July 15, 2025
Steven Branscombe/Imagn Images
Did Gage Wood suddenly become the future of the Phillies' rotation?
Led by the pick of Arkansas right-hander Gage Wood at 26th overall, there was a clear priority that emerged from the Phillies’ run in the 2025 MLB Draft.
They wanted strike-throwers with commanding fastballs, plus maybe a good breaking pitch or two. And they wanted college arms who would figure to be on a faster track to the majors.
After the draft’s first 10 rounds concluded on Monday afternoon, eight of the Phillies’ 10 selections were used on pitchers out of Division 1 in the NCAA, and by the end, 11 of 20 in total.
Obviously, that keeps the future stocked with plenty of arms, even if they're not all going to stick. But looking a bit deeper into who they picked, and what they appeared to be looking for in those picks, it also signaled that a new future – and in turn, change – might be coming much sooner for the Phillies’ pitching than most realize.
Wood, in a lot of ways, is at the forefront now of what’s looking like that new charge.
The 21-year-old already can throw a dominating fastball into the high-90s, a devastating curve, and all with an energy on the mound that can easily endear itself to Philadelphia fast.
He threw a no-hitter in the College World Series last month, only the tournament's third ever, and did it with a collegiate-record 19 strikeouts. His heater became untouchable, he fed off the ballpark's energy and wore his emotion on his sleeve, but more importantly, as Phillies assistant general manager Brian Barber pointed out after Night 1 of the draft on Sunday, Wood threw 119 pitches that game and only seemed to get stronger the later he pushed.
Wood only has 13 combined college starts in the past two years, which brought concerns about whether he could handle a heavy-inning, high pitch count workload, but Barber said the Phillies do see him as a long-term starter.
And maybe the club is hoping Wood is one who gets here sooner rather than later, along with second-round left-hander Cade Obermueller and third-round righty Cody Bowker, to an extent, too.
Phillies prospect Gage Wood throws an overwhelming fastball.
The last time the Phillies went for a college pitcher in the first round of the draft, it was for Aaron Nola out of LSU in 2014. He made it up just over a year later and went on to become a focal point of the Phillies' rotation for the next decade, at a time when it didn't have much of anything.
If the Phillies are looking to Wood, or any of the college arms they picked up this week, to make an accelerated run through the system like Nola once did, though, it'll be under different circumstances this time around.
Because the Phillies have starting pitching right now – elite starting pitching, even. Zack Wheeler is among the very best in baseball, Cristopher Sánchez and Ranger Suárez have been their own star levels of stellar behind him, Jesús Luzardo has been a solid trade acquisition, and that's not even to mention Nola, who has been rehabbing back from a rib injury.
But there is a flip side to the outlook of that group that, somewhere in the back of their mind, the Phillies had to have been aware of as they were approaching the draft.
Suárez is due up for free agency this winter, the 35-year-old Wheeler has said on several occasions (the latest of which to The Athletic's Matt Gelb) that he intends to retire once his contract expires after 2027, Luzardo is set to go to free agency after 2026 in between, and Nola, while he's signed long-term, isn't getting younger either and has been dealing with an injury now after eating up innings without any physical issues for years.
There's a scenario where the Phillies' rotation, as it is, might not have much longer together, and then there's maybe even building uncertainty starting to gather around the pieces originally thought to help bridge those gaps.
Zack Wheeler has always been open about the future of his career.
Top pitching prospect Andrew Painter has hit a wall in Triple-A, and may no longer be in line to join the Phillies later this month as many had initially hoped. Then Mick Abel, right behind him in the prospect rankings, did make his way up, held up for a bit, but crashed back to Earth just as quickly.
At the same time, the Phillies, with World Series aspirations for this season, sit during the All-Star break in very glaring need of dependable bullpen help and a more stable outfield bat. With the July 31 trade deadline drawing closer, and a high-leverage reliever like Cleveland's Emmanuel Clase potentially out there, it might take the Phillies a major prospect to make what seems like an increasingly needed splash.
At the least, one high-profile college pitching prospect coming into the organization with Wood, along with an overall influx of collegiate arms who might not take as long to become major-league ready, suddenly doesn't feel like it bodes all too well for a key name like Painter or Abel's immediate future in Philadelphia. From a certain view, it can almost look like a setup to cushion the organizational blow from a theoretical shakeup.
It feels like it's all shifting the long-term trajectory of the Phillies' rotation, too.
Because it might not actually be a guarantee now that Painter is the future anymore.
It might be Wood, with that tape of his fastball just tearing Murray State's lineup apart to a monumental degree just a few weeks back.
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