Phillies' No. 6 prospect is just 21, but he's CRUSHING Double-A pitching
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Standing 5-foot-9, Aroon Escobar packs a lot of offensive punch into his compact frame.
The Phillies' No. 6 prospect made his full-season debut last year and worked his way up to Double-A at just 20 years old. Now in his return to the Eastern League, where he’s one of the 10 youngest players who started the year on the circuit, Escobar's in the hitting groove once again.
Escobar delivered his best performance of the season with four hits, three RBIs and three runs scored in Reading's 14-12 win over Somerset on Tuesday at FirstEnergy Stadium.
The Venezuela native plated the Fightin Phils' first run on a line-drive single up the middle off Trent Sellers (Yankees) in the second inning and then crushed an opposite-field homer -- Escobar's third of the year -- off the right-hander in the fourth. He added a pair of doubles to the left-field wall off righty Hayden Merda and lefty Will Brian, with the latter rocketing off his bat at 105.3 mph, per the ballpark's TrackMan unit.
Escobar had only collected four or more hits in a game once before: a five-hit game for Single-A Clearwater on May 17, 2025.
MLB's No. 6 second-base prospect has been especially hot to start the month, going 10-for-19 with four extra-base hits and three stolen bases. Over the four-game stretch, he's raised his OPS 125 points.
Escobar's early success at Reading has been encouraging because of how he struggled with his aggressive assignment at the level to end 2025. In five games, he had more strikeouts (six) than hits (four) and posted a .523 OPS. This time around, he's hitting .275/.364/.431 and is a perfect 7-for-7 on the bases.
The right-handed hitter has long been appreciated for his advanced approach at the plate, but part of the key to his success this season has been even sharper plate discipline. Per Synergy Sports, he's chasing less (down 7 percent) and whiffing less (down 5 percent).
Escobar reached the Top 100 Prospects list midway through the 2025 season before falling off it. He could vault back onto the list if his promising hit tool continues to deliver against pitching in the upper Minors.