The Philadelphia Phillies made a controversial decision going into Wednesday’s MLB Rule 5 draft — in which teams may pluck minor leaguers who meet certain requirements out of another team’s minor league system. President of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski chose to leave the organization’s onetime No. 3 overall prospect, 26-year-old right-hander Griff McGarry, off the club’s 40-man roster.
That meant McGarry, the Phillies 2025 Paul Owens Award winner as top minor league pitcher of the year, was left unprotected and could be taken by any team in the Rule 5 draft, held on the final day of baseball’s Winter Meetings in Orlando, Florida.
And sure enough, he was. In fact, the Washington Nationals — a National League East rival to the Phillies — wasted no time taking McGarry, grabbing the 2021 fifth-round pick out of Virginia with the third overall selection in the Major League phase of the Rule 5 draft.
@nbcsphilly The Nationals selected Phillies RHP Griff McGarry in the Rule 5 Draft. Dave Dombrowski explained why the Phillies chose not to protect the 26-year-old on Wednesday.
McGarry a Top 4 Minor League Strikeout Artist
Though McGarry’s four-seam fastball peaks at 100 mph, according to an MLB Pipeline scouting report, and averages above 95 mph, the San Francisco Bay-area native is known as a “stuff” pitcher.
“If you’re just evaluating pure stuff, McGarry could be considered one of the better pitching prospects in the game,” the Pipeline scouting report said. “His mid-80s slider can be plus at times, missing a ton of bats, and he fools hitters with an upper-70s curve too. He doesn’t throw his changeup nearly as much as the breaking stuff, but it has characteristics of a plus pitch.”
McGarry recently added a hard cutter to his arsenal, giving him a mix of five mostly elite pitches.
The result? McGarry in 2025 ranked fourth in all of minor league baseball with a strikeout rate of 13.34 Ks per nine innings pitched. His 120-strikeout total was fourth in the Phillies system.
In his five-year minor league career, McGarry has fanned 420 in 287 innings, a rate of 13.2 strikeouts for every nine innings pitched.
@readingfightins Griff McGarry posted 10 strikeouts to keep the bases clear on 9/21, assisting the Fightins to a 4-1 win. 💪🏻🔥 #rphils #reading #baseball #fightins
What’s the Catch With McGarry?
Starting the season at Double-A Reading where he made 17 starts, McGarry at one point retired 27 batters without allowing a hit, the equivalent of a complete game no-hitter. In his first eight innings as a starter, he struck out 13 batters.
His stuff is undoubtedly elite. In its annual Stuff+ rankings — a statistic rating a pitcher’s full arsenal of pitches in one number, with the average fixed at 100 — McGarry placed third in all minor leagues with a rating of 121, or 21 percent better than the average pitcher’s “stuff.”
That ranked him one place above Milwaukee Brewers phenom Jacob Misiorowski, who was named a National League All-Star shortly after his promotion to the big leagues, and who recorded a Stuff+ score of 119.
So what’s the problem? Why has McGarry never been placed on the Phillies’ 40-man roster, even when they knew they risked losing him in the Rule 5 draft.
Command Issues Have Plagued McGarry
“His command has often been significantly below average,” explained Mark Zuckerman of the MASN media network, which carries Nationals games. “In those same 287 professional innings, he has issued a staggering 202 walks. He actually walks more batters per nine innings (6.3) than he gives up hits to (5.7).”
But new Nationals president of baseball operations Paul Toboni believes his organization has the key to unlock McGarry’s potential.
“His ability to miss bats and induce weak contact, that’s huge intrigue behind him,” Toboni told MASN. “And I think if you ask Griff, he’d probably say the same. He wants to be in the zone more. We’re just going to try to simplify things for him, hopefully clarify things for him, and we’ll see where it all lands.”
Under the conditions of the Rule 5 draft, any player selected must be placed on a major league roster and stay there for a full season, or be returned to his previous club. So McGarry will in all likelihood finally get his shot at pitching at the highest level.
As to whether the Nationals plan to use their new acquisition in the rotation or the bullpen, Toboni would not yet say, according to the MASN report.
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