A better connected Phillies staff keeping options open heading into the MLB draft

When the Phillies make their first-round pick on Sunday, it will come at the recommendation of the amateur scouts and get the farm system’s stamp of approval.

Dave Dombrowski integrated the scouting and player development departments when he was hired as Phillies president of baseball operations.Read moreYong Kim / Staff Photographer

by Scott Lauber

Published July 5, 2023, 2:47 p.m. ET

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — With the three-day MLB draft set to begin Sunday night, the Phillies have gathered their amateur scouts this week at Citizens Bank Park for final preparations. It’s an annual in-person get-together in which they compare notes from the road, debate potential picks, and formulate the draft board.

But this year, two other voices are in the room: minor league director Preston Mattingly and director of hitting Luke Murton.

“I turn to [Mattingly] on an hourly basis, at least,” amateur scouting director Brian Barber said Wednesday, “to talk about the players that we’re talking about and the way that we would develop them and [compare] the ideas that our scouting staff would have with the ideas of player development. Being able to turn to him in the draft room, it’s like, ‘This is our scouting evaluation; now, what would we do on a player-development basis?’ Those two ideas merging, I think it gives us, as an organization, great comfort.”

It only makes sense for talent evaluators and player development to work together. If the scouts push to draft particular players but the leaders of the farm system disagree with the evaluations, it figures to be more difficult to develop major league players. The departments should collaborate. It’s practically essential to building a successful organization from the inside out.

But it hasn’t always been that way. When Dave Dombrowski took over as president of baseball operations, he noticed a disconnect. Players were drafted without much regard for how they would be developed, and vice versa.

Dombrowski integrated the departments. He hired Mattingly before last season to lead the farm system and directed him to work with Barber, who was brought in by former general manager Matt Klentak to run the 2020 draft. The process began with last year’s draft and has increased this year.

So, when the Phillies make their first-round pick on Sunday — 27th overall, the latest they have drafted since 2012 — it’s safe to assume that it came at the recommendation of the amateur scouts and got the farm system’s stamp of approval.

“I think it’s an important thing to do,” Barber said. “Because the draft might be an amateur scout thing, but it’s an organizational decision in bringing in the right player.”

It has been an easy marriage. Barber, 50, and Mattingly, 35, have similar backgrounds as former first-round picks with Yankees connections. Murton, 37, also played in the Yankees’ farm system and scouted for the Giants and Padres before being hired by the Phillies in December. Barber also brought director of pitching Brian Kaplan, who travels with the major-league team, into the draft conversations this week.

Mattingly, Murton, and Kaplan don’t do much in-person scouting but will watch video and listen to scouts’ opinions. Barber doesn’t often see the farm system but will make recommendations for how players are developed.

In three drafts under Barber’s leadership, the Phillies selected high school players in the first round: right-handed pitchers Mick Abel (2020) and Andrew Painter (2021) and center fielder Justin Crawford (2022). It was coincidental, Barber said. Although it does indicate that the Phillies will bet big on younger players, he claims they simply took the top-ranked available player on their board, regardless of the high school or college pedigree.

Given their draft position, the Phillies are considering a larger pool of players. Abel, Painter, and Crawford were selected with the 15th, 13th, and 17th overall picks, respectively, and were chosen from a group of only about four or five players, according to Barber. This year, Barber said the Phillies are considering eight to 10.

“It’s double because you just don’t know what’s going to happen in front of you when you’re picking 10-15 spots later,” Barber said. “So you cast a wider net in the beginning.”

For the second draft in a row, the Phillies gave up their second-round pick to sign a free agent with a qualifying offer (Nick Castellanos last year; Trea Turner this year). The addition of Turner also cost them their fifth-rounder. After the 27th overall pick, the Phillies won’t choose again until No. 98, No. 130, and No. 163.

As usual, the Phillies won’t draft a player based on an immediate need at the major league level. Unlike the NFL and NBA, leagues in which players often make an immediate impact, even the top picks in baseball spend years in the minors.

It makes predicting the draft, especially late in the first round, an almost impossible exercise. Baseball America’s latest mock draft has the Phillies taking high school catcher Blake Mitchell. MLB.com links them to high school pitcher Charlee Soto. ESPN connects them with high school shortstop George Lombard Jr.

Barber characterized this draft as “a lot more driven by the position player side, both in the high school and college world.” But he wasn’t counting out any possibilities in the first round or offering any hints.

“Even at 27,” he said, “I want to take what we perceive as the best player when it’s our time to pick.”

And it will be a perception that is shared by Barber, Mattingly, and their staffs.

“There’s been a trust that’s grown between the two of us,” Barber said. “When I tell him something, he believes me, and when he tells me something, I believe him.”