As much as Spring Training is about gearing the Major League squad up for Opening Day and sorting through any outstanding roster or positional competitions, perhaps the best part is getting early glimpses at the next wave.
Sunday provided that opportunity in the form of Mick Abel. Ranked the No. 3 prospect in the organization by Phillies Nation, Abel made his spring debut in front of a packed BayCare Ballpark in the Phillies’ Clearwater opener.
It was hard not to dream about what might, one day, be.
Abel took the mound in the sixth inning and kept the Phillies’ combined no-hitter — which would last into the eighth — intact with a perfect frame. He flashed a fastball that maxed out at 96.4 mph and capped the outing with back-to-back strikeouts.
Abel averaged 95.4 mph on his nine heaters; he threw six sliders and one changeup. He jumped out ahead of T.J. Rumfield on two four-seamers for strikes — one swinging, one called — before inducing a weak groundout in a 2-2 count on the seventh pitch of the at bat. He then punched out Brandon Lockridge and Oswald Peraza on four and five pitches, respectively: first looking, then swinging.
But most encouraging on Sunday was the way Abel filled up the strike zone. Control was an issue for him in 2023 (walking 5.2 batters per nine innings), as it’s been for his whole professional career. Abel won’t turn 23 until August, so it’s hard to say he’s far behind schedule, if at all — but if he is, that control issue is to blame. He threw 11 of his 16 pitches for strikes on Sunday and had, at most, one bad miss.
Pounding the zone like that is the best way for Abel to punch his ticket into a 2024 role, likely as a spot starter but perhaps something greater. The Athletic‘s Keith Law, who left Abel just outside his Top 100 prospects ranking, said he still envisions Abel starting but that his repertoire might lend itself to a back-of-the-bullpen role. As he did last year, when he caught up with Phillies Nation to discuss his 2023 rankings, Law pointed out that Abel’s ability to repeated his delivery should help him curb the control issues (though, to be fair, it makes those longstanding issues more confounding in the first place).
Abel isn’t competing for a spot in the Phillies’ Opening Day rotation, like Andrew Painter was last season before his injury. But given the Phillies’ relatively shallow rotation depth in the upper levels of the organization, he could certainly make himself an appealing candidate to become one of the first few names summoned when the need inevitably arises. The more he pitches the way he did on Sunday, the more he’ll force that conversation to the forefront.
Must-Read (Or Watch) Phillies Content
- The Phillies signed a local to a minor-league deal with a Spring Training invite, as our Tim Kelly covered.
- Alex Coffey of The Philadelphia Inquirer and MLB.com‘s Todd Zolecki both wrote about Aaron Nola’s spring debut, also on Sunday, and the adjustments that have the Phillies and him excited for 2024.
- Nick Castellanos’ mother, Michelle, is never afraid to voice her opinion on X/Twitter. The MLB/Nike uniform fiasco dominating baseball discourse these days is a subject certainly not off limits.
- Kyle Schwarber made a couple young fans’ days in Clearwater.
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