Philadelphia Phillies Pitching Prospect Continues to Look Like Hidden Gem

The Philadelphia Phillies have an intriguing young pitching prospect on their hands.

May 26, 2023; Atlanta, Georgia, USA; A detailed view of a Philadelphia Phillies hat and glove on the bench against the Atlanta Braves in the seventh inning at Truist Park. / Brett Davis-USA TODAY Sports

The Philadelphia Phillies have plenty of pitching talent coming down the pipeline, but a new player has started to make a name for himself this season.

Jon Reuter of Bleacher Report examined the farm systems around the MLB and came up with one breakout player for each team. For the Phillies, the prospect was right-handed pitcher Jean Cabrera.

Entering the season as an unranked prospect, Cabrera has shown some nice stuff and risen up boards.

"After spending the entire 2022 and 2023 seasons at Single-A batting his command and struggling to avoid hard contact, Cabrera has surged up Philadelphia's prospect rankings this season," said Reuter. "Signed for a $10,000 flier out of Venezuela, he still needs to add strength to his 6'0", 145-pound frame, but he has quality stuff."

The 22-year-old was signed out of Venezuela back in 2021. His first season of rookie ball looked very promising with a .0835 WHIP in over 50 innings pitched. Quickly, though, he started to decline. He didn't improve much until the Phillies finally moved him to High-A.

Between both High-A and a couple of games at the Double-A level, he has 3.53 ERA with 1.165 WHIP, 9.5 K/9, 3.0 BB/9.

His last outing at the Double-A level was the best since his promotion. He struck out five batters in five innings with only two hits and one run given up.

It was the most he had shown his strikeout ability in weeks.

Aside from his fastball, his changeup has become his second-best pitch. He becomes better equipped when he's feeling his sweeper as well.

Back in High-A this season he jumped his strikeout rate to a career-high 10.6 per nine innings.

He's currently the No. 15 overall player in the Philadelphia farm system. Thanks to the large number of pitching prospects in the system, though, he's just the seventh-ranked right-handed pitcher.

It would make sense for the Phillies to dip into this position group for trades this offseason. Segura isn't that flashy of a player to dangle in front of teams during negotiations, but makes other players much more expendable.

If he could add some mass, though, he could be the centerpiece of a trade some day. He has a flame-throwing fastball with his small fram. Adding some muscly could turn him into a triple-digit guy.

Whether he is in a Philadelphia farm system uniform, or not, Cabrera is a rising pitching prospect.