As Mick Abel grinds through disappointing season, Phillies prospect searches for lessons (2024)

It is difficult — even months later — for Mick Abel to watch himself. The video from earlier this season shows a confused young pitcher, and Abel will not dispute that.

“Everything just felt so uncomfortable,” the Philadelphia Phillies prospect said. “I didn’t know where any pitch was going to go.”

He was not hurt. He was lost. He is still searching for something this summer, a time when the Phillies envisioned he could help them in the majors.

Abel, who turns 23 later this week, just wants some inner peace.

“I’ve had a lot of times in my professional career so far that have been a struggle,” Abel said, “but I don’t think I’ve struggled as much as this year. Everything on the field was leaking into my life off the field as far as confidence goes. I’m still kind of dealing with some of that. It was definitely a very humbling time. And it really gave me a lot of trouble.”

There are various forms of failure in this sport, and as far as the Phillies are concerned, these are growing pains for a pitcher they did not count on being a big-league contributor in 2024. They had hoped Abel would pitch his way into the mix. Instead, he has a 6.18 ERA in 18 starts (83 innings) with 60 walks and 81 strikeouts at Triple-A Lehigh Valley. Others have passed him on the rotation depth chart.

Abel did not miss bats in April or May. The numbers were bad. But a regression in the pitcher’s stuff troubled rival evaluators who saw Abel earlier this season. Nothing was crisp. His fastball velocity stagnated. He was not confident in his arsenal. It showed in how he attacked hitters. It is why Abel’s stock has dropped. This, again, no one would dispute.

“We’ve not seen the command (as) what it needs to be,” said Preston Mattingly, the Phillies’ farm director. “All the things we look at that go into guys controlling the zone, he has not done that. You can’t sugarcoat it. But, whether it’s from a mentality standpoint or from a delivery standpoint, there are definitely paths we feel to getting him back to throwing better strikes.”

May was a low point. In one start, he threw first-pitch strikes to only eight of the 22 batters he faced.

“If I targeted a fastball low,” Abel said, “it could have gone 2 feet above the catcher.”

The Phillies noticed this. Dave Dombrowski, the veteran executive who oversees the Phillies, took a 70-mile trip to Coca-Cola Park to watch Abel in late May. Mattingly joined Dombrowski. Abel allowed six runs on six hits and four walks in 4 1/3 innings. His ERA sat at 6.21.

Mattingly sat down with Abel soon after. The Phillies offered Abel a chance to press pause, to spend time at the club’s Florida complex. He could work in an environment that shrouded him from weekly failure. Abel declined.

“Mick was very passionate about pitching and pushing through this and working and learning,” Mattingly said. “So, we felt it was the right thing to do.”

Abel should eclipse 100 innings for the third straight season, a consequential milestone in this version of minor-league baseball. He said he was just being honest with Mattingly.

“He welcomed that with open arms,” Abel said. “And I’m very thankful that he did. Sure, I’d thought about taking a pause. Being like, ‘Hey, I need to take time to work on stuff.’ But I’d much rather go through the struggle of failing at this level than not pitch. Because pitching is what I love to do.”

Abel, a first-round pick in the 2020 MLB Draft, entered the season as one of the better pitching prospects in all of baseball. He has tumbled down those lists. The Phillies, according to major-league sources, still received trade interest in Abel last month. Teams inquired, believing the Phillies were frustrated with the prospect’s lack of progress. They were protective of Abel in any trade talks two summers ago; entertaining them last month would be selling low.

So, they’ve pushed forward.

“We still believe in Mick Abel,” Mattingly said. “He still believes in himself. And, at the end of the day, that’s all that really matters.”

Abel had his best start of the season last week — six innings of scoreless ball with eight strikeouts and two walks. He threw first-pitch strikes to 18 of the 23 hitters he faced.

“It felt really good,” Abel said. “I think the pitcher in me, it’s like, ‘All right, just another outing.’ But I came home and I was really happy. I was able to really decompress and just be happy with it.”

Mick Abel dominates on the mound.

The @Phillies' No. 5 prospect strikes out a season-high eight batters over six scoreless innings for the Triple-A @IronPigs: pic.twitter.com/uT4gauenKY

— MLB Pipeline (@MLBPipeline) August 10, 2024

A better final six weeks to Abel’s season would accomplish something. For one, Abel can carry some confidence into the offseason. And, if the Phillies are still uncertain about how Abel fits into their future rotation plans, they could revisit the trade talks. Or he could come to spring training in 2025 to compete for a spot.

Abel has made adjustments big and small during the season. Some have stuck. Some haven’t. He described a breakthrough that occurred after he met with Mattingly.

“It came with drills that just made me feel relaxed in my throwing motion,” Abel said.

He called one “the Caleb drill,” after Phillies pitching coach Caleb Cotham. It did not sound complicated.

“It was a really relaxed drill where you just kind of start relaxed and you go into the throw and just be short and sweet to the plate,” Abel said. “And there it is.”

He said he felt a difference when he played catch. This was late May, before a start in which he allowed three runs in four innings on four walks and two home runs.

The fastball, at least, started to return to form.

“He’s determined to perform at a higher level,” Phillies general manager Sam Fuld said. “That’s not easy to say because I don’t know if we, as an industry, appreciate the pressures associated with being a first-round pick and being a top prospect. Those are very real pressures. And, particularly, if you’re a self-motivated kid like he is. It can weigh you down a bit. We have to be sensitive to that and understand that this is a long journey to success. It’s not always a linear path to becoming a good major-league starter.”

Phillies officials have made a point to highlight the fact Abel is roughly the same age as the two breakout pitching prospects they traded to the Los Angeles Angels at the deadline. Sam Aldegheri and George Klassen just reached Double A. Abel is 32 days older than Aldegheri and 161 days older than Klassen. He is 63 days older than Jean Cabrera, a rotation prospect who was promoted to Double A last month.

But Abel was drafted a year before Andrew Painter, who progressed faster, and the Phillies thought it was important to treat both first-round picks as equals. They did not want Abel to feel slighted. That meant aggressive promotions that made Abel one of the younger pitchers in the International League.

“Looking back, I think we would still make the same decision again,” Mattingly said. “We felt he was equipped to handle it. And, honestly, for his next step in development, this probably needed to happen. Go through these struggles. Work through it. So you’d rather deal with it now than deal with it when he’s in the big leagues.”

There are huge strides to make. Abel’s slider still blends with his curveball, and he’s had trouble throwing both for strikes. The changeup hasn’t worked. Most evaluators still consider Abel a potential mid-rotation starter, but there is an increased risk of not reaching that projection.

Constant failure can fuel confidence issues.

“There were plenty of nights when I’d sleep, but it was very troubled sleep,” Abel said. “Everything I’d think about off the field was revolving around baseball. There wasn’t really a way to take my mind off of it. The constant grind of trying to fix, fix, fix and not seeing the results … it’s tough.”

He talked to teammates, coaches and support staff members about it. He had to be clearer with his intentions on the mound. He needed conviction. He has not yet discovered it all. It will take time and, probably, a break from baseball this winter. But the incremental victories — like six scoreless innings a few months after it felt impossible to throw a single strike — matter.

“Yeah,” Abel said, “I slept really well.”

(Photo: Jonathan Tenca / Cal Sport Media via Associated Press)

Matt Gelb is a senior writer for The Athletic covering the Philadelphia Phillies. He has covered the team since 2010 while at The Philadelphia Inquirer, including a yearlong pause from baseball as a reporter on the city desk. He is a graduate of Syracuse University and Central Bucks High School West.