On Tuesday MLB teams will need to add players eligible for the Rule 5 draft to their 40 man rosters in order to protect them from the major league phase of the Rule 5 draft on December 10 (they also need to set their AAA roster for the minor league phase, but that is not publicized). You can find the full list of eligible Phillies…

Today was minor league roster cleanup day. All players needed to be activated from the injured lists and all players who had achieved at least 7 minor league seasons became free agents. The Phillies had the opportunity to add any of these players to their 40 man roster to prevent this, but did not opt to keep anyone in this way.

The offseason has not officially begun for baseball, but it is effectively here for the Phillies as the front office will begin to have to make some quick decisions on minor league free agents and Rule 5 protection. Here are the players with important roster status milestones heading into the offseason. Major League Free Agents C J.T. Realmuto DH Kyle Schwarber…

Minor League Awards All of these awards are made up. Unless otherwise stated they are not about prospect ranking and evaluation, but are about how a player actually performed. Hitter of the Year - Felix Reyes 101 G - 343 PA - 34 2B - 4 3B - 16 HR - 13 SB - .331/.362/.562 Reyes is far from the top prospect in the Phillies system, in fact there will be healthy debate as to whether he is a prospect at all due to defensive limitations and an overly aggressive approach at the plate.

I am back from my hiatus, and so there is 4+ weeks to recap, so a bunch of surface thoughts to follow. Also Lehigh Valley's season is continuing, but barring some crazy occurrence this will be the last "weekly" update and then there will just be a season update. Hitter Spotlight SS Aidan Miller Since I last wrote about the minor leagues Miller went and hit .333/.507/.490 with 17 walks to 12 strikeouts in 15 games.

This week was late due to personal commitments and this will be the last weekly recap for a little bit. I am taking a break and a vacation. When I return I will return to recap the weeks that passed in that time and then will move into season wrap ups. Hitter Spotlight C Caleb Ricketts 6 G 10-25 2 HR 7 RBI 3 BB 2 K .400/.464/.640…

I said I needed something to write about, but wanted to write and @norseofbroad.bsky.social asked the question that is on many fans' minds. The answer is very firmly a maybe, which is entirely a coward's answer and not worthy of writing, but also I have been just short of actually writing about Crawford for a while, so why not. Over the last 6 weeks (let's call that since the start of July), Crawford is hitting .319/.423/.422 for the Lehigh Valley IronPigs.

This Week's Schedule Lehigh Valley (65-48) @ Buffalo (43-67) Reading (43-63) vs Akron (62-45) Jersey Shore (49-55) @ Wilmington (47-60) Clearwater (59-47) vs Lakeland (65-40) DSL Phillies Red (24-26) DSL Phillies White (13-36) Hitter Spotlight OF Devin Saltiban 10-23 3 2B 2 3B 1 HR 4 RBI 3 BB 4 K 3 SB .435/.519/.870 Saltiban has exclusively played center field since the beginning of July, and unsurprisingly has looked fine at the position.

Rest of Season Things to Watch I just did a midseason ranking before the trade deadline that you can read for how I would rank the top prospects in the system, so doing a stock watch where I write the same information felt sort of silly. I also am taking a vacation at the start of September so there probably won't be one of these for August, so rather than look at individual players I wanted to talk about some storylines and things I am watching over the last two months of the season.

This Week's Schedule Lehigh Valley (62-44) vs Scranton Wilkes-Barre (63-41) Reading (38-62) @ New Hampshire (44-57) Jersey Shore (44-54) vs Hub City (52-49) Clearwater (54-47) @ Fort Myers (45-55) DSL Phillies Red (20-25) DSL Phillies White (13-31) Hitter Spotlight OF TJayy Walton 7 G 8-25 1 2B 1 3B 3 RBI 2 SB 5 BB 7 K .320/.433/.440 Walton has struggled to stay healthy and has struggled on the field when healthy.

I want to skip to the Midseason reports The Phillies entered the deadline with a need in the bullpen for an impact arm (which they acquired on Wednesday in Jhoan Duran from the Twins) and just a competent outfielder. It would have been nice had they gotten a big name or remade their roster, but mostly what moved today were marginal starters and high leverage relievers.

I want to skip to the Midseason reports The Phillies, and really every team, has been desperate for impact relievers the whole deadline. The tea leaves heading into the deadline was that they had made catcher Eduardo Tait available as a big piece, and ever since his resurgence it was clear that RHP Mick Abel was a bit of an extra arm going forward.

This Week's Schedule Lehigh Valley (60-40) @ Worcester (51-50) Reading (36-58) @ Hartford (50-45) Jersey Shore (39-53) @ Brooklyn (59-37) Clearwater (49-45) @ Tampa (45-47) DSL Phillies Red (18-22) DSL Phillies White (12-27) Hitter Spotlight OF Gabriel Rincones Jr. 6-15 2 2B 2 HR 5 RBI 6 BB 3 K 1 SB .400/.571/.933 There has been an opportunity for Rincones to have grabbed himself a major league role, but he didn't walk to go with his strikeouts in the first month of the season, and he hadn't really hit power.

The MLB trade deadline is July 31 6pm EDT. The Phillies have a need in their bullpen and in left field or on their bench. By all accounts they are motivated to make a deal, however the market is in flux and that means there could be a lot available, little available, or even only expensive available. The Phillies system is not in a great place to make trades.

This Week's Schedule Lehigh Valley (55-39) vs Norfolk (38-54) Reading (35-53) vs Binghamton (59-29) Jersey Shore (35-51) vs Wilmington (41-48) Clearwater (44-45) vs Bradenton (42-47) FCL Phillies (16-40) DSL Phillies Red (14-21) DSL Phillies White (11-23) *Last game of FCL season is Thursday July 24 Hitter Spotlight C Paul McIntosh 7-12 4 2B 1 HR 4 RBI 1BB 0 K .583/.615/1.167…

This Week's Schedule Lehigh Valley (54-37) vs Rochester (34-56) Reading (33-52) vs Portland (41-44) Jersey Shore (33-51) vs Hudson Valley (52-33) Clearwater (44-42) @ Lakeland (53-30) FCL Phillies (16-35) DSL Phillies Red (13-18) DSL Phillies White (10-20) *All full season teams playing 3 game series Hitter Spotlight 3B Francisco Loreto 4 G 6-13 1 2B 2 HR 5 RBI 2 BB 1 K .462/.533/1.000…

Entering the draft I wrote the Phillies had an obvious need for pitching. It wasn't a new or novel concept, and saying they needed both depth and talent was obvious to anyone who started to put together a ranking or tried to figure out who the Phillies had to give up in trade. We may never know if it was the Phillies plan to go all in on pitching, but of their 20 draft picks they selected 14 pitches and 6 position players, with one of those position players unlikely to sign.

I will update this post as picks are made with any information I can find. Round 11: Will Vierling, C, Murray State Will is a cousin of Matt and is a left handed hitting catcher. He played sparingly over two seasons at Louisville before transferring to Murray State and making it to MCWS where they ran in Gage Wood. He hit decently well in the Northwoods League last summer, but exploded this season hitting 10 home runs and .312/.415/.530 with 33 walks and 25 strikeouts.

After selecting Matthew Fisher in the 7th round, the Phillies were going to need save the rest of the money in order to make that signing possible. That was true for the first player they took in Miami RHP Brian Walters. However in the 9th round they selected a local kid in SS Matthew Ferrera from Toms River HS East. They then returned to college seniors in the 10th round in RHP Cole Gilley from Indiana.

After the last few picks it seemed like the Phillies were saving up money for someone, and in HS RHP Matthew Fisher, we have that someone. Fisher was a player that had been linked in various mock drafts to the Phillies as either an under slot first round pick or as an over slot target, presumably in the 2nd round. Theoretically because the Phillies are taking him now and not in round 11 they know his number and will finish up collecting the money on senior signs the rest of the way.

Make that 6 college arms in a row for the Phillies and a second reliever prospect in LHP James Tallon from Duke. Tallon made 3 starts, but has a junior had a 3.96 ERA in 36.1 innings with 19 walks and 50 strikeouts. Tallon, like Craig is a big lanky guy at 6'5" 195lbs. Like most of the Phillies selections he has flat riding action, sitting in the low 90s.

The Phillies continued their college streak in the 5th round with Baylor RHP Gabe Craig. Craig is different than their first 4 picks in that he is a 6th year grad student who just turned 24 and is a pure reliever. This would indicate that this is a under slot deal on Craig's $422,700 slot value, but probably not all the way down to $10,000.

The Phillies picked up on Day 2 where they left off on Day 1, taking college pitchers. This time it is RHP Sean Youngerman out of Oklahoma St. Youngerman is young for a college junior (turned 21 last week), and spent his first two seasons at Westmont, first as a reliever and then a starter. He started in the Cape Code league last summer, with good success.

In past drafts there has been smoke both before the draft and afterwards that the Phillies intended to select college pitchers, but the board didn't fall that way. Drafting three college pitchers with their first 3 picks doesn't necessarily mean the Phillies set out to rejuvenate a pitching starved organization, but it does mean they didn't have those players shoved down their boards.

In the third round the Phillies continued with their college arms taking RHP Cody Bowker from Vanderbilt. This season was Bowker's first at Vanderbilt after transferring from Georgetown. He was good in the Cape Cod League in between before having an ok year for the Commodores (4.38 ERA 72 IP 28 BB 99 K). He is another low slot, short pitcher.