Phillies 2020 Draft: Matt Klentak talks adapting, four picks

Phillies general manager Matt Klentak discusses the 2020 MLB Draft

Philadelphia Phillies general manager Matt Klentak recently joined former infielder and current broadcaster Kevin Frandsen on the “Pine Tar for Breakfast” podcast to discuss his thoughts on the unique circumstances surrounding this month’s 2020 MLB Draft.

Klentak and Frandsen went over the unique 2020 draft process, the importance of listening to everyone’s opinion throughout the draft process, getting to know the prospects during these unique circumstances, and how prospects took advantage of technology to show teams their worth.

Also, they reviewed each of the Phillies’ four draft picks, which include RHP Mick Abel (round 1), infielder Casey Martin (round 3), RHP Carson Ragsdale (round 4), and outfielder Baron Radcliff (round 5).

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Klentak says the Phillies are excited about the balance of their draft picks: “a prep righty followed up by shortstop, college righty, [and] college outfielder. It’s well-balanced.”

For Klentak, it was his fifth draft since joining the Phillies in October 2015 to replace Ruben Amaro Jr. as general manager. He had a new colleague this year helping out in the process, recently hired amateur scouting director Brian Barber, who joined the organization after spending several years with the New York Yankees.

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And, while Klentak, Barber and the Phillies are betting on these amateur draft picks’ tools to come to fruition, Klentak says Abel, Martin, Ragsdale and Radcliff have “makeup, athleticism, and a lot of other things” that they like.

“All four of them really do possess exciting big-league tools,” he says. “With just like any player that’s drafted, there’s going to be a long road of development, ups and downs, and failures along the way, but I think, as a group, we’re excited about the tools.”

Unique 2020 Draft Process

“It’s unlike anything we’ve ever experienced before, and, candidly, it might be unlike anything we ever do again in the future. I hope so. I hope we get back to you back to normal by next year.”

Klentak says he is “really pleased” with the way things played out, despite the 2020 draft being nothing like he and new amateur scouting director Brian Barber expected earlier in the offseason.

Despite the circumstances surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic, Klentak says he gives Barber, who was hired in the fall, “a ton of credit” for the way that he stayed organized communicated with Phillies scouts throughout the spring. In particular, Barber organized daily Zoom meetings.

“While it’s true that we didn’t have access to games to watch players this year and our scouts spent a lot less time on airplanes and in hotels than they may have done in prior years,” Klentak says, “I really think the group came together really well to collaborate.”

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With the COVID-19 pandemic starting in early March, most 2020 collegiate and high school-level games were canceled. Thus, since there were fewer games than ever before to scout and come to a determination on whether to draft a player, Klentak says the Phillies “really had to sometimes piece together information on a player.”

“One scout may not have seen him six different times,” he says. “Somebody may have seen him last summer, someone may have seen a fall workout, someone may have been in touch with them over the winter, and someone might have caught a scrimmage before the pandemic early this spring. Somehow, we need to piece that together into painting the total picture of what a player is.”

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Along with Barber, Klentak praised Assistant Director of Amateur Scouting Greg Schilz, Assistant General Manager Bryan Minniti and the leadership side of the Phillies scouting operation for doing a “terrific job of asking questions, giving guys the floor, giving everybody an opportunity to weigh in and trying to come up with the most accurate draft board that we could.”

Klentak says this year’s draft was “very different” and “very unique,” unlike anything he and the Phillies had ever seen before, and he hopes they will never see it again, with things hopefully going back to normal in 2021.

“I think when all is said and done, it was a job well done by a lot of people,” he says.

Importance of listening to everyone’s opinion

“We’re trying to cast a wide net and bring in a lot of information to make well-informed decisions.”

A part of Klentak’s kudos given to the Phillies scouting operation included regarding them doing a “terrific job of asking questions, giving guys the floor, giving everybody an opportunity to weigh in and trying to come up with the most accurate draft board that we could.”

While it is difficult for one person to have a “completing picture” on a particularly draft prospect the Phillies may be interested in, clearly, this year, that task was even more difficult than before given the pandemic.

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Klentak stressed the importance of always collecting feedback, inputs, and good opinions “from a variety of different sources.”

“You don’t want to lean too much in one direction,” he says. “You want to make sure you’re collecting from all sources and make a well-informed, balanced decision. Never has that been more important than in a year like this, where the information was incomplete. Players didn’t get to go out and play all spring and we didn’t get those looks. We had to use everything we could.”

Among the things the Phillies used to prepare, unique to the 2020 draft, was soliciting more opinions than ever before from people outside of the amateur scooting department, such as those from the Phillies’ player development group and even big-league staff, through watching a video or looking at the breakdown of the data that the team has on a prospect.

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While there were no games on the baseball diamond, Klentak says he felt “refreshed” and “energized” to get on the Zoom calls with Barber and other colleagues to discuss “players, tools, and what makes these players good.”

“There were a lot of work-related endeavors that we’ve been going through all spring, but this was probably the most baseball-focused of them,” he says. “We’re trying to cast a wide net and bring in a lot of information to make well-informed decisions.”

Taking advantage of technology to improve

“It’s pretty remarkable how quickly the technology, what used to be limited to just the big-league club, then trickled into the minor leagues and now it’s all throughout college baseball. I think it happened really fast.”

The landscape of scouting and drafting players has changed in more ways than one in recent years, and not just because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Klentak noted how it is “pretty remarkable” how quickly the technology, that used to be limited to just the big-league club, has trickled into the minor leagues and throughout college baseball.

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“Five years ago, players in the draft were not nearly as well-versed in the technology as they are today,” he says. “Now, players come to us and ask, ‘Do you guys have this? Do you have that? What kind of software do you use for this? Do you have this technology if I threw a bullpen?'”

Klentak says players are well-informed and, thus, it has become a part of their “everyday existence as a player,” adding, “there’s certainly a lot of the top college programs have bought into it. A lot of the individual instruction that these guys receive utilizes that data. It just wasn’t like that a few years ago.”

Klentak noted that for a lot of players during this spring’s shutdown, players who post on social media a video or data on themselves, just throwing outside or in an indoor gym. Among those include Phillies southpaw pitching prospect Jeff Singer, who went 7-0 with a 2.34 ERA at Double-A Reading last season.

Even prospects that entered the 2020 draft posted videos on social, and Klentak says teams used that to their advantage. “I’m not saying that becomes the No. 1 one data point for them in making their selections, he says, “but teams would get that and they would add that into their library of information on the player.”

Round 1: RHP Mick Abel, the next Aaron Nola?

“Our mentality was that we weren’t going to shy away from a high-upside player, even if it was a slightly riskier demographic historically. That’s how it played out.”

Ever since Klentak’s first draft with the Phillies in 2016, they have steered clear of selecting a high school or prep arm with their first-round pick:

• 2016: Mickey Moniak, OF, La Costa Canyon High School
• 2017: Adam Haseley, OF, University of Virginia
• 2018: Alec Bohm, 3B, Wichita State University
• 2019: Bryson Stott, SS, University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Things changed in the 2020 draft, as the Phillies went in with the mentality that they were not going to shy away from a high-upside player, “even if it was a slightly riskier demographic historically.”

Klentak says they know the risks associated with the demographic of a high school or prep arm pitcher, adding, “frankly, that’s part of the reason we’ve taken so many bats in the first round the last few years.”

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Yet, despite precedence, the Phillies rolled the dice by taking right-handed prep arm Mick Abel out of Jesuit High School in Oregon with their No. 15 overall pick in the 2020 draft.

“Going into this draft, we thought long and hard about how this draft might unfold differently than in prior years,” Klentak says. “Obviously, the fact that there were no games this spring, or very few games, that was going to have an impact.”

“The way we thought about it was, there are going to be players in this draft who if you had a crystal ball and you could know exactly what would have happened if they performed this year, they could have gone out, performed really well and moved way up the draft board,” Klentak continued. “Or, you could have someone that struggled, got hurt or something else happened to him who fell by several rounds.”

Listed at 6-foot-5 and 198 pounds, Abel was ranked by MLB.com as the 11th-best prospect prior to the draft, praising him for “showing flashes of three plus pitches, starting with a fastball that was regularly in the 93-95 mph range.” Abel’s 82-86 mph slider is also described as a “very effective pitch,” along with him having a feel for a curveball “with more over the top rotation to it.”

Klentak noted that, inherently, “there were going to be some additional risks and rewards associated with the draft like this.” Therefore, they were really open to the “risk-reward concept in this draft.”

He says that going into the first round, the Phillies did nit know exactly who would fall to them at the No. 15 pick, and that it is “a lot easier to project” when they pick earlier on.

“You have to play the draft out and just see who’s there,” he says.

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Klentak then noted that had this spring gone on without interruption, Abel could have risen to be a top-five pick: “It’s also possible it could have gone the other way,” he says, “but we felt like in a typical year a guy like Mick Abel probably doesn’t get to 15. We were really happy to select him where we did because we think he’s got a really tremendous upside.”

Frandsen and the Phillies general manager then praised Abel for his maturity and competitiveness. While Klentak says a lot will just come down to Abel’s “right arm, how he performs, and how he stays healthy,” the team gravitates toward those kinds of guys like the right-hander who have proven to do things the right way with the right work habits.

“[Aaron] Nola is a great example,” Klentak continued. “He’s not the loudest guy in the clubhouse, but his actions are incredible. The guys follow that. There are all kinds of ways people can be leaders; it’s not just through talking, standing up in front of a room, and talking to people. There are a lot of ways to lead and motivate. The best thing is when it comes naturally to someone and it’s authentic. I think Nola, that’s him — he’s doing what he does and what makes him great. It works and the rest of the group appreciates that.”

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Klentak said that you can just tell that by talking to Abel, how prepared, passionate, disciplined, and confident [he is]. And, whatever resources Abel has at his disposal, he’s going to use — pandemic or not — because the Phillies general manager says “he’s all about getting better, learning, and growing.”

“We’ve had conversations with him about that. The tools that we use today are very likely not going to be all the same tools that he uses 2-3 years from now or 10 years from now,” Klentak says. “That’s part of evolving as a baseball player and evolving as an organization.”

“He is really wise beyond his years and he’s got a very bright future as a player, both because of his physical talents but also what he’s got upstairs.”

Round 3: INF Casey Martin, first-round talent, third-round pick

“We were really excited; we did not go into the draft expecting that Casey Martin would get to our third-round pick. When he was there, we were thrilled to take him.”

Klentak says the Phillies’ mentality of not shying away from a high-upside player carried over into their next pick, which due to signing Zack Wheeler did not come until the third round.

The Phillies were bullish, to say the least, on Martin, despite him having hamate bone surgery this past fall: “We were really excited; we did not go into the draft expecting that he would get to our third-round pick,” Klentak says. “When he was there, we were thrilled to take him.”

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“It was a similar dynamic in that there’s some upside [as in Mick Abel] in this pick,” Klentak says.

Had Martin played a full season this year, or performed as he did as a freshman or even better, Klentak says he has doubts he would have still been available for the Phillies to pick: “There’s some reason to believe that had we not had the pandemic, there’s no chance he makes it to pick No. 87, which is where picked him in the third round.”

https://twitter.com/RazorbackBSB/status/1271238355619966976

Among Martin’s tools noted by the Phillies general manager included his “really strong running grade” and “ability to hit for power.”

“You can work with that, whether that player becomes your everyday shortstop for a decade, slides over somewhere else on the dirt, utilizes his speed in the outfield, or does some combination of all those things,” Klentak says.

Having versatility works well for any rising prospect, and Frandsen compared Martin to the Kansas City Royals’ Whit Merrifield. Phillies utility player Scott Kingery was also compared.

The Phillies had been interested in the 21-year-old right-handed hitter since high school, his collegiate alma mater’s head baseball coach Dave Van Horn told reporters. Entering the draft, Baseball America ranked Martin as the 38th-ranked prospect, while MLB.com ranked him as the 30th best.

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“There’s a lot of different paths that a player with this toolset can take. That is appealing,” Klentak says. “I think that’s part of the reason that players who are defensively limited to a single spot often are not quite as in demand in the draft as someone with more versatility unless they possess an elite bat. Elite bats tend to go high regardless.”

While a member of the University of Arkansas Razorbacks baseball team, also known as the Diamond Hogs, Martin helped them to back-to-back trips to Omaha, Nebraska, the College World Series, for the first time in school history. Over 148 games and three seasons with the Diamond Hogs, he slashed .310/.389/.542 with 40 doubles, 30 home runs and 116 RBI.

Klentak calls choosing Martin “an easy choice,” but that he and his colleagues had to “sweat it out” for a while as the draft progressed.

“You roll around from the second to the third round, you still have 15 picks to go before you come up, and you just see his name staring at you on your board,” Klentak says. “We’re on the conference call, so we hear the pick five or 10 seconds before ESPN or MLB Network post it.”

“You’re listening for that and each time you’re like, ‘Come on, don’t be him.’ It was a little nerve-wracking.”

Round 4: RHP Carson Ragsdale, a ‘really good athlete’

“The fact that he possesses the athleticism that he does and the fact that he’s shown earlier this season the ability to command the baseball was really exciting.”

Selected 116th overall, Ragsdale has undergone Tommy John surgery but came back strong with an above-average breaking ball. He was one of the tallest players in the draft, listed at 6-foot-8.

In four games this year prior to the pandemic, Ragsdale had a 2.84 ERA in 19 innings with 37 strikeouts and seven walks. He throws in the low 90s with an above-average curve and a developing changeup. In his previous two seasons as a reliever, Ragsdale walked 21 batters in 31 1/3 innings.

Klentak says that while what Ragsdale did this year was a small sample size, his performance was “exceptional.”

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“Obviously, 19 innings is not the largest sample. I’m not trying to draw any huge conclusions from that,” he continued. “This kid is a really good athlete. He’s 6-foot-8 and sometimes the guys with the ‘long levers’ do have a tough time repeating, getting to the same release point, and commanding the baseball. Sometimes that never develops at all, but sometimes it develops later for these guys that are really tall like that.”

The Phillies general manager went on to say that Ragsdale’s athleticism and the fact that he’s shown earlier this season the “ability to command the baseball” was “really exciting.”

And, the Phillies have no concerns that Ragsdale recently underwent Tommy John surgery.

“It’s a grind coming back from a surgery like that,” Klentak says. “I think his college program took very good care of him [and] brought him back the right way.”

“His size, physicality, athleticism, projection, and ability to spin the baseball, we thought that was a pretty good pick in the fourth round,” he continued.

“We’ll see. He’s had some adversity in his career, but that’s why he gets to the fourth round and doesn’t go in the top few rounds.”

Round 5:  OF Baron Radcliff, ‘incredible raw power’

“He’s not that far away from being a really good big-league player.”

Everyone loves home runs, and, that is why fifth-round draft pick, outfielder Baron Radcliff, has turned most heads among the Phillies community.

And, he is already being compared to 2008 World Series champion first baseman Ryan Howard.

“It’s the power it’s just the crazy bat speed and incredible raw power,” Klentak noted. “He hits balls that still haven’t landed yet. It’s wild.”

https://twitter.com/eccentricladdie/status/1246278527604756486?s=20

So, if Radcliff has perennial home run-hitting potential, there has to be something about him that caused concern among teams, right? Klentak pointed that out: “He swings and misses a lot. I also think that’s why he was there in the fifth round and didn’t go first overall. We know that, but the way we kind of thought of it is, ‘He’s not that far away from being a really good big-league player.'”

Radcliff had been reported by Baseball America for having among the the best raw power in the 2020 draft, but with it comes a high strikeout rate. Due to the COVID pandemic, Radcliff was limited to just 58 at-bats in his junior season, but put together three home runs and 17 RBI while striking out 23 times.

Klentak says there are a lot of really good players in the major leagues who strike out, but Radcliff will have to improve in that area, but not as much as people may seem to think: “He may not need to improve quite as much as it seems for him to all of a sudden become a really good big-leaguer, as long as he can maintain that power.”

The Phillies general manager noted that there should not be any concern that Radcliff’s power will not carry over to the minor leagues.

“When you watch him swing and read the numbers — the exit velocity and everything about his swing — we have a lot of reason to believe that he’ll continue to hit for power,” he says. “It’s just going to be a matter of making contact.”

Klentak says the Phillies’ minor-league hitting coordinator, Jason Ochart, is “really excited” about the pick. Ochart and Radcliff will surely be spending many hours over the next several years to refine his game.

“If we can help him with that and he can continue to work hard and improve, then we think we got something and he can be a really good big-leaguer,” Klentak says.

“We’re committed to helping out however we can.”