Phillies: 5 UDFA signees make Baseball America’s top 20 list
By Matt Rappa
Half of the Phillies’ 10 UDFA signings made Baseball America’s Top 20 list
This year’s shortened Major League Baseball amateur draft provided teams with what Baseball America calls an “unprecedented opportunity.” And, it appears the Philadelphia Phillies made the most of said opportunity.
Given the draft was cut from 40 rounds to just five, teams are allowed to sign an unlimited amount of undrafted free-agents (UDFAs) for just $20,000. Hence, players who could have been selected as high as round six in a normal year’s draft are available to any team at a low cost.
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Within a week, nearly 150 UDFAs were signed throughout MLB. The Phillies have announced the signings of 10, all of whom are pitchers. Half were recently named to Baseball America’s Top 20 list of undrafted free-agent amateur player signings, through the first five days of the eligible signing period: RHP Noah Skirrow (No. 3), RHP Billy Sullivan (No. 8), RHP Blake Brown (No. 11), LHP Jake McKenna (No. 14), and RHP Chase Antle (No. 20).
Here is how Baseball America described them:
- Skirrow (BA 500 rank: 249) “swing-and-miss stuff.”
- Sullivan (326), now fully recovered from Tommy John, touched 98 and 99 miles per hour on the radar gun while at the University of Delaware.
- Brown (375) has “extreme wildness” but with a “quality three-pitch mix.”
- McKenna (434) was “one of few high schoolers to sign and has room to add velocity.”
- Antle (not ranked) touched 99 miles per hour this spring as a closer.
The other five Phillies UDFAs not mentioned on the list include RHPs Buddy Hayward, Jonathan Hughes, and Sam Jacobsak, along with LHPs Jordan Fowler and J.P. Woodward.
Click through to the next slide for insight on the Phillies’ UDFAa signings from general manager Matt Klentak, who says signing only pitchers makes sense given current circumstances.
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