Phillies set to showcase top prospects in Spring Breakout
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CLEARWATER, Fla. -- The Phillies will be on Florida’s East Coast for a couple of games in mid-March, but fans who make the trip to Clearwater for Spring Training will still have an opportunity to watch the organization’s top prospects play a little closer to BayCare Ballpark.
Major League Baseball is holding a four-day event in March called "Spring Breakout." Every organization will field a team of its top 20-25 prospects. Each team will play an exhibition against another team’s top prospects. The Phillies’ top prospects will play Detroit’s top prospects at 1:05 p.m. ET on March 16 at Publix Field at Joker Marchant Stadium in Lakeland, Fla. It will be broadcast on Phillies radio and MLB digital platforms.
“The goal is to put the best players on the field and give Phillies fans [and] baseball fans a chance to see the best young players in our system,” Phillies assistant general manager of player development Preston Mattingly said Tuesday at Carpenter Complex.
MLB announced last week some new details regarding its Spring Breakout event, including:
- The league will carry at least 10 Spring Breakout games live without blackouts on digital platforms, including MLB.com
- MLB Network will air five games live
- Rosters will be revealed during a March 7 episode of MLB Tonight at 11 a.m. ET
- Tickets for all games can be found here and are on sale now
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Rosters will include many of MLB Pipeline’s top prospects from each organization, such as Philadelphia's Mick Abel (the club's No. 2 prospect), Griff McGarry (No. 5) and Carlos De La Cruz (No. 6). The trio is currently in big league camp. The Phillies are also likely to include some of their best young prospects, including 17-year-old catcher Eduardo Tait (No. 23) and 19-year-old outfielder Devin Saltiban (No. 18).
“If they’ve earned the right to be on the field, we’re going to put them out there,” Mattingly said. “We think if they’re one of the best guys in our system, age doesn’t necessarily matter as much.”