Mick Abel walks five in second straight rocky start. What’s next?
Mick Abel’s progression this season at one point had him looking like an invaluable trade chip — then, shortly, like someone who was pitching so well the Phillies might not want to part with him at all.
Now, less than a month from the deadline, Abel’s role and value are not exactly clear.
The 23-year-old had his second consecutive rocky outing on the front end of Wednesday’s doubleheader, but it differed from the first in that Abel looked too much like the pitcher he was before 2025. From the get-go, Abel didn’t have control or command, but it really turned south in the second inning. Abel walked four of six batters in the middle part of that frame, including two with the bases loaded.
“I’m not really sure what happened there,” manger Rob Thomson said postgame to reporters, including Phillies Nation’s Destiny Lugardo. “But he did lose command, lost control.”
He overcorrected to the next hitter, throwing four of five pitches over the heart of the plate and bouncing the other. Manny Machado punished a center-cut 1-2 curveball for a bases-clearing double that ended Abel’s outing, which was disastrous even ignoring the fact that it opened a doubleheader.
Abel was not effective in his last outing, either, a six-hit start against a Mets offense that struggled the weeks before and after they hung four runs on him in three innings June 21. But it was perhaps less concerning. The Mets tagged him for four solo homers. He walked none in that start. He walked five of 12 batters on Wednesday.
It had been 11 days since his last start, that Mets one — rain washed out his June 27 outing in Atlanta — so maybe there were some rhythm issues at play against the Padres. But it’s hard to write it off entirely; command was the main thing that stalled Abel’s development during his first four years in the minors. He’d made huge strides in that department this year, walking 4.1 per nine at Triple-A and 1.5 with the Phillies, before Wednesday.
“I just chalk it up to one of those days,” Thomson said. “He’s been pretty good all year long. He’s been good here. Very few walks in his first couple outings. But they’ve piled on a little bit here lately. So we’ve gotta fix it.”
There are short-term implications. Aaron Nola is still a ways from returning off the injured list (though there was positive news on Wednesday). Andrew Painter is unlikely to get the call before the All-Star break, which Thomson doubled down on Wednesday. The Phillies don’t want to keep shuffling Taijuan Walker between the bullpen and rotation. There are no obvious replacements waiting in Lehigh Valley. Perhaps Abel could benefit from some further fine tuning with the IronPigs, but it’s not clear who would fill that rotation spot.
There are long-term implications. An early-summer trade was never likely to begin with, but Abel’s value has taken a hit the last few weeks. At one point, Abel seemed to offer more value in a trade than he would’ve on the roster. At one point, that arguably flipped. Now, who knows? If the goal is to reclaim his value, is the best course of action to hide Abel in Lehigh Valley, or roll the dice and hope he regains his late-May, early-June form in the big leagues?
Thomson said the Phillies hadn’t talked yet about Abel’s spot in the rotation going forward. They’re all questions the Phillies’ front office will have to answer over the next couple weeks. Abel has always presented somewhat of a conundrum; the impending trade deadline complicates things further.
Max Lazar, Taijuan Walker, Seth Johnson and Daniel Robert followed Abel. Walker went 2 2/3 hitless innings, Johnson retired all six batters he faced. Kyle Schwarber homered, Edmundo Sosa did the below.
The Phillies brought the winning run to the plate in the ninth. They almost didn’t: Brandon Marsh (whose run didn’t matter) almost got thrown out at third to end it. He was called out, then it was overturned. But Kyle Schwarber struck out on a fastball at face level. The Phillies lost 6-4.