The Phillies took right-hander Gage Wood, he of the record-setting 19 strikeouts in his College World Series start last June, in the first round of last year’s draft. They recently promoted him from Low A straight to Double A in what I interpreted as move to get him to the majors before the year is out. On Thursday, I caught his second Double-A start, which was attended by Dave Dombrowski and a passel of other Phillies front-office folks. Wood only threw 56 pitches in four impressive innings, dominating the Double-A Harrisburg lineup with his fastball.
Wood’s four-seamer was one of the best in last year’s draft class because it has tremendous riding life up top and he throws everything from a release height around 5.4 feet, generating a ton of whiffs everywhere he’s pitched so far, including his two outings for Double-A Reading. The fastball was his only plus pitch on the night; he also threw a handful of sliders that were short and maybe average just given how hard they were, but those were his only two pitches aside from a single changeup that sailed to his arm side.
His four-seamer would play in the majors now; he was 94-97 most of the night and topped out at 99.6 mph, and he can get away with throwing it in the upper third of the zone because of those secondary characteristics. He did throw the curveball and change-up more in his time in Low A, and perhaps he’ll use them more if he’s stretched out beyond four innings — he hasn’t pitched into the fifth inning this year or thrown more than 68 pitches in any outing. For him to help the Phillies this year in any capacity, though, I think he’ll need at least one consistent second weapon, whether it’s the slider or the curveball.
On Friday, I took in a Low-A game between Fredericksburg and Delmarva featuring two 2025 first-round picks, Eli Willits and Gavin Fien.
2025 No. 1 pick Eli Willits is reaching base at a better than 40 percent clip in his first full pro season. (Nick Cammett / Diamond Images via Getty Images)
Willits was the No. 1 pick in the 2025 draft, when he was still 17 and the youngest player in the draft class. He’s hitting .290/.413/.456 so far for Fredericksburg, although Willits’ most impressive play on Friday came in the field. He made multiple plays at short that were at least somewhat more difficult than “routine,” including one groundball where he was screened out by his own third baseman and a pop fly down the left field line that I don’t think the average major-league shortstop catches.
Willits is a switch-hitter and I happened to get four plate appearances from him from the right side, with his one left-handed plate appearance resulting in a hit by pitch. His right-handed swing should produce plenty of line drives when he gets a little stronger, with a solid hand load that lets him get some bat speed going into contact and enough loft in his follow-through to put the ball in the air. He has struck out 23.3 percent of the time this year, a bit more than expected, although I give him some grace for being one of the two youngest regulars in the Carolina League.
He’s still a 70 runner (on the 20-80 scouting scale) and even tried to bunt for a hit at one point — I get it, but also, stop that. I think he’s a plus defender who gets on base and has doubles power. I’m curious if the Nats can squeeze a little more over-the-fence power here when he’s matured a bit more physically.
Outfielder Gavin Fien is off to a lousy start in Low A, his first stop with the Nationals after Washington acquired him from Texas in the MacKenzie Gore trade this winter. He had a stint on the IL for a wrist injury this year, but even since his return, he’s only hit .174/.296/.283. He had three well-hit balls on Friday, all to deep center field, with only one hit to show for it.
The swing is still really good, and he did show some ability to foul pitches off to get to something he could hit harder, including a nine-pitch at-bat in the first inning that ended with one of those line-outs to center. I don’t know how much to blame the wrist for his cold start but the fact that he’s making at least some hard contact is a big positive sign.
Delmarva’s lineup is very thin, other than a rehabbing Enrique Bradfield Jr., who had a rough night at the plate in his third game since he hit the IL, and DJ Layton, the Orioles’ 2024 sixth-round pick out of a Charlotte-area parochial school. Layton is a plus runner and has bat speed, although there’s no load and he doesn’t stay strong on his front side through contact, at least left-handed which is all I saw from the switch-hitter. He made some incidental contact and also had some questionable swing decisions, like watching a 2-0 fastball right down the middle and then swinging at two of the next three (worse) pitches for a strikeout. If you’re not swinging at a heater right over the plate in a 2-0 count, what exactly are you waiting for?
Right-hander Alex McFarlane closed out Reading’s win on Thursday and was 95-98 with a sharp, cutter-like slider at 84-86. This is the 24-year-old’s second year back from Tommy John surgery and his first working exclusively in relief, which hasn’t alleviated his control issues — he walked two of the first three batters he faced Thursday and has walked 13.3 percent of batters he’s faced this year. If he can bring that down to even 10 percent, he’s a big-league reliever, but at some point “if” starts to look like wishful thinking.