Phillies First Baseman Tommy Joseph Getting Hot at the Perfect Time

Tommy Joseph needs to outperform his underrated rookie season if he’s to be a part of the Phillies next dynasty

Every aspect of Tommy Joseph’s career has been somewhat unprecedented. As a catcher in the San Francisco Giants organization he was one of the top backstop prospects in the game.

After being traded to the Phillies in the Hunter Pence deal Joseph battled behind the plate with concussions. A move to first base ultimately saved his career, as he is now the heir to Ryan Howard on the right side of the diamond.

Despite platooning with Howard and getting only 315 at bats as a rookie Joseph hit 21 home runs and had a .308 OBP.

Despite his success at the plate Joseph’s future remains somewhat uncertain. From the outside looking in it appears the organization is not 100% committed to Joseph being “the guy” going forward.

Those questions arose once again after Joseph started his second full spring training with the Phillies with a mere .209 batting average in his first 35 at-bats.

Thankfully, his bat became hot over his final 21 chances, where he hit .366 with 11 hits and four multi-hit games.

Joseph is likely to hit in the meat of the lineup this year, which if foreshadowed by Thursday’s batting order, had him hitting sixth behind Michael Saunders.

Seeing that Joseph can be the guy who can hit 30 home runs and drive in 80 runs this year is crucial towards the Phillies roster building beyond 2017. How Rhys Hoskins, Andrew Knapp, and potentially Dylan Cozens get at-bats if Joseph is powering his way forward.

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For now all that fans need to acknowledge is that Joseph is getting hot at the perfect time, and if he’s able to swing the bat in June as well as he is in March his future will be brighter than once believed.