Early Wednesday afternoon, Philadelphia Phillies rookie pitcher Mick Abel took the mound at Citizens Bank Park to start Game 1 of a doubleheader. It didn't go well. In fact, it went about as poorly as it could have gone for the Phillies against the visiting San Diego Padres.
Abel, making his sixth start of his MLB career, didn't make it out of the second inning. After getting out of the first frame with one walk and a pair of strikeouts, things went way downhill in the second. The 23-year-old's command evaporated in the blink of an eye, and he left with the Phillies down 5-0.
The right-hander walked in a pair of runs before Padres third baseman Manny Machado drove in three with a double into the left field corner. His final line was ugly — he gave up five runs on two hits and five walks with three strikeouts in 1 2/3 innings.
According to MLB.com's Paul Casella, Abel is the third Phillies pitcher to give up five or more runs and walks in less than two innings of work since 1995. Yikes!
Willing & Abel pic.twitter.com/CxUnU2RRRX
— San Diego Padres (@Padres) July 2, 2025
Mick Abel's disastrous outing just showed the Phillies the version they were hoping to not see
Wednesday's version of Mick Abel was the one that the Phillies were hoping they wouldn't see while he was filling in for the injured Aaron Nola.
Abel's surface numbers have been good, for the most part, up to this point. He entered Wednesday's start with a 3.47 ERA, 18 strikeouts and just four walks in 23 1/3 innings. However, there were some alarming metrics under the hood that indicated this kind of disaster would rear its ugly head eventually.
Obviously, Abel's command was the real issue against the Padres. It's no secret that he struggled mightily with his command throughout his time in the minors. The former first-round draft pick pitched to a 6.46 BB/9 in Triple-A last year. It looked like he had turned a corner this season, posting a 3.69 BB/9 before getting the call for his spectacular debut against the Pittsburgh Pirates.
He didn't allow a walk through his first two starts, but the Chicago Cubs worked three free passes in four innings against him in start No. 3. Abel managed to avoid as much damage in that one, giving up three runs. However, he did allow three home runs as well, which foreshadowed his other looming problem.
Mick Abel has missed his spots quite a few times tonight -- and 3 of those have resulted in solo home runs. He's also issued his first two walks of his young career.
— Paul Casella (@Paul_CasellaMLB) June 10, 2025
The pinpoint control from the first two starts hasn't been there tonight.
In his last start before facing the Padres, he didn't allow any walks against the New York Mets, and registered only one strikeout. He did give up four solo home runs, though. It was an ominous sign that the hard contact he had allowed over his preceding starts was catching up with him. Opposing hitters had a 92.6 mph average exit velocity against him before Wednesday (MLB average is 89.5 mph).
Now that the Phillies's worst nightmare has come true with Abel at the big league level, they have to decide their next course of action. They don't have anyone obvious to plug into the rotation when Abel's spot comes around again. With Nola out until at least mid-August, Taijuan Walker firmly planted in the bullpen and top prospect Andrew Painter not an option until sometime after the All-Star break, options are limited.
If the Phillies have to run Abel out there again, they had better hope he looks more like the guy who dazzled everyone in his MLB debut.