The Phillies claimed 27-year-old Pedro Leon off of waivers from the Houston Astros recently. Leon is on the 40-man roster and becomes a part of the completely wide open outfield situation for the Phillies. Doing some reading-in on Leon, there are a lot of pundits who aren’t quite sure what he will turn out to be. There is everything from “possibly an all-star caliber player” to “fourth outfielder, at best.” It appears that figuring that out is going to fall on the Phillies now that he is a member of their organization.
The Basics
At just 5′ 9″, 170 pounds, Leon is certainly on the small side, but has shown surprising power and has the potential to develop even more power, if most of the pundits are correct. That’s where the opinions vary most with some believing he will show that power and others thinking his size is going to limit the power potential when he faces major league pitchers. The body of evidence right now is 62 minor league home runs between 2022 and 2024 while in the Astros organization.
The Astros signed Leon as an international free agent out of Cuba in January of 2021, and they didn’t waste time with him. After just three games in their Florida Complex League (FCL), he was bumped all the way up to Double-A where he hit .259/.359/.443/.803 in 52 games. At that point, Houston moved him to Triple-A Sugar Land, but he struggled in 17 games there and hit just .131. While at Double-A, Leon played in the 2021 Futures Game and after the season he went to the Arizona Fall League and gave a solid, but not spectacular, performance there. For the next two seasons, Leon was exclusively playing for Sugar Land and then played in the Puerto Rican Winter League after both of those seasons.
In 2024, Leon was back at Triple-A Sugar Land and put up the best numbers of his career, hitting 24-90-.299/.372/.514/.886 which finally convinced Houston to bring him to the majors in early August. Over two weeks, Leon played seven games and hit just .100/.143/.100/.243 in 20 at-bats. The Astros were still high on Leon, but 2025 turned into a lost season for him. During spring training he suffered a Grade 1 (mild) MCL sprain and was out of action. Leon aggravated the injury while on a rehab assignment. It would be August until Leon was able to go out on another rehab assignment and after a short stint in the FCL, Leon returned to Sugar Land where he hit 3-10-..241/.312/.422/.734 in 25 games.
From there, the Astros placed him on waivers and the Phillies snagged him.
Offensive Skills
Besides the power that he has shown, Leon can use all fields and drives the ball well to the gaps. Scouts love his ability to drive in runs and use his speed – 88 stolen bases in three seasons with Sugar Land – to generate runs. The power is surprising primarily because of Leon’s size, or lack thereof, but he has good bat speed and mechanics.
Where the doubters come in is when it comes to making consistent contact. His strikeout rates have consistently been toward the upper 20-percent levels and he whiffed 10 times in 21 plate appearances in the majors. Some of that is related to what has been seen from Leon every time that he first reached a level. He is one of those guys who goes through an adjustment period and the Phillies will need to be patient with him if he does make the big league club. At Triple-A he struck out in 27.8-percent of his plate appearances and drew walks in 11.1-percent of his opportunities.
Leon’s speed is legitimate and he has to be considered a stolen base threat when he does reach base. His success comes back to being able to make contact and how well his power will hold at the major league level.
Defensive Skills
Initially, Leon came up as an infielder, but his defensive skills were noticeably lacking and Houston started to use him first in center field and then in right field where his speed and a cannon of an arm worked well for him. He can also play in left, but the Astros rarely used him there simply because his best skills – speed and arm strength – were more suited to playing at the other two outfield spots.
There are no doubts about Leon’s ability to play defensively in the majors, but his bat progression is going to be the key component of how his career plays out.
The Bottom Line
Leon has had plenty of time at Triple-A and is well prepared to play at the major league level. The best comparison right now that fans of the Phillies could relate to is Johan Rojas, but with power. As with Rojas, it all comes down to whether he can reach base enough to use his other skills; remember, “you can’t steal first base.”
With the Phillies taking a look at players like Leon, you have to figure that even if they do bring in an outfielder or even two, there are going to be some interesting battles for one final outfield spot and/or for spots on the bench. Leon could be in the mix for one of those jobs.
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