The Phillies know they can’t afford to play it safe with Aidan Miller. Don’t rule out a 2025 debut.

CLEARWATER, Fla. — The hype is easier to ignore when you sleep where you did before the hype began.

On Tuesday morning, one of baseball’s best prospects walked out the front door of his parents house, climbed into his car, and made the half-hour drive down U.S. Route 19 for his second day of work with the NL East champs.

“Sleeping in my own bed is pretty nice,” Aidan Miller said on Tuesday morning as he stood outside of the clubhouse at BayCare Ballpark.

Not long ago, he was sleeping there on school nights. By the end of the season, he may need a place to crash in Philly.

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A long shot? Sure. But neither Miller nor Phillies president Dave Dombrowski is ruling it out. Nor should they.

“The reason that we have him in camp is because we think he is a good player who might come very quickly,” Dombrowski said last week.

The circumstances call for aggression and creativity. As long as Miller continues to play his part.

Easier said than done, sure. But consider what we’ve seen so far. And then consider the Phillies’ current situation.

At 20 years and 255 days old, Miller has enjoyed a meteoric rise in the year-and-a-half since the Phillies drafted him out of New Port Richey’s J.W. Mitchell High School, roughly 20 miles north of their spring training complex. He’ll enter the season as the organization’s top hitting prospect and, according to FanGraphs, one of the Top 15 in all of baseball. With a major-league-ready frame and a preternatural blend of maturity and confidence, Miller neither looks nor acts like a player who only has 542 career plate appearances.

Nor does he look like a player who should have fallen to the bottom of the first round.

That he did could end up as one of those rare strokes of good fortunes that can alter the course of a franchise. As a senior at Mitchell, Miller broke the hamate bone in his hand in the first game of the season. That sidelined him from the most pivotal stretch of the evaluation calendar for high school draft hopefuls. The Phillies did not work him out individually, despite their close proximity. But when he was on the board at No. 27 in June 2023, they thanked their lucky stars.

“He is definitely stronger than the other kids,” amateur scouting director Brian Barber said on draft day. “You will definitely see the lower half strength. He might have some of the strongest legs that you’ll ever see from a high school player. That translates into the power in his game as well.”

Miller’s legs are a sight to behold. Not quite Saquon Barkley level, but thick enough that, last season, they were remarked upon by at least one veteran in the Phillies’ spring training clubhouse.

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Quadzilla, he was dubbed after appearing in a Grapefruit League game as an extra man loaner from the minor league side.

The lower half has translated almost immediately. Last year, his first full season in the minors, he posted an .811 OPS with 11 home runs in 462 plate appearances. He began the year in low-A Clearwater. He finished with Double-A Reading.

The rapidity of the progression speaks to how the Phillies feel about Miller.

While Dombrowski said he views 2026 as a far more likely target for Miller’s debut, he did not rule out 2025. In fact, he explicitly allowed for the possibility.

“I mean, I guess that would surprise me a little bit,” Dombrowski said.

But then he recounted a conversation he once had with Tigers great Al Kaline, who advised him, “The good ones come fast.”

Miller sure looks like a good one.

The Phillies sure could use one.

This offseason, Dombrowski’s relative inaction drew some frustrated sighs from the fan base. But, the reality is, the Phillies are in their latter stages of their current competitive cycle. It’s not that they aren’t willing to spend money. It’s that the money has already been spent. The best way to get appreciably better is to develop a once-a-decade player from within. The Dodgers were at the same place in 2015-17 when Corey Seager and Cody Bellinger broke into the big leagues and jump-started their current run of dominance. Both players made their debuts before their 22nd birthdays.

Miller isn’t there yet. Chances are, he will not be there in time to force the issue. He has played five games at double A. He has taken a few weeks to find his footing after each of his previous jumps.

“The pitchers have more of a plan,” Miller said. “That’s the biggest thing I noticed, the more I climbed up.”

And, let’s be clear, he will need to force the issue.

The Phillies have Trea Turner at shortstop (Miller’s current position) and they have Alec Bohm at third base (Miller’s natural position, according to many scouts). Outside of injury to or impotence from one of the incumbents, the Phillies would need to get awfully creative in order to carve out a spot for Miller.

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That said, if Miller forces the issue, the Phillies will have no choice but to listen. We can — and will — write 1,000 more words about what such a scenario would look like. There are plenty of them. All of them require Miller to rake in double A in a way that cannot be ignored. Fact is, the Phillies have a clear need for another right-handed bat, with left field the most obvious potential opening. That need is highly unlikely to disappear over the course of the season.

The 2026 season remains the target.

But the Phillies can’t afford to rule out 2025.

“I’m not putting that [pressure] on him,” Dombrowski said. “I don’t think he’ll do it this year, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s playing in the big leagues in the near future.”

The level of equivocation speaks volumes. Rare is the baseball executive who will allow himself to entertain even the possibility of a promotion for a top prospect this early in his journey.

Miller, for one, appreciated it.

“I did see that,” Miller said of Dombrowski’s comments. “It was pretty cool. That’s the goal. I want to get to Philly as fast as I can. I want to be there and stick there. I’m doing everything I can to stick there.”

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For now, the point is that Miller has the potential to put together the kind of season that forces the Phillies to reevaluate their plans. He has that kind of air about him.

Well, to a point.

“I’m telling everybody, all my buddies — I feel like half this locker room is guys I grew up watching play,” Miller said. “It’s so cool being in the same presence as those guys. I feel a little starstruck, like a kid again.”

Again?