The Atlanta Braves were very active in the trade market this winter. They made a number of transactions that resulted in the addition of relievers Aaron Bummer and Ray Kerr as well as numerous starters, including pitcher Chris Sale and outfielder Jarred Kelenic.
And one of those offers, it turns out, might be even better than we previously believed.
As the cornerstone of the trade to acquire Kelenic, Atlanta selected pitcher Cole Phillips in the second round of the 2022 MLB Draft. Phillips is a prospect who was slated to miss all of 2024 due to a second Tommy John surgery.
The news was initially broken by “Locked On Mariners” host Ty Dane Gonzalez; the team has not confirmed it.
The 20-year-old Phillips was selected by the Braves in the second round of the 2022 MLB Draft, although he has not yet made an MLB pitch. Despite Phillips’ need for Tommy John surgery due to a UCL injury sustained during his final season as a prep pitcher in Boerne, Texas, Atlanta selected him in the second round with a $1.5 million signing bonus.
However, nearly 18 months after his Tommy John surgery in April 2022, and without being back on a mound in game action by the end of the 2023 season, Atlanta appeared to decide to let the righthander go. The main component of Kelenic’s trade with the Mariners was Phillips; the other player to leave Atlanta was Jackson Kowar, a struggling major-league reliever.
Although most publications rank Phillips around the bottom of Seattle’s top prospects list, a few of observers predicted that once he on the mound in 2024, Phillips would explode. But now that Phillips is supposedly done with his second Tommy John surgery, the timeframe has shifted once more, and a mid-2025 debut is the new objective.
When Phillips plays again in 2025, he will have been out of the game for less than two years following his Rule 5 selection. Most prep draftees, who are 18 or younger on draft day, must be added to the 40-man roster by the end of the fifth season following their draft year in order to avoid being exposed to the Rule 5 Draft.