In 2023 Griff McGarry was the Philadelphia Phillies' No. 3 prospect. McGarry, Andrew Painter, and Mick Abel were three highly touted young arms that the organization boasted.
Struggles with command and injuries forced the Phillies to reconsider their plan for McGarry and he was moved from a starting to role to a permanent reliever in 2024 and to start 2025, he was not in the organization's top-30 prospects.
Now, back in a starting role this year, the 26-year-old right-hander has begun to turn some heads.
Phillies' prospect Griff McGarry making serious noise in Double-A
While much of the prospect focus this year has been on Painter's return from Tommy John surgery, McGarry has shown signs of life after disappointing 2023 and 2024 campaigns.
To start the season, the 2021 fifth-round pick began the season being named the Eastern League Pitcher of the Week after his first start. In fact he would go on to pitch 12 innings over three games in April in which he allowed just two hits and two runs, both unearned. Over that span, McGarry struck out 16 hitters, but his seven walks continued to plague his overall performances.
However, the right-hander's fast start was short lived as he was placed on the injured list at the end of April. He missed about a month before returning to Clearwater to make three rehab appearances.
While he had some up-and-down outings post-injury, his last two starts have been some of the most impressive of his professional career.
On Wednesday night, McGarry tossed six shut out innings yielding just two hits and one walk. It took him 86 pitches— 54 strikes — to strikeout 12 Akron RubberDucks hitters.
In the start prior to that, the 26-year-old hurler allowed two earned runs over five innings. However, he only surrendered two hits and struck out 11 hitters on 66 total pitches.
The strikeouts are impressive but the fact that he only allowed one walk over those 11 innings is a positive sign.
Griff McGarry has struck out 23 hitters in his last 11 innings. Oh, and he’s only walked one in that span. https://t.co/SzAipnR4u3
— Eric Moratelli (@eric_moratelli) August 14, 2025
McGarry has looked dominant in his last two starts. The caveat is that he has done this before in Double-A. The issues have come when he moves to a higher level of competition. In 29 relief appearances last year at Triple-A, the right-hander posted a 4.70 ERA with a 1.92 WHIP while surrendering a ridiculous 36 free passes in 30 2/3 innings.
In 43 Triple-A innings, the hard-throwing right-hander has a combined ERA of 9.21 and a WHIP of 2.26. His BB/9 stands at 12.3 while his SO/9 is 11.3 at the higher level.
The walks have been the thorn in McGarry's side for the last two years. In 2024 he posted a 10.2 BB/9 rate. The prior season was only slightly better at 7.5 BB/9. This season, his BB/9 rate is a 5.0 over two levels of competition
It remains to be seen how the organization will use McGarry going forward. He will need to prove that he can limit walks and pitch at Triple-A before he is given any consideration to join the Major League club. He has great stuff, its just about putting it all together now.