick in 2021. He pitched only six innings in the Florida Complex League, but struck out 12 batters and allowed zero earned runs. The 6-foot-7 right-handed pitcher has a mid-90s fastball that touched 100 mph in instructional league, according to Baseball Prospectus’ list of the top ten Phillies prospects for 2022.

Jarrett Seidler of Baseball Prospectus also mentioned 2021 Phillies fifth-round pick Griff McGarry as a candidate to make it into the outlet’s top 101 prospects list in 2023.