Phillies top prospect Mickey Moniak was not among the top-100
Baseball America’s annual top-100 rankings once again featured a multitude of Phillies prospects. Five prospects, the third-most in baseball, were rated by the publication as the best young players in baseball.
J.P. Crawford (16), Sixto Sanchez (25), Scott Kingery (31), Adonis Medina (84), and Adam Haseley (100) represented the Phillies.
Catcher Jorge Alfaro, outfielder Nick Williams, and first baseman/outfielder Rhys Hoskins graduated from the list this year.
A notable prospect missing from the list is outfielder Mickey Moniak, the number one overall pick in the 2016 Amateur Draft. Baseball America had ranked Moniak as the 17th-best prospect in baseball prior to last season, but a rough year in Lakewood bumped him off the list completely.
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In 123 games Moniak hit .236 with 109 strikeouts after a strong rookie season in the Gulf Coast League. Still just 19-years-old, it’s still too early to worry about Moniak. With the major league outfield appearing to be set for the time-being with Hoskins, Williams, and Odubel Herrera.
Moniak could eventually become trade bait for a young pitcher once management feels it’s ready to move forward in the rebuild. His ceiling as a pure hitter and above-average defender is still incredibly high, and his comparison to Christian Yelich is promising.
Moniak is one of several first round picks that haven’t flourished early for Philadelphia. Cornelius Randolph has a .264 career batting average after the team took him 10th overall in 2015. Like Moniak, Randolph is incredibly young at 20-years-old and has room to grow in the organization.
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Perhaps the most promising of the first round picks, last year’s choice Adam Haseley, hit .284 in 58 games with the rookie team, Crosscutters, and BBlueClaws Expect him to open the season in Lakewood with the potential of reaching as high as Double-A Reading this year.