Phillies add veteran infielder Asdrubal Cabrera in trade with rival Mets

Cabrera likely to help Phillies at multiple positions

The initial impression when evaluating the Philadelphia Phillies acquisition of Asdrubal Cabrera in trade from the New York Mets might be that he is a “rental” player.

However, Cabrera’s versatility and experience could instead lead the team to bring him back beyond this season. It’s all going to depend on how he fits in over these next few months, and what his contract demands might be this coming off-season.

Cabrera is currently playing out the end of what was a three-year, $24.75 million free agent contract which he signed with the Mets following the 2015 campaign.

He originally signed as an amateur free agent with the Seattle Mariners in August of 2002 while still a teenager. Cabrera was subsequently dealt to the Cleveland Indians in June 2006 for current ESPN analyst Eduardo Perez.

Cabrera broke into the big leagues with the Indians in 2007 and would become a two-time American League All-Star. In the first of those back-to-back all-star seasons, Cabrera was awarded the 2011 AL Silver Slugger Award for the shortstop position. He registered career highs in home runs (25), RBI (92), and runs scored (87) that season while hitting .273 and stealing 17 bases.

After parts of eight seasons with the Tribe, Cabrera was dealt to the Washington Nationals at the 2014 non-waiver trade deadline in exchange for pitcher Zach Walters.

As with this current trade, he became a free agent following that season and signed a one-year deal with the Tampa Bay Rays. Once that season was completed and he was a free agent once again, Cabrera signed his Mets deal.

Early in his career, Cabrera split time between second base and shortstop with the Indians. But by 2011 he was Cleveland’s everyday shortstop. He remained exclusively at shortstop until the Nats acquired him and used him for the balance of the 2014 season as their starting second baseman.

He was back at shortstop with the Rays during his lone season in Tampa, and then during his first season in New York. However, last season the Mets began to deploy him in a super-utility role. Cabrera played 45 games at shortstop, 44 at third base, and 32 games at second base.

Prior to this trade to the Phillies, Cabrera had been used exclusively by the Mets as a second baseman this year. It’s hard to say exactly how Gabe Kapler will choose to integrate him into the mix with his first-place ball club.

Maikel Franco has been playing tremendous baseball for more than a month and has become a key player in the Phillies rise. There is no way that Cabrera is going to supplant him at the hot corner.

At second base, Cesar Hernandez has settled into what is his typical empty offensive type of season. He is getting on-base at a .371 clip – no surprise there. However, he also hasn’t homered since June 20, and has stolen just two bases since June 24 – none in the last 15 games.

The Phillies lost their starting shortstop, J.P. Crawford, to injury early on. They have been playing Scott Kingery there out of position for much of the season to the mixed results that could have been expected with a rookie playing the position for the first time professionally.

The best guess is that Kapler will use him at both second and short liberally. Cabrera has banged 18 home runs and 23 doubles this year. 

Those figures would put him second only to Rhys Hoskins in those categories in the Phillies lineup. He hit the last of those 18 homers in a Mets uniform just last night in Pittsburgh.

Philadelphia Phillies Spring 2017 top ten prospects

Rhys Hoskins slugs way onto the Phillies Spring 2017 Top 10 Prospects list

Back in November of 2016, I provided my Philadelphia Phillies Top 10 Prospects ranking. At that time, I broke down each player with an individual scouting report.

While my Fall prospect list is more detailed, in the Spring the ranking usually will provide a much simpler straight-up ranking list. However, I will add some general commentary if there are major updates.

First, let’s take a look back at the Phillies Top 10 Prospects from the Fall of 2016:

10. Scott Kingery

9.   Kevin Gowdy

8.  Cornelius Randolph

7.  Ben Lively

6.  Franklyn Kilome

5.  Nick Williams

4.  Roman Quinn

3.  Mickey Moniak

2.  J.P. Crawford

1.  Jorge Alfaro

I also provided a listing of “near misses”, naming several prospects who fell just outside of the top ten. That included a link to each of the individual Top 10 Prospects ranking pieces.

Phillies Fall 2016 Top Ten Prospects: #6 - Franklyn Kilome

It is widely accepted throughout the industry that the Philadelphia Phillies have one of the most improved farm systems in the game.

As my own “Phillies Fall 2016 Top 10 Prospects” countdown progresses, the player in the #6 slot becomes the third and final pitcher on the list.

Franklyn Kilome is a 21-year old, 6’6″, 175 pound right-hander signed by the Phils out of the Dominican Republic back in 2013.

Kilome’s Pro Career to Date

Kilome began his professional career pitching as a teenager with the GCL Phillies in the summer of 2014. He went 3-1 with a 3.12 ERA and 1.165 WHIP while allowing 36 hits over 40.1 innings in 11 games, eight of them starts.

In 2015, Kilome was moved up to short season Williamsport, where he put together a 3-2 record with a 3.28 ERA and 1.257 WHIP as a 20-year old. He yielded 41 hits in 49.1 innings over 11 starting outings.

This past summer saw Kilome take the next step, moving up to Low A Lakewood in the South Atlantic League. He went 5-8 with a 3.85 ERA and 1.42 WHIP over 23 starts, allowing 113 hits in 114.2 innings.

In his three seasons, Kilome has produced a combined 191/82 K:BB ratio over 204.1 innings.  He has allowed 190 hits over his first 45 pro games, 42 of those as starting assignments.

It is believed that Kilome is beginning to fill out his large frame as he matures, and that his actual weight is significantly greater now than the bio listed 175.

Reading Eagle: Phillies 2016 Top Prospects Survey

Over the last couple of seasons, especially over the last calendar year, a concerted effort finally began to completely rebuild the Phillies minor league system.

The results have been dramatic. Nearly every respected prospect evaluation resource places the Phillies organization near the top of their organizational rankings, and a number of the club's best individual prospects are featured across the most influential Top 50 and Top 100 lists.

Those changes to the young talent flowing through the organization have already begun to yield results at the big league level, as inconsistent as some of those youngsters may still be at this early point in their careers.

Pitchers Aaron Nola, Jerad Eickhoff, Zach Eflin, Vincent Velasquez, and now Jake Thompson all entered the Phillies organization in the last two years through trades or the MLB Amateur Draft, and all have already debuted with the Phillies starting pitching rotation.

Among position players, Maikel Franco is in his first full big league season at 3rd base, Tommy Joseph is showing power at 1st base, and center fielder Odubel Herrera followed up his 2015 rookie campaign with an appearance in the NL All-Star Game this year.

Now a new, even younger group of highly regarded prospects is beginning to make their move, having reached the highest levels of the club's minor league system.

They are poised to make their own Phillies debut, some next month, some next year.

Phils Place Six on Baseball America Midseason Top 100 Prospects List

The Philadelphia Phillies have placed six prospects among the Top 100 in the game on Baseball America’s Midseason Top 100 list.

In ranking released today, the strength of the Phillies minor league system was revealed once again, as a half-dozen of the organization’s prospects were ranked within the Top 100 in the game by Baseball America.

Following on the heels of yesterday’s announcement that four of the club’s prospects had made the Top 50 as ranked by Baseball Prospectus, this continues to reinforce that Phillies fans still have a number of supremely talented youngsters on the way.

RELATED STORY: Phils Have Four Prospects on Baseball Prospectus Top 50

The six prospects ranked by Baseball America are led by shortstop J.P. Crawford, who was placed at the top by BP, but who is rated in the #3 slot by BA behind 2nd baseman Yoan Moncada of Boston and pitcher Alex Reyes of Saint Louis.

Crawford has been hot of late as he adjusts to the highest level of the minor leagues with AAA Lehigh Valley. 

Just a step away now from the big leagues, it would surprise no one to see him debut with the Phillies during the second half of this season.

Phils Place Six on Baseball America's Midseason Top 100 Prospects List

In ranking released today, the strength of the Phillies minor league system was revealed once again, as a half-dozen of the organization's prospects were ranked within the Top 100 in the game by Baseball America.

Following on the heels of yesterday's announcement that four of the club's prospects had made the Top 50 as ranked by Baseball Prospectus, this continues to reinforce that Phillies fans still have a number of supremely talented youngsters on the way.

The six prospects ranked by Baseball America are led by shortstop J.P. Crawford, who was placed at the top by BP, but who is rated in the #3 slot by BA behind 2nd baseman Yoan Moncada of Boston and pitcher Alex Reyes of Saint Louis.

Crawford has been hot of late as he adjusts to the highest level of the minor leagues with AAA Lehigh Valley. Just a step away now from the big leagues, it would surprise no one to see him debut with the Phillies during the second half of this season.

Outfielder Nick Williams was ranked in the #40 spot by Baseball America, the only other Phillies prospect listed among their Top 50 overall.

Rounding out the Phillies contingent on the Baseball America Midseason Top 100 are right-handed starting pitcher Jake Thompson (62), catcher Jorge Alfaro (67), catcher Andrew Knapp (80), and pitcher Franklyn Kilome (96).

To be eligible for the BA list, players had to be in the minor leagues still as of June 21st, which was the midway point of the minor league season. 

They also had to not have exceeded MLB rookie eligibility of 130 big league at-bats or 50 innings pitched, or 30 appearances in the majors by a reliever.

It is also important to note that 2016 draftees, such as the Phillies' Mickey Moniak, or July 2nd signees were not eligible for the list because BA wanted this list to reflect a preview of the upcoming July 31st MLB non-waiver trade deadline. All of the players ranked are eligible to be dealt this year.

Next week, ESPN's Keith Law is expected to release his own midseason top 100 ranking. As the Phillies continue to move forward in their rebuilding program, I will continue to bring you all of the exciting, relevant content needed on these emerging future stars,

Pharm Report: Low-A Lakewood BlueClaws

The Phillies 'Low-A' level minor league club, the Lakewood BlueClaws, currently find themselves at the bottom of the South Atlantic (SAL) League standings in the North Division.

The BlueClaws are 16-24, which has them tied with the Marlins' affiliates in Greensboro for last place. Both teams trail the first place Hagerstown Suns (Nationals) by 10.5 games already.

Manager Shawn Williams' club has been hurt by the struggles of one of the Phillies top minor league pitching prospects at the lower levels, right-hander Franklyn Kilome.

Kilome thus far has an 0-4 record with a 7.30 ERA and a 1.99 WHIP. He has allowed 34 hits in 24.2 innings with a 25/15 K:BB ratio across his first half-dozen starts.

Named as our #7 Phillies prospect over at TBOH during the preseason, Kilome had a solid season a year ago with short-season Williamsport as a 20-year old during which he saw a major uptick in his fastball, leading to the lofty ranking.

Kilome struggled mightily with command and control issues during the season's opening month. In April, the righty went 0-3 with a 15.83 ERA and walked 10 batters over his first 9.1 innings.

However, things may finally be coming together for the high-ceiling pitcher who is now 21 years old.

Franklyn Kilome Has Rough Start

On a freezing cold Thursday afternoon at Whitaker Bank Ballpark in Lexington, Kentucky, the Phillies A-level affiliate Lakewood BlueClaws opened their 2016 season with a 7-4 defeat at the hands of the host Lexington Legends.

When the BlueClaws starting pitcher, Franklyn Kilome, strode out to the mound the thermostat read 37 degrees on an overcast afternoon that blotted out any chance of a warming sun. The 18mph winds blowing out of left field made the temperatures on the field feel more like it was in the low-teens.

The 20-year old Kilome was ranked by our staff here at TBOH as the Phillies' #7 overall prospect back in February. He is a tall and lanky native of the Dominican Republic whom the club signed as a 17-year old international free agent back in January 2013.

A huge spike in the velocity of his fastball and improved command of his secondary pitches shot Kilome up all of the major scouting boards last summer, to the point now where he is considered as a Top 10 organizational prospect by evaluators across the game.

RELATED STORY: TBOH Phillies #7 Prospect: Franklyn Kilome

Very little of that was on display on Thursday afternoon, as Kilome appeared overwhelmed by the weather conditions. He was crushed for five earned runs on five hits including a home run in just two innings pitched. He also walked four batters while striking out just two.

Prior to the start, Lakewood skipper Shawn Williams had said that Kilome "was very impressive" during spring training. That spring performance and last season's results had led Williams to name the youngster as his starting pitcher on Opening Day in the minor leagues.

While the weather was certainly a major factor for Kilome on Thursday, it didn't seem to affect 22-year old fellow Dominican Jose Taveras, who followed Kilome with three shutout innings over which the 6'4" righty struck out five and walked two. So the weather cannot be considered as the sole issue with Kilome's performance.

Kilome is next scheduled to take the mound for the BlueClaws on Tuesday night in Hagerstown, Maryland on what is likely to prove to be another cool evening. The Phillies would love to see their young prospect gut up some mental toughness and overcome the typical northeast April chill, and begin to bring some of the heat that he showed a year ago.

Reading Eagle: Phillies Top Prospects Survey Results

Back in August, I was contacted by Mike Drago (Twitter: @mldrago) of the Reading Eagle to participate in the publication's annual survey regarding the Phillies' top prospects.

The task was to provide my own personal Top 20 prospects list from the team's minor league system. 

Those were then pooled with the results of lists provided by twenty or so others who also closely monitor the team, and a Top 10 Phillies Prospects feature was released on August 30th.

One thing that became apparent from this effort was the obvious improvement in the number of serious prospects among the top players in the Phils' system. Another was the growing depth of that system. A third was that the team has a stud at the top who should be a future MLB All-Star in shortstop J.P. Crawford.

For the first time in a long time, there has been clear improvement in the Phillies farm system. That now shows in both the quality and quantity of the club's better prospects, but also in the on-field success of the minor league clubs. 

As Drago said in his piece: "After a wild series of trades, and back-to-back  strong drafts, the once-lagging Phillies minor league system now ranks among the strongest in baseball."

The AA Reading Fightin' Phils finished in 1st place in the Eastern Division of the Eastern League with a record of 80-61, and are now playing in the Eastern League Championship Series. 

The High-A Clearwater Threshers finished on top of the overall standings in the Florida State League's North Division with a 79-58 mark.

At the A-ball level, the Lakewood BlueClaws finished in 3rd place in the Northern Division of the South Atlantic League with a 73-65 record. 

The Williamsport Crosscutters finished in 1st place in the short season New York-Penn League's Pinckney Division at 46-30 overall.

Even the team's Rookie level Gulf Coast League affiliate finished strong, with a 36-24 record, good for 2nd place in the Northwest Division. 

Only at AAA Lehigh Valley, where the IronPigs lost 10 of their final 14 to finish at 63-81 did the minors system experience a losing record.

Overall, the Phillies minor league affiliates compiled a 377-319 record. In their mid-season update, MLB Pipeline ranked five Phillies' prospects among the top 89 in the game. Those are the best results the system has produced in a long time.

Here is the Reading Eagle Top 20 Phillies Prospects. In parentheses, I show where I placed that player on my own submitted list. 

Following that are the players who I submitted on my own personal list who did not make the overall Top 20 final ranking.

1. J.P. Crawford, SS (1)

2. Jake Thompson, P (3)

3. Nick Williams, OF (2)

4. Cornelius Randolph, OF (4)

5. Jorge Alfaro, C (6)

6. Roman Quinn, OF (7)

7. Franklyn Kilome, P (5)

8. Zach Eflin, P (8)

9. Ricardo Pinto, P (NR)

10. Carlos Tocci, OF (17)

11. Aaron Altherr, OF (NR)

12. Andrew Knapp, C (19)

13. Jerad Eickhoff, P (14)

14. Scott Kingery, 2B (10)

15. Nick Pivetta, P (15)

16. Ben Lively, P (9)

17. Darnell Sweeney, 2B (NR)

18. Rhys Hoskins, 1B (NR)

19. Alberto Tirado, P (16)

20. Malquin Canelo, SS (20)

My listees who didn't make the combined Reading Eagle poll Top 20: Tom Windle (11), Matt Imhof (12), Alec Asher (13), Jesse Biddle (18).

 I really like Windle to develop as a lefty arm who can help out of the Phillies pen as soon as next season. 

Also, my list was submitted before Asher's big league performances, which have been a major turnoff.