Skip to content
Phillies
Link copied to clipboard

Baseball America drops Phillies prospect Mickey Moniak from top 100 list

The Phillies drafted the outfielder first overall in 2016. He was ranked 17th by Baseball America a year ago.

Mickey Moniak was the No. 1 overall draft pick two years ago.
Mickey Moniak was the No. 1 overall draft pick two years ago.Read moreYong Kim / Staff Photographer

The Phillies have five players on Baseball America's annual list of top 100 major-league prospects, but the name that is missing is the most glaring. Mickey Moniak, whom the Phillies drafted first overall in 2016, was left off this year's list after being ranked 17th a year ago.

Moniak batted .236 with a .625 OPS in 466 at-bats with single-A Lakewood last season. He walked just 28 times and had 109 strikeouts. Baseball America moved him to No. 13 last May before bumping Moniak to No. 46 on the midseason list. Moniak, who will turn 20 in May, was more than two years younger than the average age of a South Atlantic League player, and it showed. The outfielder struggled in his first full season and will likely return to Lakewood to start this season.

"Dealing with failure, that's something I wasn't used to in the past," he said last summer. "The big thing you have to realize is that if you go 0 for 3, you can't carry it into your next at-bat and you can't carry it into your next game."

Shortstop J.P. Crawford (No. 16), righthander Sixto Sanchez (25), second baseman Scott Kingery (31), righthander Adonis Medina (84), and outfielder Adam Haseley (100) represent the Phillies on Baseball America's list.

Crawford will open the season as the team's starting shortstop after Freddy Galvis was traded to San Diego. Crawford acknowledged last summer feeling slighted when Baseball America dropped him 80 spots in its rankings. He said he used it as motivation. Perhaps Moniak, with whom Crawford has formed a bond, can do the same.

Kingery, ranked by Baseball America as baseball's best second-base prospect, will be in major-league spring training and could reach the majors within the season's first two months. Sanchez, 19, ended last season at high-A Clearwater and will likely return there to start the year. If Sanchez dominates Clearwater the way he did Lakewood, the Phillies will be tempted to move him quickly. Medina doubled his strikeout rate last year at Lakewood, as he fanned 133 in 119 2/3 innings. He could join Sanchez in Clearwater. Haseley, who will turn 22 in April, was the team's first-round pick last summer and could move quickly through the minor leagues.