Prospect Spotlight - Aidan Miller

The Phillies first round pick is rising up the minor league ranks and Top 100 lists

Prospect Spotlight 🔦

Aidan Miller – Age: 20 – B/T: R/R, 6’1” 205 – Phillies (High-A)

• Born: 6/09/2004 in Dunedin, FL

• Draft: 2023, Philadelphia Phillies, Round: 1, Overall Pick: 27

• High School: Mitchell, New Port Richey, FL

Even though the Phillies drafted in the back end of the 2023 draft, it’s looking like they are poised to get plenty of value with their picks. Recently, I covered George Klassen, their 6th round pick, and in today’s Prospect Spotlight, I’ll be taking a look at Aidan Miller, their first rounder this past year. Miller has had an excellent year so far, and was recently promoted to High-A Jersey Shore. Let’s take a look to see how he has risen this quickly.

Photo Credit: Joshua Tjiong/MiLB.com

Very few amateurs, let alone high schoolers, showed as much bat speed as Aidan Miller did amongst 2023 draftees. This isn't a case of him swinging for the fences all of the time — Miller is controlled throughout his swing and showed a lot of athleticism in the box. The double plus bat speed did come with an unorthodox set of mechanics that featured a pronounced bat wrap and arm bar, which led to concerns about how well this swing would translate to professional baseball.

Even though there is a lot going on in his swing, Miller covers the plate fairly well. The overall whiff rate on the showcase circuit (21%) is a tad high, especially for someone older for the class and with some swing efficiency concerns, but nothing too serious. He put twice as many balls in-play as he did whiff, and pulled most of his fly balls, so he was seeing the ball well. Miller has a lot of raw power and bat speed, and he doesn’t let it go to waste.

His swing has a lot of natural loft due to his lower slot entry, and he had roughly a 1-1 ratio of fly balls to ground balls. His senior season was interrupted by a broken left hamate bone, which is a fairly serious injury especially for a power hitter like Miller. These sorts of injuries can linger, but the Phillies didn’t have an issue with the injury or the swing and were able to get him 29th overall in the draft, which is looking like a steal today.

Fast forward to today, and Aidan Miller has passed every test professional baseball has given him so far. After getting drafted, he split time between Rookie ball and Low-A, playing 10  games a piece at each level. He raked at rookie ball, hitting .414/.528/.483, but then just hit .216/.341/.297 in Low-A Clearwater. In a small sample, his 90th percentile exit velocity was 105 MPH, which put him in the upper decile of Florida State League hitters, so his power was still obvious even if the stat line didn’t show it.