Not enough can be said about Mick Abel’s resurrection this season. The former first round pick entered 2025 as an afterthought on the verge of losing real prospect consideration, looking as though he would be one of the many former top picks to stall out in Triple-A. But Abel has completely revitalized his career, to the point where he earned a promotion to the Majors where he shined in his MLB debut.
That start has parlayed into Abel being given a spot in the Phillies rotation, at least for now. The team saw enough from that one start and Abel’s success at Lehigh Valley this year to officially move Taijuan Walker to the bullpen permanently and allow Abel to fill the spot in the rotation vacated by the injured Aaron Nola.
Abel deserves praise for working on himself and finding a groove. His 2024 season was a disaster in almost every sense of the word. Abel had a 6.46 ERA across 24 starts in his first full AAA season. His fastball velocity continued its trend of averaging under what it was supposed to, sitting 94.7 MPH. His strikeout rate plummeted to a career worst 21.3% while his walk rate soared to a career high 22.1%. He averaged a little over 4.5 innings per start and only recorded an out in the sixth inning five times in 24 starts.
But Abel’s 2025 has been night and day. His fastball velocity is back up to a healthier 95.6 MPH, he’s cut his walk rate to 15.4%, and he’s raised his strikeout rate all the way back up to 30.8%. Of 73 starting pitchers in AAA to face at least 150 batters, Abel’s .278 wOBA is tied for seventh best and his .209 BA against is eighth best. Abel sports a 2.21 ERA across 10 starts and is averaging over 5 innings per start. In fact, he’s already matched his number of instances of pitching past the fifth inning as he had in all of 2024. He was rolling in May, carrying a 1.19 ERA across four starts with a perfect 3-0 record. Abel did allow 13 walks in 22 innings, but he also struck out 31.
All of this earned him a promotion to the Majors on May 18th where he dominated the Pirates lineup and outdueled Paul Skenes. Abel tossed six shutout innings while allowing five hits while collecting nine strikeouts. But most encouragingly, he didn’t walk a single batter. That was labeled just a spot start in place of Nola, with Walker taking the next two turns in the rotation.
In the weeks since that game, things have changed for the Phillies. Their bullpen is running on fumes, Walker regressed in those two starts, and Nola is taking longer than originally expected to return. So, the Phillies have decided to try Walker as a leverage reliever as they attempt to leave no stone unturned in their search for bullpen help before the trade deadline. Walker’s had some success as a reliever this year, allowing two runs on four hits across six innings with nine strikeouts to one walk. It remains to be seen if he can become a real leverage reliever though.
But it’s now Abel’s spot in the rotation until Nola is deemed ready to return. Once that happens, that’s when things get interesting. What do the Phillies do if Abel is still pitching well in the Majors? If Nola’s nightmare season continues, the calls for Abel will only get louder. It seems unlikely that the Phillies would be willing to move either Abel or Nola to the bullpen as they did Walker, so there’s one rotation spot for two pitchers. There’s also the chance that Abel falls flat on his face in an extended look in the Majors. This is not to take away from his fantastic debut, but the Pirates lineup ranks 29th in runs scored and 27th in OPS. Abel will have tougher challenges ahead.
Then there’s the cloud of the trade deadline looming. Abel had almost no value last season, but he now seems like a blossoming trade chip to possibly package for a bullpen addition or a lineup upgrade. Good, young, controllable starting pitching is the most premium of the premium at the deadline, so it’s likely that Abel would be able to fetch a nice return. The Phillies seem to have an abundance of starting pitching already in the Majors and still have the impending debut of prized prospect Andrew Painter.
Abel would seem to be expendable, but as we’ve seen, you can never have enough starting pitching. The injury histories of Jesús Luzardo and Ranger Suárez have to be kept in mind when plotting out the pitching plans for the rest of the season. Besides Painter, who will be on a pitch count, Abel is the Phillies only real MLB-viable starting pitching option when it comes to the Minor Leagues.
Regardless, Abel has forced himself into the Phillies plans on multiple fronts. He’s forced them to allow him some real runway in the Majors with his performance and the various other issues pertaining to the MLB roster. He’s also forced them to look at him as a real trade chip and possibly to shop in the higher echelons of the market than they’ve had the last few seasons when they had less to move.
Saying either of those two things a year ago would’ve seemed more like a dream than reality.