This has MAJOR IMPLICATIONS for the Phillies...

There is plenty of attention being paid to the Philadelphia Phillies set to suit up this season, but even more should be noted about the long-term future of this franchise. With some prospects itching to make their way to the majors as quick as possible, we have some updates to break down regarding the status of both Andrew Painter and Aiden Miller, the two prized possessions in this Phillies farm system, and guys that seem to be making their way up the ranks at a more accelerated pace than expected. So me and Luke are going to dive into exactly what that means, But before we get fully into it, do want to remind you guys to make sure you are smashing that subscribe button. At this point in time, 73.8% of you guys have not subscribed to the channels that are watching these videos. Appreciate each and every one of you guys getting involved in the action. It is officially Phillies season, and we're going to be all over from start to finish. So, Luke, to throw it to you right off the bat here, I'm getting excited. I'm seeing quotes like this come out about Andrew Painter here, saying he has the chance to be an exceptional pitcher at the big league level. He has the potential to be a number one top of the rotation starter. So to throw it to you direct here, where are we at on the Andrew Painter conversations and what's kind of the early tells coming out of training or spring training? Yeah. So he is he is ramping up a little bit. I know we in Philadelphia don't like the words ramping up, but he's ramping up back from surgery. I believe he threw his second bullpen today of the spring. It seems like he's he looks really good. uh one of the most fascinating things whenever i watch videos of him pitch is he looks like the most effortless pitcher yeah when he throws and he still throws like basically 100 miles and it's six foot eight like he's six he's ginormous i i have i don't know if i'm more excited for a young prospect that i i've ever been for people and Phillies fans to see Andrew Painter pitch at Citizens Bank Park like it is it he is phenomenal to watch pitch i like i've i've like hopelessly sat there and just watched Andrew Painter videos for hours because he it is it's it's fascinating to watch him pitch um he's going to be awesome granted unfortunately we're not going to see him for a little bit in game action uh he will not pitch in any game action this spring he'll only be throwing bullpens um but it seems like the timeline right now is is the i would say the middle of june to to august i think within that sort of month month and a half i think that's kind of when you're going to see him i think they'll start with mainly bullpens uh this spring obviously like we said um i think they'll give him a few starts in triple A i don't think they're going to throw him a ton in triple A um i don't think he's going to be on some crazy schedule down there, but I think this is a good start to get some pitching tips from Cole Hamels. If you want to be a good Phillies pitcher, I would take every advice you can from Cole Hamels. If he can teach him that change up, like Fritz said, that'll be another nasty pitch. But yeah, man, I'm so freaking excited for this kid to pitch. I've been saying for a year and a half, I just want them to announce his number because I want the jersey now. I want it now. I am so excited for this kid to pitch yeah i love it and i'll say one of the things that really has stood out for me is like oftentimes when you see these taller pitchers that are a little you know gangly or don't have the coordination that you expect that is not the case with Andrew Painter he looks smooth he looks almost compact in his delivery it's pretty impressive how effortless as you said that he does make it look here now to give a little bit of a rankings perspective on this prospect we do have this coming out of FanGraphs that across the MLB has Andrew Painter at the sixth ranked prospect in the majors, Aidan Miller at 15, and then Moises Chance are also cracking the list at 74. We talked about Painter a little bit already, and I do want to dive in deeper on Aidan Miller. But one name that struck me that I was surprised not to be on this is Justin Crawford. That is a guy that I would say, from my view, it's felt the widest range on what sort of his outlook or where he stacks up as far as a prospect. Where are the conversations on Crawford? yeah so as far as Crawford um as far as the the national rankings as far as all 30 teams it's hard for a guy like Crawford to stay in the top 100 as he gets older and I and me saying older is funny because he's still younger than me um but you get these 18 year olds that just got drafted and they immediately go to the top because they're these big power threat infielders and these crazy pitchers and it's hard for a guy that's a defensive specialist center fielder i would say to stay in those national rankings but that's not any sort of flack on Crawford at all okay um he it seems like he's only getting better as well um one name i do want to point out and i will give Dave Dombrowski all the credit for this is the Moises Cañas trade um he is my bullpen young guy to watch for this season. I think he has the chance to be in the pen once we get to October. He's got nasty stuff. And the fact that we traded him for Gregory Soto, who eventually got cut is just absolutely a fleece job of a trade. I am very excited for him too, but I am ready for these young guys, especially Aidan Miller. He spoke to the media today and he is, he is ready to go um he basically said i don't really care where i play um he said he wants to get to the majors as fast as possible unfortunately i don't think that's going to be this year um as i will keep saying the 2026 Phillies are going to be the team to watch um but yeah his timeline is more uh uh 2026 i would probably say the same thing for Crawford as well unless he has a really good um year i would say probably AAA a um maybe they'll consider it late in the season but i i don't think you'll see Aidan Miller in the pros this year uh but he is ready for the pros as far as uh mentally wise and i i did want to say uh for Andrew Painter every interview that i've seen from the Phillies vets and and this sort of goes back to his mantra on the mound like we were saying he's smooth he's he's just everything looks so relaxed uh i believe it was Aaron Nola spoke to reporters the other day and and Nola basically said that he already looks like a veteran like sort of the way just he carries himself and and just the way he is on the mound and if you're getting tips from Cole Hamels once again and and you're getting high praise from from Aaron Nola and I mean the guy hasn't even pitched in triple-a yet um I'm telling you man this is the this is the best trio of prospects the Phillies have ever had um so there is hope for the future with these three guys wow yeah strong praise there and love to see it and yeah you could do a lot worse than surrounding yourself with names like Aaron Nola and Cole Hamels there from which is and this is another reason and and this is why going back to last year at the trade deadline and I was so I was so hell-bent on not sending these guys for nothing like if if you're gonna if you're going to trade Adam Miller it has to be a trade that's winning you a world series right now like last year that and and there wasn't really guys like that at the deadline that's why i was so anti-trading Painter and Miller and there were so many people that were like we're trying to play to win now and yes i get that but i'm not trading Adam Miller for for Luis Robert Jr who hit like 190 land like it's just it would have to be a superstar player and I think the only way that they could have possibly done it was maybe the trade for Kyle Tucker but I agree with it right now because the Cubs didn't extend him yet and it seems like he's not going to get an extension so he's probably once again hitting free agency after this season and that is something I am going to look out for after this season but we do have a lot of time till we're there we do we do And I will push back a little bit on this here. So to play a little bit of devil's advocate, for starters, showing some love to Aiden Miller, who, as you mentioned, has been a champ facing the media and some cool quotes coming out that he was in fifth grade when Bryce Harper won his first MVP and now he's sharing a locker room with a guy. And he was kind of asked about it. He said, man, everything. The youngest player in Phillies' camp said Tuesday when asked what he plans to talk to Harper about. I met him yesterday and I felt pretty starstruck. That was so cool. Just watching him go about his business, his routine in the cages, just excited to learn from him. I think the first day is a little overwhelming. So much going on, meeting so many new people. I felt pretty comfortable now and excited to see what spring training has to offer and soak up as much as I can. The Phillies drafted Miller 27th overall in 2023 out of Florida, and then he forewent his senior year to be a part of this pathway to the pros here. Now, to my pushback to this is when thinking about the long-term piece of the puzzle here, we obviously had a lot of conversations about the future of Alec Bohm for Aiden Miller still kind of a short stop by trade here and Trea Turner is also not going anywhere so when looking ahead to the future how do you think he projects positionally is there going to be uh an alteration there is there could be a Trea Turner shifting back somewhere how do you see this all playing out that is easily the biggest question mark around Miller is where do they go once he's ready right um if Bohm has a phenomenal season this year like what do you do do you let Bohm walk and he comes back and he doubts and he makes a lot of people doubt him that's the tough situation um i mean realistically i think you go Miller before you go Boehm but that would also have to be with Miller wanting to play third um and i if Aiden Miller's like what 22 years old and the organization says i want you to play third base for the next 10 years i don't think he's gonna say no um but yeah it it'll it'll get a bit iffy i think um if if they really like Miller at short is is that where you start to think about the the Turner to the outfield like that's the situations that you have to get to um but i don't think we're there yet sure um but it's definitely going to be a weird situation because i don't care if you like Trey you hate Trey you're you're indifferent on Trey he's he's he's not going anywhere so like he's going to be here for a while and he i don't think he's a great defensive shortstop um worse but yeah but he is the shortstop as of right now and he's and and that's what he's paid to be um so there's going to be some conversations on sort of what they have to do um but i will say one more thing on Aiden Miller i i'm i never root for injuries ever but thank god Aiden Miller broke his wrist in high school because if Aiden Miller didn't break his wrist he would have probably been a top five pick in the draft and he fell all the way to 27 at the Phillies because of his broken wrist um so i am happy that my prospect broke his wrist two years ago because if that didn't happen we would have never had Aiden Miller yeah so we'll put a little bit of a bookmark on the Aiden Miller story at this point in time it does seem like Andrew Painter the guy much more likely to have a chance this season in fact that's seemingly looking like a lock at this stage which is great to hear about that but we'll be interested to see how these conversations transpire me and Luke are going to be breaking things down from every single angle right here on Philly's Digest so one more time do want to remind you guys to make sure you are hitting that subscribe button just 26.3 percent of you guys tuning in the videos have subscribed thus far so let's get those numbers jumping let's get ready to watch some baseball and want each and every one of you a part of it so thanks for everybody for tuning in one more time and me and luke will be back talking to you next time right here on philly's digest peace