Phillies reveal draft strategy ahead of the 2024 MLB Draft

The Philadelphia Phillies front office has a busy month ahead of them as they prepare for the 2024 MLB Draft on Sunday night and the MLB trade deadline a few weeks later on July 30. While Dave Dombrowski and his team of scouts engage in mock drafts to get a good idea of who will be available when the Phillies make their first selection with pick No. 27 on Sunday, another set of eyes will be closely monitoring the trade market as MLB's buyers and sellers continue to talk shop.

The Phillies have done a remarkable job of drafting in recent years, and for proof of that, look no further than the most recent MLB Pipeline Top 100 prospect rankings, where four of the Phillies five players ranked were taken in the first round by the Phillies in consecutive drafts from 2020 to 2023. Two of those prospects, Aidan Miller and Justin Crawford, will be representing the Phillies in MLB's All-Star Futures Game this weekend.

It's easy to forget that there was a time period when the Phillies farm system was regularly ranked as being one of the worst in baseball. That's not the case anymore — the Phillies' scouting department is clearly doing some fine work.

Phillies reveal draft strategy ahead of the 2024 MLB Draft

Ahead of this week's MLB draft, Phillies assistant general manager of amateur scouting Brian Barber spoke with MLB.com about what the Phillies could be looking for this weekend.

The Phillies have developed a recent pattern of selecting high school talent in the first round of the last four drafts, as evidenced by Mick Abel, Andrew Painter, Justin Crawford and Aidan Miller, all taken with the first pick in consecutive years. The last time the Phillies selected a college player with the first pick was back in 2019 when they drafted shortstop Bryson Stott from UNLV with the ninth overall pick. It's been a while.

Could the Phillies pivot from selecting its fifth high school player in as many years? Barber seemed to imply that they could go that route, but all indications point to college players being drafted earlier this year, in what he described as an "average draft."

"The general consensus is, it's probably close to an average draft year in, year out," explained Barber. "I don't think it's a secret you're going to see the top part of the draft dominated by college position players specifically. As you get deeper in the draft, I think there's a mix of different, basically every different demographic that you would look for."

Obviously, MLB differs from the NBA and NFL, where the strategy isn't dominated by drafting for need. The Phillies could be interested in drafting a college player this year with the idea that a slightly more advanced player could make a quicker jump through the minor league system without dealing with a development curve that high school players often encounter during their first taste of professional baseball.

Will the Phillies draft a college bat in the first round of the 2024 MLB Draft?

With a lot of raw talent already in the organization, the Phillies seem to be tipping their hand that a college player is a higher priority this year than in previous drafts. With the trade deadline approaching and the possibility that the Phillies could use one or more of their top prospects to make an impact deal, the thought could be to draft a fast-rising player who could fill a void and not have the team lacking in young MLB ready talent over the next few seasons.

In MLB Pipeline's latest mock draft, MLB insider Jim Callis believes the Phillies will be looking for a college bat at pick 27, and he floats Tommy White, a third baseman from Louisiana State as a possible draft day target.

"The Phillies would love a college bat, with the best remaining options including White, Amick and Culpepper," writes Callis." Morlando is a high school hitting candidate and they're also not afraid of prep arms, which could lead them to Doughty, Mayfield, Sloan or Schmidt."

Callis leaves the door open for the Phillies to pivot toward any number of possibilities, including high school prep pitchers. While the Phillies haven't shown all their cards, it looks like the team has a good idea of what type of player they will be looking for when they are on the clock on Sunday night.