FAYETTEVILLE — It’s now official, former Batesville and Arkansas pitcher Gage Wood has signed with the Philadelphia Phillies.
Wood signed with the Phillies on Tuesday for $3 million. That was below the slot value, $3,492,200, for the No. 26 pick in the recent 2025 draft, Wood pitched the first no-hitter in the College World Series in 65 years against Murray State in his last start.
“It’s awesome,” Wood told Phillies Nation. “Got to come up here to Philly for the first time. Worked my whole life for this, so this is a blessing and I’m ready to get going.”
Wood was present at Philadelphia’s win on Saturday over the Los Angeles Angels. Wood was impressed.
“The stadium is awesome,” Wood said. “The fans are awesome, and the environment is incredible.”
Wood’s stock rose when he struck out 19 Murray State hitters on his way to the no-hitter. He only missed a perfect game when he hit one batter. Wood went 4-1 with a 3.82 ERA in 37 2/3 innings. He struck out 69 and walked seven missing time due to an injury.
Phillies manager Rob Thomson was impressed with the team’s first-round pick.
“He looks like he’s very strong,” Thomson said. “He looks like he’s been in the weight room…“An exciting time for a young man to start his professional career.”
As Wood now heads to Single-A Clearwater it will be interesting to see how quickly Wood moves up the organization. Some on ESPN the night of the draft predicted it’s possible Wood makes it to Philadelphia later in the season.
“I’m going to work as hard as I can to perform the best that I can,” Wood said, “but we’ll let the people in the front office make that decision.”
Wood started out of the bullpen when he first got to Arkansas, but Philadelphia sees him as a starter per general manager Preston Mattingly.
“He has those pitches, but we view him as a starter,” Mattingly said. “Could he do things, hypothetically? Sure, but we view him as a starting pitcher.
“We like all four pitches. We think there’s the ability to develop even more than he has. Obviously he has an elite fastball. He showed that in college, the curveball as well. We still think the slider has significant room for improvement, and the changeup as well.”