The Diamondbacks announced Thursday that they’ve selected the contract of left-hander Philip Abner from Triple-A Reno. Whenever he makes his first appearance out of the bullpen, the 2023 sixth-rounder out of Florida will be making his MLB debut. Arizona optioned fellow lefty Kyle Backhus to Reno in order to clear an active roster spot. Arizona’s 40-man roster is now at capacity.
Abner, 23, has breezed through three minor league levels this season. He opened the year in High-A and has since climbed to Double-A and Triple-A, posting strong numbers at each stop. The end result is a 3.07 earned run average in 58 2/3 innings of bullpen work. He’s strictly a reliever, with his only two professional “starts” coming for Arizona’s Complex League affiliate last summer, with neither lasting more than an inning. He started just one game in his NCAA career with the Florida Gators.
Abner has fanned 29.8% of his opponents in the minors this season and limited walks at a sharp 6.8% clip. His 40.1% ground-ball rate is only a couple points below league-average, and he’s done a fine job keeping the ball in the yard, yielding an average of 0.77 homers per nine frames across those three levels. He doesn’t throw hard, sitting just 90.7 mph on his four-seamer, but Abner has still recorded a hearty 13.7% swinging-strike rate across his three minor league stops in 2025. He complements his heater with a slider that sits 80 mph.
Although he doesn’t rank among the organization’s top-30 prospects at any of Baseball America, MLB.com or FanGraphs, Abner turned in a strong performance that’s difficult to ignore. The Snakes didn’t need to add him to the 40-man roster, as he wouldn’t have been eligible for selection in the Rule 5 Draft until the 2026-27 offseason, but his strong numbers merit a big league look and now have him in the mix for a potential bullpen spot next year. He’ll very likely head into 2026 on the 40-man roster and with a full slate of minor league options, and D-backs brass can use the final couple weeks of the current season to get a look at him against MLB opponents.
The Dbacks must really be impressed with Abner to throw him into the middle of a WC race with nine games to go. Right now, its all about results, not development. When I saw the headline, I assumed this meant Saalfrank was going on the IL with his shoulder issue. Hope this means Saalfrank is 100% for the final nine games.
Most interesting to me is Abner wouldn’t qualify for the hypothetical post season roster right? They’d need an active roster injury to have him on there? Kind of a weird move.