Philadelphia Phillies Showcasing Yacksel Rios in Fall League?

The Philadelphia Phillies are in need of pitching. In fact, that was the focal point for new GM Matt Klentak in his press conference a couple of days ago. Todd Zolecki of MLB.com quoted Klentak, “If you can pitch, you have a chance to win every single night,” Klentak said. “That will absolutely become an organizational focus for us. To add pitching at every turn. In trades, through waiver claims, in the Draft, internationally, free agency. However we need to do it, we will add pitching, pitching, pitching.”

This brings us to Yacksel Rios, who was selected in the 12th round of the 2011 Draft at the age of 18. He isn’t ranked in their top 30 prospects according to MLB Pipeline, and the highest level Rios has reached is Hi-A in 2015 when he pitched for Clearwater.

All of that leads us to a decision that Philadelphia will have to make regarding Rios in the coming month with the Rule 5 Draft approaching, as Rios is one player that is eligible to be selected as the roster stands.

With Clearwater this season, Rios went 88.1 innings in 26 appearances (10 starts) with a 2.75 ERA, a strikeout rate of 7.2 per nine and a walk rate of 2.3 per nine. While this isn’t the stat line of the next big thing, it does show some promise given time. Time is the one thing that Philadelphia doesn’t have with Rios, however.

Given that he could be taken from the Phillies in the Rule 5 Draft, Philadelphia likely sent Yacksel to Arizona to showcase some of what he can do for the other teams and their scouts in the Arizona Fall League. In five games (four starts) spanning 16 innings, Rios holds a 2.25 ERA with 11 strikeouts and four walks. He also has a groundball to fly ball ratio of 1.40, meaning that he keeps the ball on the ground more often than not. While the two levels are not comparable, the leader in the Majors this year in G/F was Brett Anderson at 2.08, which is an outlier from his 180.1 innings this season. Behind him is San Diego’s Tyson Ross and Houston’s Dallas Keuchel with 1.66 and 1.65 marks respectively.

On Thursday Rios looked fantastic, pitching four scoreless one-hit innings, striking out four in the process.

Next: AL Central Offseason Report

It’s hard to see the Philadelphia Phillies adding Rios to their 40-man roster ahead of the Rule 5, but at the same time it’s difficult to see a team using one of their limited selections in the draft on a pitcher that has yet to spend time above Hi-A ball, given that a draftee must stay on the club’s 25-man roster (in the Majors) for the entirety of the following season.

Following where the 22-year-old stands on the Phillies’ roster, and potentially if he is selected in the Rule 5 Draft is going to be worth keeping an eye on in the next month.