Earlier today, the Milwaukee Brewers announced that they had placed infielder Travis Shaw on the paternity list and recalled outfielder Brett Maverick Phillips to take his place on the active roster. Phillips, 23, was originally a 6th-round pick by the Astros back in 2012 and came to Milwaukee in the summer of 2015 as a part of the Carlos Gomez/Mike Fiers trade. He has been ranked as one of Milwaukee’s top prospects since arriving in the minor league system, so what should we expect to see from the outfielder?
Offense
During his days back in the lower minors with Houston, Phillips was more of a contact hitter considered to have a solid hit tool but fringey power. He was once a bit crouched at the plate, choking up on the bat and featuring a muted leg kick:
Since becoming a member of the Brewers’ organization, however, his approach has changed up a bit. He’s now a bit more upright at the plate and his hand position is lower during his load. His leg kick is a bit more exaggerated and there is some uppercut to his current swing.
The result of these changes have been more consistent left-handed power, as Phillips popped 16 balls over the fence last year in the pitcher-friendly Southern League and has 11 home runs so far in 49 games this season with Colorado Springs. He owns a nifty .198 ISO since he joined Milwaukee, with 31 doubles, 13 triples, and 27 home runs in 196 games between AA and AAA.
With the added power, however, has come additional strikeouts. According to the scouts at Baseball Prospectus, Phillips can struggle to remain consistent with his mechanics at times and has plenty of swing-and-miss within the strike zone. Phillips has struck out in 30% of his plate appearances dating back to midseason-2015 and owns only a .249 batting average since that time. Phillips has shown the patience to wait for his pitch, however, and will take a good amount of walks - 12.5% of his plate appearances have ended that way as a Brewer farmhand.
This season, Phillips owns a shiny .297/.369/.589 slash line with Colorado Springs, but that has been powered by an otherworldly .387 BABIP this season. He’s striking out at a higher rate (30.3% vs. 29.8%) and walking at a lower clip (10.6% vs. 13%) than he did during his season with the AA Biloxi Shuckers last year, when he hit .229/.332/.397 in 517 plate appearances with a .311 BABIP.
Phillips is an above-average to plus runner and when he does make contact, he hits the ball hard to all fields, so he may be able to carry above-average batting averages on balls in play going forward. Given his strikeout rate, however, his hit tool will probably only be fringe-average at best and it doesn’t appear as though he’ll ever consistently hit for a high batting average. Even if he’s ultimately only a .230-.240 hitter, Maverick should at least be able to post respectable on-base numbers thanks to his patient approach at the dish. He looks to have the power to hit between 15-20 home runs on an annual basis, and should be a threat to steal 15 or more bases. The swing-and-miss that is prevalent in his game makes for a volatile offensive profile not entirely disimiliar from the approaches that we’ve seen guys like Domingo Santana and Keon Broxton make work for them, but it doesn’t happen that way for every high-strikeout prospect when they arrive at the big league level.
Defense
Phillips has the tools to be an outstanding defender in the outfield. He is an outstanding athlete and has enough speed to play in center, though he’s ceded most of the playing time there to Lewis Brinson this season. His plus-plus arms features outstanding velocity and carry on his throws and plays best in right field. He is still working on reading trajectories in center field and can have issues going back on balls at times, but that shouldn’t be much of a concern going forward. If it all comes together for him, Phillips should be an above-average centerfielder or excellent right fielder. Even if the offense doesn’t wind up developing as hoped, Phillips’ defensive chops should help give him a relatively high-floor as a reserve outfielder.
Laugh
Statistics courtesy of Fangraphs