The Road to The Show™: Reds’ Phillips

Each week, MiLB.com profiles an elite prospect by chronicling the steps he's taken toward achieving his Major League dream. Here's a look at fourth-ranked Reds prospect Connor Phillips. For more stories about players on The Road to The Show, click here.

The unique circumstances surrounding Connor Phillips’ first start in the Majors provided a quirky origin story for what could be a long big league career.

MLB Pipeline’s No. 68 overall prospect was the player to be named later in a six-player deal that sent outfielder Jesse Winker and third baseman Eugenio Suárez to Seattle in March 2022. The headlining prospect going back to Cincinnati in that deal was left-hander Brandon Williamson. At the start of September with the Reds in the midst of a Wild Card race, Williamson became the fourth member of Cincinnati’s staff to test positive for COVID. So Phillips got his shot in the Reds’ rotation. And, of course, that start just had to come against the Mariners.

Prior to his big league debut, Phillips was among the most effective pitchers in the Minors as he advanced from Double-A Chattanooga to Triple-A Louisville. He claimed three Player of the Week honors in two different leagues and earned a spot on the Southern League All-Star team. Across both levels, Phillips went 4-5 with a 3.86 ERA and 154 strikeouts in 105 innings while holding opposing batters to a .229 average.

With Cincinnati, Phillips recorded a 6.97 ERA and 26 strikeouts in five starts.

The 22-year-old employs an exciting four-pitch mix, led by a fastball that typically sits in the mid-90s but can reach 99 mph. His low-80s curveball is more developed than his slider, which he now throws more frequently. He also has an upper-80s changeup that he doesn't use much but can be tough on left-handed hitters. Phillips has proven to be a gifted strikeout artist and is one of only nine pitchers to record at least 300 K's in the Minors since the start of 2022. But his walk rate has traditionally been a bit high and it may benefit him to attack the strike zone more.

“He has great stuff, and I think any young player -- any pitcher -- you have to show yourself that you can do it, and trust it,” Reds manager David Bell told MLB.com after Phillips’ first big league victory on Sept. 13. “If anything, [younger players] try to make the pitches too perfect or too good, and really, he's good enough. It’s just part of the development.”

The Houston native played both football and baseball at Magnolia West High School. He shot up Draft boards during his senior season, when he tossed three complete games -- including two shutouts -- to help the program win its first district title and compete in the 5-A Texas regional finals. He went 12-3 with a 1.13 ERA and 125 strikeouts in 92 2/3 innings that season, and committed to Louisiana State after emerging as one of the best prep pitchers in Texas.

Phillips’ fastball sat in the low 90s and he struggled to throw his curve for strikes, but both offerings were viewed as potential plus pitches. He also had a changeup he didn’t use much against high school hitters.

The 6-foot-2, 209-pound hurler ranked as MLB Pipeline’s No. 188 Draft prospect in 2019. But he fell to the Blue Jays in the 35th round after reportedly turning down offers comparable to third-round money. Rather than following through on his LSU commitment, Phillips chose to attend McLennan Community College in Waco, Texas, to become eligible for the 2020 Draft.

Phillips only got to pitch in six games for the Highlanders before the pandemic, struggling with his command in his final two starts in March. He finished with a 3.16 ERA and 27 punchouts in 25⅔ innings in his lone college season. Even with such a short workload due to the pandemic, Phillips significantly boosted his Draft stock, and MLB Pipeline ranked him as the No. 94 Draft prospect.

The Mariners selected Phillips in the Competitive Balance Round B with the No. 64 overall pick, which they received as part of a December 2019 deal that sent catcher Omar Narvaez to Milwaukee. Phillips, who was the first JUCO player off the board in his class, reportedly signed for a full-slot bonus of $1.05 million and made his professional debut with Single-A Modesto the following May.

Phillips posted a 4.75 ERA over 72 innings in 16 starts for the Nuts in 2021 before being bumped to High-A Everett for his final start of the year. His 32.6 percent strikeout rate ranked third among Mariners prospects, but he also had the second-highest walk rate in the system (13.7 percent).

Just 15 days after Seattle and Cincinnati pulled off the six-player swap and 11 days before his debut in the new organization, Phillips was announced as the deal’s player to be named. He made 12 brilliant starts for High-A Dayton, posting a 2.95 ERA with 90 punchouts over 64 innings while holding opposing batters to a .181 average.

Phillips earned a callup to Chattanooga in June and showed he needed a little more time in the Southern League by season’s end. He recorded a 4.93 ERA with 60 strikeouts over 45⅔ innings as his walk rate jumped to 15.7 percent and opposing batters hit .268 against him.

Phillips appeared in two Cactus League games before returning to Chattanooga in 2023. Over 14 starts with the Lookouts, he cut his walk rate to 9.5 percent and struck out more than 39 percent of the batters he faced. He posted a 3.34 ERA in 64 ⅔ innings and his 111 strikeouts were the most in the Minors when he was promoted to Louisville in June.

Phillips didn’t have the same type of results in the International League, recording a 4.69 ERA with 43 strikeouts in 40⅓ innings. But with the Reds backed into a corner in the middle of a Wild Card race, Phillips got the big league opportunity and remained in Cincinnati’s rotation for the remainder of the season.

At present, Phillips is, at the very least, a depth option for the Reds’ rotation in 2024. With the start of what’s expected to be a busy Winter Meetings next week, those options could soon be very different from what’s currently on the books. But it would be tough for any club to part with a young starter with Phillips’ advanced arsenal.