Philadelphia Phillies Release Former First Round Draft Pick

After an interesting portion of the Philadelphia Phillies' schedule where they got multiple days off sandwiched around their London series that took place over the weekend, they are back stateside getting ready for the dog days of summer.

They're back in action for nine days straight starting on the road against the Boston Red Sox before heading to face the Baltimore Orioles.

With the Phillies getting off to such a great start, they have given themselves the luxury of holding a nine game lead over their archrival Atlanta Braves in the NL East and can afford to drop a couple if they do cool off.

There's been no indication that will happen, though, as everyone in the clubhouse is focused on their singular goal of playing elite baseball on their way to winning a World Series.

As they get closer to the trade deadline, president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski already knows they will be buyers before July 30, but the positions they're going to target will largely depend on how the current players on this team perform.

Outfield help continues to be discussed, and they definitely will be in the market for relief arms.

That's why it was interesting when Philadelphia decided to release former first round pick Beau Burrows per the transaction log.

The 27-year-old signed a minor league deal with the Phillies in March and was sent to their Double-A affiliate at first before getting promoted to Triple-A.

Unfortunately, the right-hander struggled during his 16 appearances out of the bullpen, posting a 6.45 ERA across 22.1 innings pitched while allowing a .277 opponent's batting average.

Burrows was a first round pick by the Detroit Tigers in 2015 out of high school and was immediately considered one of the best prospects in their pipeline, being ranked No. 2 the very next year. He dropped off a bit over the next few seasons, but was inside their Top 5 until 2019 when he was sixth.

He got his shot at the bigs in 2020 and 2021, but couldn't stick after he allowed 21 total earned runs across his 11 appearances.

The Phillies must not have seen the improvement they were hoping for this year and decided to move on as they have some other interesting prospects in their farm system who have played well.