Phillies Top Pitching Prospect Gage Wood Makes Double-A Home Debut

2025 Phillies first round pick Gage Wood made his Double-A home debut on Thursday, May 28, striking out four batters in four innings for the Reading Fightin Phils. The six foot tall, 205 pound right-hander landed 33 of 50 pitches for strikes and showcased his trademark lively fastball.

Wood allowed one run, surrendering a leadoff double in the fourth on a fly ball that left fielder Dylan Campbell struggled to track down. He battled back to strike out Harrisburg shortstop Cayden Wallace, logging his fastest pitches of the night at 97 and 99 miles per hour. Wood then dialed the four-seamer down to 94 miles per hour and got Wallace to whiff.

Spotty Slider

The Senators enjoyed their most success on the night against Wood’s slider, and the fourth inning was no different; left fielder Sam Petersen flipped a first-pitch single to right to scratch a run across before Wood induced his second double play of the evening to escape the jam.

Wood did his best to dot the corners throughout his outing, but most borderline pitches went in the batter’s favor for both teams. His fastball showed excellent horizontal movement, allowing him to fool batters with pitches moving through the zone; he froze leadoff man Jack Rogers on such a pitch in the first inning, later challenging Petersen on a four-seamer up in the zone to end the first inning. Petersen fouled off a pair of sliders before that point, and a well-struck slider to left fell into Campbell’s glove between the two punchouts.

The first hit Wood gave up came on a second inning slider, but he promptly erased the baserunner with a 96 mile per hour fastball that forced a double play. Wood fell behind 3-0 against Maxwell Romero Jr. at the end of the inning. He challenged Romero with a high fastball, got him to foul off a slider, then induced a comebacker to escape the frame. All in all, the fastball looks as advertised: landing the supplementary pitches will help him reach his ceiling… and he could reach the Phillies this season.

For a related story, here’s how Fightin Phils’ manager Al Pedrique described Gage Wood as a player and person.