July 10, 2025
Kevin Jairaj/Imagn Images
MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred during the first round of last year's MLB Draft at Cowtown Coliseum in Fort Worth, Texas.
Picking 26th overall in the MLB Draft, as the Phillies are slated to do Sunday, can be a bittersweet process.
On one hand, picking in the bottom fifth of the first round is representative of the franchise's success in the majors; the Phillies have reached the World Series, NL Championship Series, and NL Division Series, respectively, in each of the past three seasons. This is their third straight draft picking 26th or lower.
On the other hand, for Brian Barber, the team's assistant general manager in charge of amateur scouting, picking in the lowest quadrant also means the prospects likely to be available historically face a longer, more arduous path to the majors.
“The reality is there is a drop-off in the total grouping of players that go 1-10 and 11-20 versus 21-30," Barber said in a pre-draft videoconference. "We’ve been able to find what we believe are valuable picks in those times. You never know when a guy falls that you think might go otherwise, so you have to be prepared for anybody."
Already, multiple players picked in the top 10 of last year's draft have made their Major League debuts this season, including Reds pitcher Chase Burns (who made his third big league start on Sunday against the Phillies), Athletics first baseman Nick Kurtz, and Royals first baseman/outfielder Jac Caglianone. Astros third baseman/outfielder Cam Smith, who was the 14th pick, has been up with Houston since Opening Day.
The Phillies have picked outside the top 15 in each of the past three seasons, but are still encouraged by the progress of outfielder Justin Crawford (17th overall, 2022), shortstop Aidan Miller (27th, 2023) and outfielder Dante Nori (27th, 2024). But of those three, only Crawford has reached Triple-A, where he started off in 2025 for the first time.
"You're not seeing [big-league call-ups] in the guys that were selected 21-30," Barber added. "I still think you can find really good players that side of the board, and it’s our job to find them. That's the reality of it."
That means Sunday's first-round pick will probably be a name that Phillies fans who don't spend much attention to prospects won't really know for several years.
But the Phillies would be more than happy to keep picking at the bottom of the draft for future years if it means they're consistently winning at the big-league level.
"We want to be picking 30 every year because we won the World Series the year before," said Barber, who's been with the organization since 2019. "It falls upon us to find the player that's there. There’s definitely a difference, especially at this time in the groups of players that go in those areas, but that doesn’t prevent us from doing our job and trying to find the best players there.”
Here are some other nuggets that came from Barber's videoconference:
Picking lower in the MLB Draft requires patience with the prospect selected, not just because the prospect is outside the top 10 but also because the likelihood increases that the prospect will come from the high school ranks.
Each of the Phillies' last three first-round picks are prospects who skipped college to start their professional careers early. Only two of last year's first 15 picks were prep standouts, but eight of the next 15 selections after came from high school.
Some teams, more than others, view high school prospects as riskier, which Barber acknowledged as true, but he also said the Phillies don't shy away from taking the best player on their board with the understanding that the bottom half of the first round is more often stocked with prep standouts.
"I'm not saying it's something we don't talk about and think about..." Barber said. "We still saw in the past years, we saw the best players that were on the board happened to be on the high school side of things. You have the associated risk that goes with a player that's further away from the big leagues, but we just saw the upside and potential for impact from those guys. That was just something we weren't ready to shy away from."
After 18 years scouting with the Yankees, Barber was hired by the Phillies in 2019 and has since presided over the team's draft, getting promoted to his current role in November of 2023.
Since being placed in charge of the draft, Barber has used first-round picks on pitchers Mick Abel (2020) and Andrew Painter (2021), along with the aforementioned trio of Crawford, Miller and Nori.
Many of these prospects are currently being reported as trade chips as the NL East-leading Phillies pursue another deep postseason run, which makes the process somewhat awkward for Barber.
"You always have to back away from your own personal connection with a player and try to figure out what’s right for the organization," he said. "But that fact that, whether it's Mick, whether it's Andy, Justin, Aidan Miller — heck no, I don’t want those guys to leave. But the other teams want them because they’re good and talented players. It’s always nice that other teams want your players as well."
Abel, after a rough 2024 season, bounced back in 2025 and made his Major League debut against the Pirates on May 18, striking out nine in five scoreless innings for the win. Painter, who missed two seasons from an elbow injury that eventually required Tommy John surgery, has climbed to become the organization's top overall prospect and a top-10 Major League Baseball prospect, per MLB Pipeline.
Crawford, a teammate of Painter with the Lehigh Valley IronPigs, entered Thursday tied for the International League lead in hits (97), and was second in batting average (.339), eighth in on-base percentage (.410), and third in stolen bases (28). In Double-A with Reading, Miller has a .353 on-base percentage with seven homers, 21 RBIs and an Eastern League-most 31 stolen bases.
After a tough start with Single-A Clearwater, Nori batted .304 in June with a .387 on-base percentage, and he's batting .280 in July with a .438 on-base percentage.
Barber took particular pride in Abel's debut given that the righthander was his first pick in charge of the franchise's draft, and that Abel really struggled in 2024, with an ERA over 6.00 and a 3-12 record.
Barber noted that Abel, who's back in Triple-A, never shied away from taking the ball and that his talent was always obvious, even when he struggled. Watching Abel baffle the Pirates in his debut was special for the man who drafted him.
"It's super exciting and cool for us to see that," Barber said. "I know in our world you’re going to make mistakes doing what you’re doing, that’s just the reality of it. But to see the start of that, the first guy that you ever selected as scouting director make the big leagues, have a super game against the Pirates that day, it was a pretty good day for me personally and obviously the entire organization."
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