When the Philadelphia Phillies traded left-handed pitcher Gregory Soto at last season's trade deadline, they received two quality pitching prospects in return — Seth Johnson and Moisés Chace.
Johnson, 25, is a bit older than his fellow right-hander, who is still just 21 years old. Due to his age and his feel for three quality pitches, Chace has drawn some attention from the baseball industry.
Even though he didn't crack MLB Pipeline's new Top 100 prospect list, he is a promising player to keep an eye on heading into spring training.
Phillies prospect Moisés Chace just missed making MLB Pipeline's Top 100 rankings
The Phillies had four prospects appear on the list of the top young talent in the game prior to the 2025 season. Andrew Painter, Aidan Miller, Justin Crawford and Eduardo Tait were given the distinction of being some of the top prospects in baseball.
The one player who just missed the cut was Chace, per MLB Pipeline's Jonathan Mayo, Sam Dykstra and Jim Callis. Chace ranked No. 23 on the Phillies' Top 30 list at the end of 2024, and as young as he is, he is still a player that the Phillies are high on. The organization liked him enough to add him to the 40-man roster prior to the Rule 5 Draft in order to protect their asset.
In just two appearances last season at High-A Jersey Shore, Chace posted a 4.15 ERA over 8 2/3 innings. While that doesn't sound great, some of his other numbers were impressive in that short span. He had 1.04 WHIP and showed off his ability to miss bats by striking out 13 hitters while walking three.
At Double-A Reading, the right-hander started four games with a 3.66 ERA. What is even more impressive is that Chace was younger than the average player at that level by three and a half years. Over 19 2/3 frames, the 21-year-old retired 35 batters on strikes and yielded a 1.07 WHIP.
In his penultimate start in late August, Chace twirled a gem as he struck out 13 batters in six shut-out innings.
Moisés Chace (@Phillies) dominates with a career-high 13 strikeouts!
— Minor League Baseball (@MiLB) September 1, 2024
He becomes the first @ReadingFightins pitcher to rack up that many K's in a start since 2001 😱 pic.twitter.com/SB1D6aSJEs
Phillies general manager Preston Mattingly spoke about Chace on an episode of The Phillies Show podcast earlier this offseason and had glowing things to say about the native Venezuelan pitcher.
“Moisés Chace is a guy to me that has the stuff now to compete in the big leagues, it's just refining," Mattingly said. "The fastball is special, he's got a sweeper, a cutter and a changeup. It's a lot of finer points with him we're trying to do, like holding runners."
Like some other once highly touted pitching prospects like Mick Abel and Griff McGarry, Chace's one area of deficiency is command. Given the fact that he has a dominating fastball and three other above-average pitches, the young righty could really be dominant if he can find the plate consistently.
As spring training draws near, Chace will be a prospect worth watching in 2025. After finishing the 2024 season at Double-A, it would not be surprising to see him open the season with the same minor league affiliate. It will be interesting to see if the skilled young player can work his way up the prospect rankings during the 2025 season. Even if he doesn't, the Phillies have a potential rotation piece in the waiting in Chace, and it is worth getting to know him.