As had been widely expected, the Phillies will promote righty Jake Thompson to the big leagues for the first time, per Ryan Lawrence of the Philly Voice (Twitter link). He’ll make his debut start on Saturday.
The move is partially tied to Philly’s placement of fellow young righty Aaron Nola on the 15-day DL, which opened a rotation spot. But the real driver is Thompson’s performance. Over his 129 2/3 innings on the year in his first attempt at Triple-A, Thompson carries a 2.50 ERA with 6.0 K/9 and 2.6 BB/9.
While that strikeout rate isn’t all that compelling, Philadelphia obviously felt it was time to give him a shot at the game’s highest level. The Phils are quickly building a formidable young rotation, and the organization surely hopes not only to give Thompson his first taste of the majors, but also to get a sense of how ready he will be to shoulder a full starter’s load in 2017.
In years past, Thompson has seen his name in headlines this time of year for rather a different reason. After being shipped from the Tigers to the Rangers in 2014’s Joakim Soria deal, Thompson went to the Phils last summer as a piece of the Cole Hamels package. Thompson will again be looking for a new place to stay this August, but this time it’ll be with the same organization.
A second-round pick in the 2012 draft, Thompson has rated as a leaguewide, top-100 prospect entering each of the last two seasons. There are varying ways to characterize his potential, with some giving him a shot at harnessing his four-pitch mix to become a top-of-the-rotation presence and others viewing him more as a durable, solid piece who has a somewhat limited ceiling.
The Phillies will soon begin to get an idea of just what they have in Thompson, who was arguably the key piece in the Hamels swap. Philadelphia’s big league roster already features three very promising young hurlers in Nola, Jerad Eickhoff, and Vincent Velasquez, and Thompson will be bidding to take up a similar place in a new-look staff.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images
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I always am amused with Thompson’s “rise” as a prospect. He was panned when the Tigers drafted him. The moment they traded him to Texas, he became noticed. Upon being moved for Hammels, he becomes a top rated prospect. Guess the Tigers don’t get the respect for their drafting that Boston and New York get automatically.
He was highly regarded before the Hamels deal
right. the Phils weren’t going to give up one of the best LHP in baseball, under contract for several more year cheaply. It’ll take a while to see how this deal works out for PHIL. The Rangers are very happy with Cole,. They wouldn’t have made the playoffs without him,.
The deal has already worked out for the Phillies. Eichoff has extremely similar numbers to Hamels since the trade so that’s almost been a 1 to 1 swap. If you don’t believe me then look it up. They got 3 more players so chances are good that they’ll add to their return.
What a stupid comment.
“What a stupid comment” has got to be the stupidest comment on any comment board. If you think a comment is stupid, or you disagree with a comment then explain why. His comment actually was far from stupid, I may not agree 100% with his comment, but your comment is far superior in terms of stupidity.
It’s very difficult to compare #’s from 1 pitcher in the Al West vs another pitcher in the NL east, that’s not even taking into consideration the fact 1 pitcher has been pitching for a WS contender while the other has been pitching for a job on a team without any hopes of competing. While you can say the former in both situations is more difficult to succeed, you can equally say the later is more difficult to compile good #’s bc he’s playing with an inferior Defense and team. If you just go off the #’s alone then his comment is absolutely a correct statement. Both pitchers have been very equal in terms of #’s alone. Hammels Fip is actually half a run worse then Eickhoffs has been, so you could argue with a better team his #’s could even be better. I’m not going to try and justify 1 vs the other bc it’s totally opinion based when the #’s are this close, but I will agree with the basis of his comment which was how great of a trade that was for the Phils. I wouldn’t say better for them then it was the Rangers bc that’s still to be seen. I’m sure Texas would be more then happy if Cole gives them a ring, and I can’t imagine anyone in Texas 2nd guessing that trade right now.
I think your right to a point, taking all of their first round picks, 2010-2000 they have had all but 3, (Kyle Sleeth, Kenny Baugh, and Matt Wheatland) make it to the Major Leagues, and one note on Sleeth is that he was on the Tigers 40 man the year after he was drafted, was a top prospect, but his career was derailed by I think 2 successive Tommy John Surgeries and he had to retire in 2008.
Also the Tigers has a a knack for drafting players who debut in the year after they were drafted, these include stars such as Andrew Miller, and Justin Verlander, but also if you don’t remember, Ryan Perry and Chance Ruffin both made their debuts in the next year (2009 and 2011 respectively)
While their draft picks may not all be “all stars” like Verlander and Miller, they have drafted players who are successful enough to make it to the majors in the first round which you can’t say about some teams
They don’t immediately draft busts as these guys make it to the Majors, the last “bust” was probably Jacob Turner, who got injuried but is still playing now.
This is good news. Keep Nola shut down for the rest of the season to get ironed out and there is now plenty of time to see what this kid has. If he is as advertised, Nola, Eickoff, Velasquez, and Thompson are going to be pretty tough to beat. I like where this is headed. Heck, I wouldn’t mind if the re-signed Hellickson being that he’s dependable and still just 29 years old.
I hope Jake has a great career and works out as well for Philly as Hamels has for us. Its good for business when both sides walk away from a trade happy.