When breaking down why the Phillies rebuild hasn’t gone as smoothly as others, a major turning point in the team’s performances in the MLB Amateur Draft.
As team executives have admitted, the big league team’s success also led to fewer and lower draft picks. Not being able to find diamonds in the rough like other teams did meant no fam system to restock the team when their older players moved on.
This led to overhyped prospects like Cody Asche, Maikel Franco, Tommy Joseph, Nick Williams, and Cole Irvin coming up to unfair expectations and widely failing in the big leagues.