The Phillies will announce a slew of signings from the recent draft next week.
Included in the group will be outfielder Mickey Moniak, pitcher Kevin Gowdy and infielder Cole Stobbe, the team’s top three picks who went No. 1, 42 and 78 overall.
Moniak, Gowdy and Stobbe were three of the most highly rated high school players in the country, Moniak and Gowdy in Southern California and Stobbe in Nebraska.
Alex Wojciechowski, another Phillies’ draft pick, is not as well known as the aforementioned trio, but his story is pretty intriguing. As a senior at the University of Minnesota Duluth this season, he hit .444, slugged 33 homers and drove in 101 runs in 55 games. Those are big numbers. The 6-5, 230-pound, right-handed-hitting first baseman won five Division II player of the year awards.
Prior to the draft, several Minnesota media outlets wrote about the 22-year-old Wojciechowski and wondered if a big-league team would take a shot on him in the draft. After all, power is valuable and this guy has a lot of it regardless of what level he showed it at.
The Phillies were the team that took a shot on Wojciechowski, taking him in the 15th round. But now the club is uncertain whether it will sign him. Unbeknownst to the team, the player suffered an elbow injury “around the time of the draft,” according to general manager Matt Klentak. The Phillies will have to carefully review Wojciechowski’s condition before they make a decision.
Division II seniors taken in the 15th round of draft receive small signing bonuses and seldom make it to the majors, so this news does not diminish what looks like a promising draft for the Phillies. But Wojciechowski’s power numbers did jump out and it would have been interesting to see him take a poke at more advanced pitching. Who knows, maybe he’ll get that shot when he recovers.
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According to the team’s official Website, the Phillies have signed 19 of their 40 draft picks. Moniak, Gowdy and Stobbe are listed as unsigned, but sources say the team has agreements with all three players, pending physical exams, which should be completed in the coming days.
