The Philadelphia Phillies took Gage Wood with their first-round pick last season, a few weeks after he set the College World Series record with Arkansas for strikeouts in a game with 19. Between the shoulder injury that cost him the first month-plus of that collegiate season and his lack of a pitch for lefties, however, he seemed like he was destined for a bullpen role — perhaps quickly, given the Phillies’ willingness to move relievers aggressively through their system.That still seemed to be the case when I saw Wood in June in his second Double-A start, where he was dominating with his high-riding fastball but his curveball had backed up a little and his straight changeup wasn’t very good at all. I saw him again on Wednesday — a third look this year, if you count the Futures Game — and I have very good news: He’s added a splitter in lieu of the straight changeup, and it’s the answer to the lefty question. You might even call it a … gage-changer.The splitter is pretty new. He’d only thrown it a handful of times before Wednesday night, but he relied on it a little more against Erie. The pitch sat 87-88 with excellent arm speed and late, sharp bottom to it. He’s still overusing his breaking stuff against lefties, and got punished for it, particularly because he left several curveballs up to left-handed batters that might as well have been put on a tee. Shelving the curveball entirely against lefties would probably solve his platoon-split issues immediately; he’s allowed a .455 slugging percentage to them this year, with both extra-base hits he gave up on Wednesday coming from lefties, including a homer on a bad curveball.Wood’s four-seamer was 94-96 all outing, with at least seven whiffs on the pitch, and his slider was above-average when he finished it, although that pitch and the curveball run into each other in shape and velocity. I don’t know if he’s reluctant to give up the curveball, even temporarily, but at this point it’s probably his worst pitch and it might be holding his slider back. Even if he goes with a four-seamer, splitter and slider mix, he’d be at least a fourth starter, with a higher ceiling than that depending on how the latter two pitches develop.MLB September callups to noteKeith LawHope’s conditioning a concernOutfielder Zyhir Hope, one of the three players acquired by the Detroit Tigers from the Los Angeles Dodgers for Tarik Skubal at the trade deadline, suited up for Eerie on Wednesday. He looks … rather out of shape, to put it mildly.He’s still got tremendous bat speed, but the body has gone backwards and he’s moving and running more slowly than he did when I last saw him in March. Hope went 1 for 5, striking out on 95 up from Wood and hitting four ground balls, never running better than fringe-average on any of them.