Andrew Painter, Aidan Miller and Justin Crawford are the Philadelphia Phillies’ top-ranked young players. But the club has another top-ranked prospect, Aroon Escobar, who impressed this season.
Escobar moved up to the Phillies' No. 5 prospect in MLB Pipeline’s post-trade deadline rankings after wo of their top 10-ranked young players, Eduardo Tait and Mick Abel, were traded to the Minnesota Twins for Jhoan Duran at the end of July.
MLB Pipeline's Jim Callis, Jonathan Mayo and Sam Dykstra recently authored a piece for MLB.com about every team’s breakout minor league player for the 2025 season. Escobar was their pick from the Phillies organization.
Aroon Escobar is rising quickly in the Phillies minor league system
Callis, Mayo, and Dykstra wrote that Escobar first excelled in the Florida Complex League last season with a .338/.495/.481 line and a .976 OPS. They noted that while his batting average and OPS were lower in the other minor league levels this season, the infielder’s 121 wRC+ in 2025 was very good. The third baseman also drew more walks and cut down on his strikeouts during the year.
Escobar began the 2025 season in Single-A with the Clearwater Threshers. In 69 games he had 42 RBIs with an .829 OPS and a slash line of .285/.377/.452. The infielder appeared in Baseball America's Top 100 prospects list during the early part of the season due to his success with Clearwater.
In July, the 20-year-old received a promotion to the High-A Jersey Shore BlueClaws. Escobar's offensive numbers dropped off a bit in 46 games at the High-A level. He had 19 RBIs with the BlueClaws, with a slash line of .256/.348/.369 and a .717 OPS. The infielder spent the final week of the season with the Double-A Reading Fightin Phils where he posted a .523 OPS with a .182/.250/.273 line.
Aroon Escobar, what a play!!! 🦀⚾ pic.twitter.com/GxMewTdaAd
— Jersey Shore BlueClaws (@BlueClaws) August 6, 2025
Phillies director of player development Luke Murton spoke to The Athletic's Charlotte Varnes about Escobar earlier this season, praising the youngster's performance (subscription required).
"He’s hit the ball,” Murton said, per Varnes. “He’s hit it hard. He’s swung at strikes. He’s hitting all different pitch types. He’s done outstanding defensively. He’s done well in the infield, making all the plays, catching all the balls he should.”
Following the end of the Fightin Phils' season, Escobar was named a Florida State League All-Star due to his success in Clearwater. He still has much development to do in the minors. Still, the future looks bright for the native of Caracas, Venezuela following his recognition as a breakout star this season.