Phillies 2018 season preview: Outfield prospect Dylan Cozens

After a rough 2017 season and spring training this year, Phillies prospect Dylan Cozens is hoping for a major turnaround in 2018.

Everyone knows Dylan Cozens for one thing: hitting home runs. He hit 40 of them in a 2016 season at Double-A that put him in almost every top ten Phillies prospect list. Cozens and Rhys Hoskins provided hope for an actual offense in a season where Philadelphia had very little.

Since that year, Cozens has not been able to find nearly the same success. He hit 27 home runs in 134 Triple-A games last season, but the rest of his numbers were poor. He struck out in 35.8 percent of his at-bats, leading to a .210 batting average.

The one thing that kept Cozens afloat was his 10.7 percent walk rate that kept his on-base percentage at a respectable .301. However, it was easy to tell that once he got away from Reading’s homer-friendly ballpark, his numbers dropped considerably.

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Cozens came into spring training this year with a chance of making the major-league roster. The team needed a fifth outfielder, and his power off the bench would certainly be welcome. He just couldn’t figure it out though, striking out 11 times in 24 plate appearances this spring with just four hits. These poor numbers came against opponents of Double-A quality, which certainly isn’t a sign of confidence.

Cozens was optioned back to minor-league camp last week while other prospects remain in camp. He will start the year in Triple-A again, hoping to find more success than he did the first time around. Will he though?

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Strikeouts already plague Cozens. As he rises farther up the minor-league ladder, so has his strikeout rate. There’s every reason to believe that when he faces the top tier of pitchers in the majors, they will make him look silly. Even the University of Tampa’s pitchers were able to strike him out in both of his plate appearances.

In addition to heavy home/road splits in 2016, his platoon splits were even worse. He hit .302 with a 1.037 OPS against righties but just .197 with a .640 OPS against lefties. Thirty-five of his 40 home runs came off of righties. Those splits still existed last year as he had a .744 OPS against righties and a .658 OPS against lefties. Of his 27 home runs, 21 came against righties.

His power dries up as soon as he faces a left-handed pitcher.

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Cozens still has some major issues to work through. Could he figure them out in Lehigh Valley this year? Absolutely. Will he? Well, that’s another story. Time is ticking for him though as the 40-man roster grows more and more crowded every year.