Former Philadelphia Phillies Prospect Pushing For Call-up With Cubs

It took Ben Brown six years to get to the point that a MLB call-up was possible, but the Philadelphia Phillies won't benefit.

The Philadelphia Phillies developed tall right-handed pitcher Ben Brown only to trade him to the Chicago Cubs last season for pitcher David Robertson.

The Cubs may reap the benefit of that trade sooner than later.

While Robertson helped the Phillies in their stretch run for the World Series and opted to move on and sign with the New York Mets. He’s helping the Mets close games in the wake of the season-ending injury to Edwin Diaz.

Brown, meanwhile, is making noise at Triple-A Iowa for the Cubs — and the coaches in Chicago are noticing the No. 6 prospect in the organization per MLB.com.

Brown is 4-3 with a 2.63 ERA in 10 starts. He began the season with Double-A Tennessee before he was called up to Iowa. He has 70 strikeouts against 23 walks batters are hitting .198 against him.

Brown is coming off a 2022 in which he struck out a career-high 149 hitters in 23 games (22 starts). Through 10 games he has nearly half of last year’s total.

The Phillies selected him in the 33rd round of the 2017 MLB Draft out of Ward Melville in East Setauket, N.Y. The organization put all of that work into developing the long-shot prospect, and now Cubs pitching coach Tommy Hottovy says he would have no concerns if the Cubs brought Brown up from the minors to help in the bullpen.

Per The Athletic:

“He has that mentality,” Hottovy said. “He’s not a guy that I’m concerned about if he comes up and we throw him in the bullpen. He’s not going to be, ‘Oh, I got my routine and I do all this.’ He’s like, ‘Give me the ball, I just want to throw.’ So, yeah, any role that he’s in, I feel confident in him being able to do it. You see a lot of organizations give young pitchers their opportunity to come up and pitch in the bullpen. It’s a good way to give them a major-league feel, get them competing and prove that they can get guys out at a high level.”

The Phillies could be seeing Brown as an opposing pitcher, and not a Phillies pitcher, sooner rather than later.

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