PHILADELPHIA -- Gage Wood is headed to Clearwater, Fla., to begin his professional baseball career.
The Phillies announced on Tuesday that they had signed the University of Arkansas right-hander, who was the 26th overall pick in the 2025 MLB Draft. MLB.com’s Jim Callis reported that Wood signed for $3 million, which is under the $3,492,200 slot value.
Wood is expected to make his professional debut this summer with Single-A Clearwater.
Wood threw the first no-hitter in the College World Series since 1960 on June 16. He had 19 strikeouts against Murray State, which were the most strikeouts in a nine-inning game in College World Series history. He hit one batter with a pitch, otherwise he would have had a perfect game.
Wood has an electric fastball and a power curveball, along with a slider and split-changeup. His fastball and curveball combo sparked fan speculation on Draft night that Wood could help Philadelphia’s bullpen this year.
But the Phillies have no internal expectations that he will help them this season.
That said, he could move quickly through their system.
“He has those pitches, but we view him as a starter,” Phillies general manager Preston Mattingly said. “Could he do things, hypothetically? Sure, but we view him as a starting pitcher.
“We like all four pitches. We think there’s the ability to develop even more than he has. Obviously he has an elite fastball. He showed that in college, the curveball as well. We still think the slider has significant room for improvement, and the changeup as well.”
The Phillies also signed Memorial High School (Indiana) right-hander Matthew Fisher for $1.25 million (slot value $257,700), which is a record for a seventh-round pick. The Phillies think he has first round-type talent.
“We've seen the fastball up to 96 [mph], he pounds the zone with strikes, he's got cut to the fastball, he spins the ball really easy -- there was just a lot of things to really like,” Phillies assistant general manager of amateur scouting Brian Barber said. “We were ecstatic to have the opportunity to select him where we did.”
The Phillies also signed 15 of their other selections from this year’s Draft: Cade Obermueller, Cody Bowker, Sean Youngerman, Gabe Craig, James Tallon, Matthew Ferrara, Cole Gilley, Will Vierling, Tyler Bowen, Jack Barker, Jonathan Gonzalez, Jacob Pruitt, Richie Cortese, Matthew Potok and Robert Phelps.