Aidan Miller is one of the top prospects in baseball. (Cheryl Pursell)
Aidan Miller — one of the top prospects in the Phillies' system — spoke about trade rumors surrounding him in advance of the July 31 trade deadline.
“I try not to be on [social media] too much, especially during the trade deadline, because nobody really knows what's going to happen until it happens,” Miller said to Aiden Stepansky of MILB.com. “If I do end up being traded, I'm sure it'll be a good situation. But I want to be here in Philly.”
Miller — ranked the No. 2 prospect in the organization by Phillies Nation's Ty Daubert — has been a popular name to mock in trades in recent weeks. That's been particularly true since Matt Gelb of The Athletic reported that outside of Andrew Painter, "everyone else in the organization might be available to varying degrees."
If Painter is off the table and the thought is that the Phillies might prefer to hold onto Justin Crawford — given their needs in the outfield and that he's seemingly capable of making an impact at the MLB level down the stretch — Miller might need to be on the table to entice teams to part with a controllable reliever, for example.
It is interesting, though, to hear from someone on the other end of this. Typically, MLB veterans who are rumored to be trade candidates get asked around this time of year what they would think about joining another team. It's much less common that we hear from promising prospects who haven't yet reached the majors and have their names thrown around as possible candidates to land an established star.
Aidan Miller went 2-for-4 with a homer for the @ReadingFightins last night! pic.twitter.com/Wj0WowQGOf
Miller was selected by the Phillies in the first round of the 2023 MLB Draft, and has shot up prospect lists after finding a ton of success in the lower levels of the minors. MLB Pipeline, for example, had the shortstop ranked as the No. 19 prospect in baseball in their most recent update.
However, Miller has hit a bit of a speed bump at Double-A Reading this year, as he's hitting .223 with eight home runs, 22 RBIs and a .702 OPS in 75 games. The Phillies will need to evaluate whether Miller is getting exposed a bit, or if they still believe he can be a future core player at the MLB level, as it appeared he could coming into the season.
Even if they still believe the latter, you have to give up something good to get something good. If the Phillies want to land a star reliever that's not a rental — such as Emmanuel Clase, Jhoan Durán or Griffin Jax — it may require parting with Miller.
