Rule 5 draft picks are tricky beasts. Normally, you're looking at inexperienced players who have potential but might not be finished products. Sometimes, they're diamonds in the rough, but other times, patience wears thin. The Philadelphia Phillies thought they had stolen one of those diamonds in the rough away from the rival Miami Marlins when they selected Zach McCambley in the Rule 5 Draft back in December.
The Phillies envisioned McCambley becoming an important piece in the bullpen. The 26-year-old had risen to Triple-A in 2025 and dominated with a 2.90 ERA and a 33.1% strikeout rate. During the spring, though, the results were a mixed bag.
The righty posted a 1.29 ERA, but walked six batters against just four strikeouts over 7 1/3 innings. Ultimately, Philadelphia wasn't convinced he'd be ready to contribute right away and tried to send him down, but had to offer him back to the Marlins first. Now, they might come to regret the decision.
Zach McCambley's off to a hot start with the Marlins and could fill the Phillies with regret
Back with his former club, McCambley has looked nasty while toiling down in Triple-A. He's logged four scoreless innings over two appearances, tallying a whopping seven strikeouts against just one walk and one hit.
In particular, his slider, which is his best pitch, has been a real weapon, and it's helped him to a ridiculous 53.3% whiff rate overall.
Meanwhile, the Phillies' bullpen has struggled so far this season. Through April 4, the unit ranks 26th in MLB with a 5.34 ERA. With that said, the underlying metrics indicate that the 'pen should stabilize as their 3.34 xERA and 3.07 FIP are well out of whack with the actual results.
McCambley still hasn't proven anything at the big league level yet, but after 40 2/3 innings of superb performance last year at the minors' highest level, it's pretty clear that this start is for real, and that he has major league potential.
If unproven arms like Zach Pop, Jonathan Bowlan, and Kyle Backhus don't impress this year, Philadelphia could live to regret the decision. The option situation with Pop and Backhus made that a hard choice, and Backhus, being the only southpaw of the group, had a built-in advantage over McCambley.
What really hurts is having to give him back to a division rival. Losing a talented player to a roster squeeze is the cost of doing business sometimes, but if they land and blossom in the NL East and can torment the Phillies for years, it will be a brutal twist of the knife.