Reading's FirstEnergy Stadium is known as one of the most hitter-friendly parks in all of the Minors, making it a tough beast to conquer. As it turned out, Reading was also the starting point for a lot of Phillies prospects in 2021, such as Matt Vierling, Simon Muzziotti, and Francisco Morales, but most ended up in AAA or the Majors. Here are some of the best that did end up here.
Erubiel Armenta
Billy Sullivan IV
Ethan Lindow
Noah Skirrow
Carlo Reyes
Trevor Bettencourt*
James McArthur
Jhailyn Ortiz
Luke Miller
Matt Kroon
Andrew Brown
Tyler Lehman
Tyler Phillips
Oscar Gonzalez
Again, here we have a short list, and once again one that is pitcher-heavy. Armenta is a name I had actually never heard of at the start of the season, but if you don't know it than it's best you do. The Tijuana product was otherworldly at three levels of the Minors, reaching AA with just twenty-one innings of regular-season professional experience under his belt. All told, he posted a monster 19.2 K/9 over 23 frames, mowing down 49 of the 104 batters he faced - over 47%! Another arm to watch is Sullivan, a UDFA product out of Delaware who was converted to the bullpen due to injury issues - ones that ended his 2021 season. However, he still managed to make AA before he recorded his eighteenth professional out, the held his own at AA thereafter. Should his health hold, Sullivan is a pitcher who could aid the Phillies as early as this season.
More arms file in after these two. Lindow was a serious prospect coming into last season, but he was demoted to A+ partway through the season. This is a make-or-break season for him, especially now that he is Rule V eligible. Skirrow, meanwile, is a Liberty product who posted a 1.07 ERA over his first nine outings of the season in a mixed role, but struggled after a promotion to AA and was also demoted late in the season. Carlo Reyes followed up a strong 2019 as an older DSL player with a strong 2021 across three levels, though his decent AA ERA was aided by some UER. Finally, Bettencourt is already 27 and missed most of both 2019 and 2021 with injury, but if he can get back on track his track record in the Minors shows he could be a useful arm out of the bullpen.
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