As the start of the 2025 MLB season inches closer, MLB Pipeline churned out its first installment of team centric Top-30 prospect lists starting with the American and National League East. The Phillies are headlined by super pitching prospect Andrew Painter which is no surprise, who also ranks as the 8th-best prospect in all of baseball according to MLB Pipeline.
Who fills in behind Painter for the rest of the top 10 and who are some intriguing prospects who landed on the top 30? Let’s take a look.
*Where a player is projected to start the 2025 season is solely based on where the player finished in 2024.
1. Andrew Painter, RHP
No surprise here. The 6-foot-7, 21-year-old has all the tools of being a potential ace at the big league level. Unfortunately, his young career came to a halt after going for Tommy John Surgery which kept him off a mound in competitive innings in both 2023 and 2024. Prior to the injury, he was on the fast track to the bigs in 2022, climbing up the organizational ladder playing in Low-A Clearwater, High-A Lakewood and Double-A Reading. Painter started in 22 total games posting an impressive 1.56 ERA across the three levels, racking up 155 strikeouts to just 25 walks in 103.2 innings.
Painter has a lethal four pitch mix with all offerings able to miss bats which was on display in the Arizona Fall League in 2024 where he was named the league’s Pitcher of the Year. With a fastball that sits in the upper 90s and can hit triple digits to go along with a 60-grade slider while mixing in a curveball and change up, the sky is the limit for Painter. He could start the year in either Double-A or even Triple-A if the Phillies want him to face the best competition to start the season before is imminent call up to the big leagues.
2. Aidan Miller, SS
Also, not much of a surprise that Miller slots in right behind Painter as the club’s #2 prospect. What is surprising is how impressive Miller has been at the position despite never playing it for a full season in his life. The young shortstop also is ranked inside the top 30 in all of baseball at #27 according to MLB Pipeline. Miller is coming off a solid 2024 campaign where he, like Painter did in 2022, traversed the first three levels of the minor leagues, wrapping up the season in Double-A Reading.
Miller slashed .267/.375/.436 to go with 11 homers, 60 RBIs and 23 stolen bases. The Phillies may have gotten Miller at a discount due to a broken hamate bone the young infielder suffered after an impressive summer showcase. The Phillies scooped Miller up with the 27th overall pick in 2023 after looking like he was one of the top high school hitters in the draft class.
Miller has gained a ton of recognition in his short time in the organization, representing the team in the MLB Futures Game. He only played in five games with the Fightin’ Phils to close out the 2024 season so it would be easy to figure he would start the year in Reading once Spring Training comes to a close.
3. Justin Crawford, OF
Coming in as the third-best prospect for the Phillies and #64 in all of baseball, Crawford has turned a corner after a small sample size in his pro debut 2022 season where he played in just 16 games. Joining Miller in the Futures Game last year, the 21-year-old is a polarizing prospect blessed with blazing speed, courtesy of his dad Carl, who was a four-time All-Star and spent 15 years in the bigs with Rays, Red Sox and Dodgers and accumulated 480 career stolen bases which is inside the top 50 all-time in MLB history.
When he signed with the club after being the 17th overall pick in the 2022 MLB Draft, he weighed about 160 pounds. Fast forward to this spring, he has put on 35 pounds, bulking up to 195 pounds and it’s led to louder and harder contact.
Crawford, who split time between High-A Jersey Shore and Double-A Reading, slashed an impressive .313/.360/.444 across 110 games while swiping 42 bases, five shy of his young career watermark of 47 he had in 2023. It would make sense for Crawford to start the year back in Reading and work his way to a promotion to Triple-A Lehigh Valley at some point in the summer as he is starting to look like a potential five-tool player.
4. Eduardo Tait, C
Tait is hoping to follow in the footsteps of Phillies fan-favorite in Carlos Ruiz as another catcher who can make an impact for the club representing Panama. He’s off to a strong start. At just 17-years-old, the backstop posted an impressive 117 wRC+, the same number that super prospect Leodalis De Vries posted for the San Diego Padres last season as one of the youngest players at the level.
Signed for $90,000 in 2023, the left-handed, bat first catcher has showed some early returns on the investment for the Phillies. Tait, who gets penalized, unfairly like most catching prospects, because of the position he plays, split time between Rookie ball and Clearwater last year. In 80 games between the two stops, the catcher hit to the tune of .302 with 11 homers and 73 RBI. Once stateside, he played in 28 games with the Threshers and slashed .269/.316/.462.
Defensively, Tait is still a work in progress but is continuing to work on everything that being a good catcher entails. Keep an eye on how Tait handles an entire season of pro ball here in the U.S. this year.
5. Moises Chace, RHP
The more notable of the two names that came to the Phillies when they dealt Gregory Soto to Baltimore is Chace. The 21-year-old signed for $225,000 with the Orioles out of Venezuela and his fastball is what got him noticed. Sitting at a 60-grade pitch, Chace’s heater averaged just a tick under 95 m.p.h. while seeing it move up a few notches on the radar gun last year. To go along with the fastball, Chace features a sweeper, a cutter and a changeup.
Chace spent most of last season in High-A between Aberdeen with the O’s and Jersey Shore but did close out the year in Double-A where he made four starts posting a 3.66 ERA in 19.2 innings. He struck out an impressive 35 batters and walked just seven. He showed solid command of his repertoire and held opponents to a .200 batting average.
At 21-years-old, it would make sense he starts in AA with a potential fast move to Triple-A if he continues to dominate Eastern League hitters.
Prospects 6-10
The next five prospects on the list include outfielders Dante Nori and Griffin Brubaker at #6 and #7 with right-handed pitcher Mick Abel at #8, second baseman Devin Salitban at #9 and outfielder Gabriel Rincones Jr. as #10, who has turned heads already this spring, smacking three homers.
Intriguing Phillies Prospect
The Phillies will have to wait a year, but right-handed pitcher and #19 prospect Wen-Hui Pan has some intrigue. Suffering a broken pinky kept him out of commission until mid-way through the season last year, but in his pro debut in 2023, he turned heads, pitching his way out of the bullpen up to High-A Jersey Shore. A native of Chinese Taipei and signed with the Phillies for $350,000 as an international free agent, Pan’s pitch mix, notably his fastball, could be his calling card to be a reliable late inning arm in the future.
Pan was tabbed to pitch in the Arizona Fall League in 2024, but he needed Tommy John surgery after elbow issues popped up so he will be out for the entire 2025 campaign. With a 65-grade fastball that can touch triple digits and a splitter that scouts say is a true out pitch, Pan could climb the ladder rather quickly once he returns.
For the entire list of 30 prospects you can find it here.
Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement Neitzel-Imagn Images
