The Phillies made a small splash in their first round of September call-ups.
While many fans were disappointed they didn’t get the arrival of Alec Bohm or Spencer Howard in the Phillies’ first-round of September call-ups, they will get to see one of the organization’s top catching prospects.
Meghan Montemurro of The Athletic reports that Deivy Grullon, Cole Irvin, and Nick Vincent were each called up on Sunday morning, though corresponding 40-man roster moves will be required.
Grullon is the keystone of the three, ranked by MLB Pipeline as the Phillies 19th best prospect and 12th by Baseball America (subscription required).
In 108 games for Lehigh Valley this year the 23-year-old Grullon has hit 21 home runs with 77 RBI and a .283 batting average. MLB Pipeline graded his arm as a 65 out of 80, but ranked him very low as a hitter and runner.
Grullon has nearly 2,200 at-bats in the minor leagues since starting his professional career as a 17-year-old in Rookie Ball out of the Dominican Republic. He’s one of three touted catching prospects in the organization, ranked behind Rodolfo Duran and Rafael Marchan in MLB Pipeline’s organizational rankings, though Grullon was the closest to the big leagues.
Expect Grullon to get some big league playing time behind J.T. Realmuto and possibly ahead of Andrew Knapp, who is hitting .198 this year.
Irvin, 16th on MLB Pipeline’s organizational ranking, has gotten a couple of opportunities with the Phillies this year as a starter and reliever. He’s disappointed greatly with a 7.98 ERA in eight games, though had two quality starts to begin his big league career.
Vincent has bounced around the big leagues in recent years after early success with the Padres. The 33-year-old righty has a career 3.38 ERA between San Diego, Seattle, and San Francisco, but was released by the Giants in August after posting a 5.58 ERA in 18 games.
The additions of Irvin and Vincent stretches the Phillies bullpen to 10 pitchers, most of whom either weren’t in the big leagues or in the Phillies organization to start the year.
Expect more players to join the Phillies this month as they prepare for a grueling playoff run sitting a couple of games out of the second wild card spot.