The Philadelphia Phillies have cut ties with right-hander Jean Cabrera, releasing the 24-year-old from Double-A Reading on Friday and ending a six-year run in the organization.
Cabrera never reached the majors. This season he posted a 7.64 ERA and 1.879 WHIP across 21 minor-league appearances (20 starts), allowing 122 hits and 75 earned runs in 88 1/3 innings while walking 44 and striking out 67.
Opponents hit him hard throughout, and the walk total left little margin when contact found gaps.
The year started worse. Assigned to Triple-A Lehigh Valley after a solid 2025, Cabrera went 1-2 with a 9.32 ERA in seven starts (28 innings). He was sent back to Reading in May.
After the demotion, he was 3-5 with a 6.86 ERA in 14 games. On July 5 the Phillies designated him for assignment to open a 40-man roster spot for outfielder Bryan De La Cruz.
Cabrera cleared waivers and was outrighted to Reading on July 11. The club ultimately chose not to keep him in the rotation or convert him to relief.
The release closes a once-promising path. Signed out of Maracay, Venezuela, as an international free agent in 2019 for a reported $10,000, Cabrera debuted in the Dominican Summer League in 2021 and immediately stood out: a 1.54 ERA, 61 strikeouts, and 10 walks in 52 2/3 innings.
That performance earned him the Paul Owens Award as the organization’s minor-league pitcher of the year, presented at Citizens Bank Park alongside Bryson Stott.
He climbed steadily after that. Two seasons in Single-A Clearwater were uneven, then a strong 2024 at High-A Jersey Shore (3.39 ERA) and a late-season look at Reading.
Philadelphia protected him on the 40-man roster after that year. In 2025 he spent the full season at Double-A and went 6-9 with a 3.81 ERA, 1.23 WHIP, and 127 strikeouts over 137 innings in 26 starts — workmanlike, durable, and enough to keep him in the conversation as a possible 2026 debut candidate. MLB Pipeline had ranked him as high as No. 13 in the system.
Command never fully returned this year. Fourteen home runs and a .947 OPS against told the story as much as the ERA. Career minor-league numbers still look respectable — 26-34, 4.44 ERA, 502 strikeouts in 512 1/3 innings — but the 2026 collapse erased the remaining roster value.
Cabrera is now a free agent and can sign with any club. At 24 he remains young enough that another organization may bet on the earlier version of his stuff, particularly the changeup that once graded as a plus pitch.
For the Phillies it is a quiet end to a developmental story that peaked early and never quite recovered.
