How are the Phillies going to develop these three guys?
The draft is over, and the Phillies made 20 picks over two days, along with adding many undrafted free agents afterwards. They took Matt Vierling’s cousin at one point, which became a fun storyline for a few minutes.
It would take too long to write about each pick and it’s hard to imagine anyone willing to read it. Instead, here are breakdowns on three of their most interesting picks over the two days and potential development plans.
1:26 Gage Wood SP Arkansas
Brian Barber’s past Phillies draft included two types of first-round picks. They either landed on a prep player that probably should’ve gone higher. Think of Mick Abel, Andrew Painter, and Aidan Miller. Each of those players had the talent to go 5-10 picks earlier but fell because of other factors.
The other end was reaching on prep outfielders with hit tool concerns. Think of Justin Crawford and Dante Nori.
While Wood is not a prep arm, he certainly fits closer to the first bucket of Barber picks. He only threw 37.2 innings in 2025 due to a shoulder injury but looked like a potential top-ten pick when he pitched.
In those 37.2 innings, he struck out 46% of batters he faced with a 4.7% walk rate. He allowed a handful of home runs but was nasty compared to the rest of the competition.
Wood stands at 6’0” and weighs 210 pounds. He looks stocky and throws a high-riding 97 mph four-seam fastball from a less-than-three-quarters arm slot. He spins a nasty 83 mph curveball off of it with a ton of drop. Wood’s slider could use some work but it’s at the very least thrown with plenty of velocity.
How the Phillies develop Wood as a starter will be interesting because of how they’ve pushed guys. They’re making Andrew Painter throw on four days’ rest or 90+ pitches. When they traded for Moises Chace in 2024, they converted him to the starting rotation after he had been a reliever in Baltimore’s minor league system. They made Michael Mercado a starter in 2024.
Given what the Phillies believe in, Wood becoming a reliever late in 2025 seems highly unlikely. Preston Mattingly has always been someone who wants starters to be starters, so it’s hard to imagine a short-sided approach with Wood.
As far as realistic development plans go, the Phillies need to focus on building up his workload. Wood’s highest innings total in college came at 40.1 back in 2023. Given what the Phillies prioritize in starting pitchers, he might take a minute to develop because of how many innings he’s going to need.
The next thing they can do is look for a changeup or splitter. Wood’s four-seam and curveball will carry the load against left-handed hitters but he lacks a third pitch against them. Think about Mick Abel’s struggles with good left-handed hitters as time went on.
The Phillies also love their starters using multiple fastballs, so Wood could add a sinker over time to help against right-handed hitters. He has the spin capacity to make this an effective offering for soft contact.
2:63 Cade Obermueller SP Iowa
While Wood began the trend of the Phillies spending high picks on college pitchers with low arm slots, second-rounder Cade Obermueller and third-rounder Cody Bowker are better examples of a shift in draft philosophy compared to Wood.
Part of that is because Obermueller and Bowker lack the eye-popping traits the Phillies have drafted in the past. Neither consistently throw an upper-90s fastball nor carry the height Brian Barber has drafted in pitchers.
Between the two, Obermueller is easily the more enticing pitcher to come into the system. His four-seam fastball only sits between 91-94 mph but he carries a nasty sweeper that could be a nightmare to left-handed hitters.
His low release might allow his fastball to still play in pro-ball and his slider will get swing-and-miss the second be puts on a minor league jersey. The rest of the arsenal will be a question.
Obermueller has tried throwing a changeup but it doesn’t look like a plus pitch on video and Fangraphs gave it a 30 on the 20-80 scale. Unless there are pitch design tweaks, its going to get crushed in pro ball.
Lower slot pitchers generate different pitch design questions. It’s hard to imagine someone like Obermueller throwing a curveball, for example. The best is likely looking for either a more consistent changeup or splitter, or he leans into pitching inside with a cutter.
Having three pitches that are best thrown inside to right-handed hitters and nothing off of it isn’t great in theory. However, there are plenty of theoretical combinations Obermueller could use with a fastball, slider, and cutter profile. After that, you’re probably looking for a sinker to throw inside to left-handed hitters.
Because of the profile, Obermueller carries plenty of reliever risk but could have a high floor in a conversion. There is a Matthew Boyd path if he can find a better changeup, a Steven Okert path if the slider plays like I think it will, or nothing because the draft is a crap shoot.
7:221 Matthew Fisher SP Memorial HS
After spending their first six picks on college pitchers, the Phillies used some of the bonus money saved on prep pitcher Matthew Fisher, who MLB Pipeline had as their #46 player in the class.
Fisher’s case is going to be interesting because you can see a lot of potential traits. While he only sits in the low 90s, he has a high spin capacity that should give him plenty of room for pitch design development. He was also a two-sport athlete in high school and has a very projectable body for a 19-year-old.
His arsenal currently features a low-90s fastball, a low-80s slider, and a high-70s curveball, and Pipeline mentions that he is developing a changeup. Since Fisher is only 19 years old, it is easy to imagine more velocity if his body keeps growing.
This might be a stretch but while nothing looks wrong with his delivery from my untrained eye, I can’t help but think there are ways to get him to use more athletic movements on the mound. Jeff Hoffman had a similar issue with the Colorado Rockies and Cincinnati Reds before joining Philadelphia. A more athletic delivery created more velocity and better command almost instantly.
Given Fisher’s two-sport background as a high-school quarterback, there feels like some untapped athleticism a biomechanics team could tap into.
From a pitch mix standpoint, a harder slider or cutter could work with his arsenal. He might be able to unlock a nasty cutter given his capacity for spin. The arsenal could use a pitch between his fastball and breaking balls.
These three picks highlighted what seemed like a solid draft from the Phillies overall. Wood is the type of bet a good team picking at the end of the first round should make. Obermueller isn’t flashy but has some interesting traits as a left-handed pitcher and Fisher has a lot of the athleticism traits you want in an over-slot draft pick.