This Phils prospect is really wearing it ... and still raking

This story was excerpted from Todd Zolecki’s Phillies Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

Otto Kemp won’t budge.

He got hit by a pitch four times in a game against Triple-A Columbus on April 22, setting an IronPigs single-game record.

“That’s not new for Otto,” Phillies general manager Preston Mattingly said last week.

Kemp is the Phillies’ No. 24 prospect, according to MLB Pipeline. He has been hit 10 times this season, which is tied for fourth most among all Minor League players. He got hit 29 times over four levels in 2024, which ranked sixth in affiliated ball.

No Phillies farmhand has been hit more times in a season since at least 2005.

In comparison, Chase Utley holds the Phillies’ record with 27 hit-by-pitches in 2008.

“Otto doesn’t move,” Mattingly said. “If you throw a ball in there and it’s off the plate, he’s not going to get out of the way. To me, it’s a valuable asset. I’ve had other guys throughout my career that have done that, and obviously it really boosts your on-base percentage. That’s kind of what everybody is searching for -- guys that can get on base. It’s kind of an art, I guess, getting hit by a pitch. He’s just really good at it.”

Kemp, 25, is good at hitting baseballs, too. He entered Wednesday batting .322 with 10 home runs, 36 RBIs and a 1.057 OPS in 39 games with the IronPigs. He is tied for the International League lead in home runs. He is second in RBIs, third in slugging percentage (.632), fourth in OPS, eighth in batting average and ninth in on-base percentage (.425).

He has caught the attention of Phillies fans.

Kemp is not on the 40-man roster, so the Phils would need to make room for him if the time comes to promote him. Currently, his best path to the big leagues might be if somebody suffers an injury. Kemp is not regarded as a strong defender, but he can play third base, second base, first base and the corners in the outfield.

But he can hit.

“He’s a self-made guy,” Mattingly said. “He’s done nothing but get better every year in our organization. The industry missed on him. I don’t know why exactly. But I couldn’t be happier for somebody who works his butt off.”

Kemp signed with the Phillies as an undrafted free agent out of Point Loma Nazarene University in San Diego in 2022. The Phils haven’t had an undrafted hitter signed as an amateur free agent debut with the organization since Jeff Grotewold in 1992, according to The Athletic. (This does not count foreign players signed as amateur free agents.)

“Going undrafted,” Kemp told reporters last week in Lehigh Valley, “it was kind of just a stab to the heart, honestly. I didn’t really know what pro ball looked like after that. I didn’t have anybody that I really knew that went to pro ball, so I didn’t know what that road was going to look like. The beauty of it is [that] life can take you a lot of different ways that you don’t necessarily think or dream of. It’s been a cool process to see.

“You look back three or four years ago, my name didn’t get called, and to see where we’re at, that’s the beauty of dreaming. If you do everything you can one day at a time, you’re going to be in a good position.”