The 2026 season was looking like a special one for Philadelphia Phillies fans, as they tried looking to the near-future with all three of their biggest prospects on the precipice of the big leagues. However, since a few games into spring training, the Phillies number one position prospect, Aidan Miller, had been sidelined with a back injury.
Miller, who some claim to be the most anticipated position prospect in the Phillies' system since Mike Schmidt, has been shut down from baseball activities since spring training, suffering from back pain specifically stemming from a damaged disc as well as facet inflammation in his lumbar spine.
After a successful promotion to the Triple-A Lehigh Valley IronPigs, Miller was slated to start the 2026 season there, with his sights on a move to the majors sometime this year. Unfortunately, before the Grapefruit League even truly began, he was reporting lower back soreness.
And now, his long-awaited debut is being pushed back even further, as the 21-year-old plans to undergo a minimally invasive radiofrequency ablation on June 5 to treat facet joint pain and inflammation. Coming into the year, he ranked among the top 25 prospects in baseball (number 15 by MLB Pipeline).
Aidan Miller surgery setback jeopardizes his Phillies major league debut timeline
Even though Stott and Bohm seem to be sinking into some June comfort, the future is supposedly Aidan Miller. Even if the Phillies' current second and third basemen continue to play well throughout the remainder of 2026, with a lot of baseball left to go, there's was a chance Miller could get the call with a similarly impactful campaign that he had in 2025.
Miller's Triple-A promotion came in the latter half of the 2025 season, and when the beginning of 2026 came around, that tightness lingered, and Miller knew something needed to be done. So, a week from Friday, Miller will reassess after the procedure, with the target of returning to full play in six to eight weeks once he gets the green light from his doctor.
In 2025, he batted .333/.514/.519 (a whopping 1.033 OPS) during his eight games with the IronPigs, and in his 108 games with the Fightin' Phils, he hit .259/.382/.427. There's no denying that an entire first half of the season off won't help matters, but everyone will be hopingMiller still has a strong chance at making his debut as a September call-up if he can pick up where he left off.
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