The Philadelphia Phillies made a major splash at last season’s trade deadline, reeling in dominant closer Johan Duran from the Minnesota Twins. The prospect package going the other way was nothing to scoff at, as the Phils parted with top-100 prospect Eduardo Tait and 2020 first-round pick Mick Abel. Unfortunately for the Twins, one half of that haul was dealt a major blow when Abel was slated to undergo arthroscopic elbow surgery.
Mick Abel came to the Phillies as an Oregon highschooler with a tremendous amount of promise. The 6’5” right-hander posted decent, if uninspiring ERAs around the 4.00 range over his first three minor league seasons before he completely imploded with a 6.46 mark at Triple-A in 2024. That abysmal performance threatened to tank Abel’s major league career before it ever started, but he bounced back with a spectacular 2.31 ERA performance in Lehigh Valley the following season.
The Phillies gave Abel his first shot at the majors last season when he made a spot start in late May against the Pittsburgh Pirates. He surprisingly outdueled eventual Cy Young Award winner Paul Skenes and took home the victory in a 1-0 nailbiter. All told, Abel made six starts for the Phils before being traded, working to a middling 5.06 ERA over 25 frames.
The 24-year-old has been much better this year in Minnesota, where he’s posted a 3.98 mark over 20 ⅓ innings. He’s been even more spectacular in Triple-A for the Twins, firing eight innings of one-run ball with 10 punchouts and nary a walk. That’s what makes Abel’s injury so disappointing to see, as it looked like he was finally getting his feet under him on his quest to stick in a big league rotation. There’s no indication of how long he’ll be on the shelf, but anytime surgery is involved it could be a long absence.
It's a bummer to see Mick Abel get sidetracked once again after leaving Phillies
It should be some consolation to Twins fans that Eduardo Tait is still healthy and performing decently well with their High-A Cedar Rapids club. The power-hitting catcher has slugged 14 home runs and 13 doubles in 62 games, and at just 19 years of age is more than three years younger than the average High-A player.
Tait currently ranks in the top three among all Twins prospects, and projects to be a mashing backstop with a solid hit tool and cannon arm if everything breaks right. That sounds like quite a nice proposition for a Phillies team that is locked into two-and-a-half more years of J.T. Realmuto’s precipitous decline. Tait may not be major league-ready this year or next, but he would be the perfect heir apparent to the greatest catcher in Phillies history by the time his contract is up.
And yet, Phillies fans are perfectly fine with the swap they made, considering the fact that Duran stepped into a bullpen in flux and has blown opposing hitters away to the tune of a 1.90 ERA during his time with the Phils. Tait and Abel were a pretty steep price to pay, but Jhoan Duran locking down the ninth inning gets them one step closer to postseason glory, and that’s well worth the price.
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