Things just might be starting to look good for one prospect in the Phillies organization.
Damon Jones, a 26-year-old left-hander, appeared in three Minor League levels in 2019 and recently made noise within the Phillies organization with his recent performance during an indoor workout.
Personal coach Kyle Rogers, who works with Jones on a regular basis throughout the season and offseason, took to Twitter to share a video of Jones reaching 99MPH with his fastball.
The video quickly went viral with over 15,000 views and several retweets, ensuring the video is quickly making it’s way around Phillies twitter.
Jones appeared in High A Clearwater, Double-A Reading, and the highest level of the minor leagues Triple A. Throughout the entire 2019 season in High A and Double-A, Jones produced an excellent cumulative 1.34 earned run average.
However, things started to go downhill in Triple-A for Jones. Pitching in 34 innings, Jones finished his time with the Phillies Triple-A affiliate with a 6.62 ERA. It is a very fair assumption to say that should have Jones pitched more innings, it would have given him a chance to improve the ERA.
Damon Jones recently jumped up 6 spots in the MLB prospect rankings. Jones excelled at A+ and AA, posting a 1.54 ERA in Clearwater and a 0.82 ERA in Reading. Our writer Alec Kostival is pretty high on him:
He has a great 1-2 punch with a mid-90’s fastball and sharp curveball mix. The only thing holding him back as of now would be his control. He has a 4.6 BB/9 ratio throughout the minors. If that improves, he could certainly be a solid lefty towards the back of the rotation.
Jones would be a great addition to the starting rotation in the upcoming season, and it’d be interesting to see what the Phillies will do in terms of their pitching staff. Having someone with high-velocity like Jones could certainly prove beneficial as the team looks to have a winning season
If all goes well, he could potentially make his Major League Baseball debut in 2021.
Photo by Cliff Welch/Icon Sportswire
