7/14/25 : Recapping Day One of the 2025 Phillies Draft

In a Zoom call prior to this year’s MLB draft Assistant General Manager Brian Barber noted that the strength and depth of this draft class was found in high school middle infielders and college pitchers. This is Mr. Barber’s sixth draft at the helm of the Phillies draft process and his twenty-sixth draft overall.

The Phillies selected RHP Gage Wood from the University of Arkansas with their first round selection (26th overall). Wood is best known for his nineteen strikeout no hitter in the College World Series but he’s someone the Phillies have scouted and cross checked multiple times before that. He popped up on their radar after he came to college - Gage went un-drafted out of Batesville High School in Batesville, Arkansas but got noticed as a freshman as he became the Razorbacks closer.  He became a starting pitcher this past season. Mr. Barber said on last night’s Day One post draft zoom call that the Phillies plan on him remaining a starter in their development plans. He said Wood has two plus pitches (fastball and curve) however they believe they can teach him to incorporate more shape on his slider. He’s a strike thrower which Mr. Barber said was rare to be able to draft a pitcher with both stuff and control late in the first round. Wood has had some shoulder issues in the past but Mr. Barber said that the Phillies reviewed his medical records and had no concerns. As they do with most pitchers they select in the draft the plans are to proceed with caution in his development as he’s coming off a busy college season. In years past many of the pitching draftees have come to Clearwater and only pitched in practice deferring their official pro debut till the next season.

In the second and third rounds the Phillies selected LHP Cade Obermueller (University of Iowa) and RHP Cody Bowker (Vanderbilt). Mr. Barber said that both have lower arm slot deliveries and releases on their pitches providing them with deception without losing on stuff, he said that it’s good to not have every pitcher deliver in a “cookie cutter” style as evidenced by the variety of pitchers in the major leagues. Obermueller features a fastball/slider combination while Bowker has a fastball/sweeper/cutter mix of pitches. Both have increased their abilities to achieve swings and misses and have higher rankings in doing so as compared to others in the draft as they’ve advanced in their collegiate careers.

Mr. Barber said that general expectations with drafting collegiate pitchers in the higher rounds should indicate that they can advance at a quicker pace although each individual is different as well.  All three pitchers selected are twenty one year olds and all three were collegiate starters which will also be the development plan. In regard to this being the first draft in the past six years that the Phillies have taken a college player Mr. Barber explained that they’ve had collegiate players on their board in past drafts but they’ve been selected before their pick. He said that they rank players pre-draft in their meetings and the general approach is to take the highest ranking player available at the time of their selection.

The draft resumes today at 11:30 AM.

Happy Day, Happy Baseball ⚾️

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