Phillies draft high school outfielders Dante Nori and Griffin Burkholder with their first two picks

The Phillies selected 19-year-old outfielder Dante Nori with the 27th pick of the MLB draft, and 18-year-old outfielder Griffin Burkholder with the 63rd selection, commissioner Rob Manfred announced Sunday night at the draft in Fort Worth, Texas.

Nori was drafted out of Northville (Mich.) High School and Burkholder was drafted out of Freedom (Va.) High School.

This marks the fifth straight year that the Phillies have taken a high schooler in the first round of the draft. Nori, who turns 20 on Oct. 7, is among the older high school players in this year’s prep pool.

“All things being equal, younger is always better, but it got to the point where his talent level and his baseball ability wasn’t equal to the next person,” said Brian Barber, the Phillies’ assistant general manager for amateur scouting. “It was a person that you just looked at and it was pretty unanimous in the room that this was a guy we wanted to bring into the organization.”

Nori is athletic, has speed, and can hit for average. Barber said he is a “no-doubt” center fielder. He was named to the MaxPreps All-American first team in 2024, and named 2024 Michigan player of the year by MaxPreps. Nori also led Northville to its first state championship in school history.

“He’s a very good baseball player with good tools who is an advanced bat, but we just liked the total package of him,” Barber said. “It was sort of like everything that you’re looking for in a player that knows how to play the game, that’s a quality hitter, impacts the ball with the bat ... can play center field. It’s good tools, it’s good baseball skill, it’s performance from everything that we’ve seen.

“It’s elite makeup, it’s an athlete. There’s a lot to the package that we really liked.”

Nori bats left-handed and is listed at 5-foot-10 and 190 pounds. Scouts have described his approach at the plate as mature, with the ability to make contact to all fields. He batted .477 with a 1.323 OPS for Northville this year, with 14 doubles, seven triples, 32 walks, and 20 stolen bases.

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“It starts with his ability to take quality at-bats, and this is a guy we tracked over 100 at-bats last summer,” Barber said. “We saw him play 20 games this year. His team ended up winning the state championship up at Michigan, so we had the opportunity to see him when they came down to Florida and played at IMG [Academy] through the state tournament. So we had a lot of games and the ability to track those as well.

“To try to simplify it, he takes balls, he swings at strikes, he hits the balls that he swings at, and he hits them hard. So, I think that’s where ... especially a high school player, when he has the ability to do those things, that’s an advanced bat for that level.”

One area for growth will be Nori’s power. But there is upside, and the Phillies are betting on their player development staff to improve that part of his game.

“He’s definitely strong, there’s no doubt about that,” Barber said. “If you’re doing a scouting thing, and you’re ranking the five tools, it’s probably fourth or fifth right now, but he hits the ball hard. It’s more of a line drive approach and gap-to-gap for him right now, but we’ve also had the ability to personally work him out with a wood bat in the past and we’ve seen the power that he has.

“It’s just a matter of unlocking it in the game as well. Keep the elite batting skills that he currently has and add the power component, is something we think we can help.”

His father, Micah Nori, is an assistant coach with the Minnesota Timberwolves, and his grandfather, Fred Nori, recruited Kyle Schwarber to play at Indiana University. Nori was committed to Mississippi State but will instead sign a contract with the Phillies, assuming all goes according to plan. The slot value for his pick was $3,228,300.

Burkholder is a right-handed-hitting outfielder with above-average speed and raw power. He has an athletic build — listed at 6-2, 195 pounds — and hit .453/.597/.830 with a 1.427 OPS in his senior year at Freedom High School. Perfect Game ranked him the top high school outfielder in Virginia this year.

“It’s an elite athlete and tool package, but again, a good baseball player who can hit,” Barber said of Burkholder. “We’ve had the opportunity to work him out; we actually brought him to Citizens Bank Park and took batting practice. It’s a pretty good show in batting practice already. The power is definitely there. Again, just with any high school player, power is normally the last thing to come, so we know the raw ability is in there, it’s unlocking it into the game. At pick 63, we were super excited to bring Griffin into the mix.”

Like Nori, Burkholder was a college recruit. He was committed to West Virginia.

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“The deal isn’t done until they sign on the bottom line, but I don’t foresee any issues with either of these guys,” Barber said. “I hope them to be Phillies very soon. But you do have to finalize all of those things.”

The Phillies were scheduled to make their next pick on Monday (No. 100, in the third round). The 20-round draft ends Tuesday.