Zach McCambley (31) pitches during the Monterrey Sultanes vs Pensacola Blue Wahoos (wearing Pok-Ta-Pok uniforms) exhibition baseball game at Blue Wahoos Stadium in Pensacola on Tuesday, April, 2, 2024. Pok-Ta-Pok was a Mesoamerican game played in the 16th century.
ORLANDO, Fla. -- The Phillies wrapped up the 2025 Winter Meetings by making a small trade and selecting a player in the Rule 5 draft, both intended to help the bullpen.
First, the Phillies acquired righty Yoniel Curet from the Tampa Bay Rays in exchange for righty reliever Tommy McCollum.
Curet, 23, is currently pitching in the Dominican Winter League, but pitched across three levels in 2025 for the Rays. He was DFA'd by Tampa earlier this week.
He struggled at Triple-A, but he is a live arm with a minor league option remaining. He entered the 2025 season as the No. 2 pitching prospect in the Tampa Bay organization according to FanGraphs.
The Phillies are acquiring Tampa Bay Rays prospect RHP Yoniel Curet, according to @mikedeportes.
pic.twitter.com/EKhBbOFcts
— Phillies Tailgate (@PhilsTailgate) December 10, 2025
Used as a starter almost exclusively by Tampa Bay, the Phillies view him as a guy who could potentially be in consideration for the bullpen - if he can get his high walk rate down.
Across five minor league seasons, Curet has only allows 5.9 hits per nine innings. That's the good. He's walked 5.3 batters per nine. That's the bad.
But he has an electric fastball, and the Phillies have had success taking pitchers from Tampa Bay who couldn't throw strikes and turn them into quality Major Leaguers.
Jose Alvarado had a 5.9 BB/9 in the minors. Cristopher Sanchez was a little better, but still had a high rate of 4.2.
Both have vastly improved working with the Phillies organizational pitching coaches. Alvarado will be a setup man for closer Jhoan Duran next season. Sanchez was just the runner up to Paul Skenes for the N.L. Cy Young award, so the Phillies are willing to take the gamble that they can use their past success as a rationale for taking a chance on fixing Curet's wildness.
"He's an arm that we really like," President of Baseball Operations Dave Dombrowski said. "He has a plus-plus fastball. ... We have roster spots, so you start to build some depth and take advantage of it."
McCollum, 26, had a solid season for the Phillies in 2025, pitching across three levels, but predominantly at Double-A Reading.
Across 55 2/3 innings McCollum had a 3.07 ERA and a 1.114 WHIP while racking up a dozen saves.
At the Rule 5 Draft, the Phillies took righty reliever Zach McCambley from the Miami Marlins.
Originally a third round pick by Miami in 2020, McCambley, 26, has to make the Phillies roster and stay with the team all season or else he has to be given back to the Marlins.
The Phillies see a guy with a wipeout slider who dominates righties at the minor league level and think he's a guy who can be a part of an upgrade to the bullpen, especially against a pocket of right handers.
Zach McCambley will be a steal for someone in the Rule 5 Draft next week.
62 IP across AA and AAA to a 2.90 ERA, 33.1 K% / 8.8 BB%
Features a nasty sweeper at 84.5 mph and over 15 inches of sweep.#ProChant https://t.co/8YOCFVufBe pic.twitter.com/Z7IscNlssc
"We drafted him because we have a feeling he can make the team," Dombrowski said. "One of the things we've talked about looking to have over the last few years is having is having a right-handed person in the bullpen who dominates right-handed hitters. We think he he has a chance to do that."
McCambley is coming off his best pro season, where he had a 2.90 ERA, a 1.097 WHIP and 12.0 K/9 in both Double-A and Triple-A.
But with additions usually come subtractions, and a once promising Phillies prospect was selected out of their cupboard in the same Rule 5 draft.
With the third overall pick in the draft, the Washington Nationals selected right-handed pitcher Griff McGarry from the Phillies.
McGarry, 26, had a nice bounce back season in 2025 after two previously disastrous seasons. He still struggled with his control, with 5.3 BB/9, but as high as that is, it was 7.5 in 2023 and an unconscionable 10.2 in 2024.
Switched back to being a starter, McGarry made 21 starts and accumulated 83 2/3 innings pitched with a 3.44 ERA and a 1.219 WHIP, earning the Phillies Minor League Pitcher of the Year recognition.
It wasn't enough, though, to keep him protected on the 40-man roster, even though the Phillies had a bunch of open slots.
"We liked him, we just think he'd have a hard time staying with the Big League club." Dombrowski said. "It was a risk that we took, figuring that we'd have a roster spot at that time."
The Phillies made two selections in the minor league portion of the Rule 5 Draft, selecting infielder Austin Murr from the Detroit Tigers and RHP Evan Gates from the San Francisco Giants. In that portion of the draft, the Phillies lost Reading first baseman Carson Taylor to Seattle.
Players taken in the minor league portion have no parameters set on them and don't have to stay at a particular level all season.
