Mickey Moniak earns spot on Phillies’ Opening Day roster, poised for breakout season
Mickey Moniak has gone from first overall pick, to potential draft bust, to making the Philadelphia Phillies‘ Opening Day roster, poised for a breakout season.
Just in the last two weeks, his performance has been so spectacular that manager Joe Girardi changed his tune from ‘not likely to get playing time’ to making the roster to do just that. The Phillies even traded away Adam Haseley, making more room for Moniak. He found out from Girardi on Sunday morning, and then, for good measure, he hit two more home runs in their game that afternoon.
He’ll platoon with Matt Vierling in centerfield, and when he’s sitting in the dugout, he can continue learning from some of the best sluggers in the game, and their new hitting coach Kevin Long, who helped get Moniak back to the majors in the first place. Getting the roster spot was important, but it’s likely that these benefits of being with the big-league club are what will help him stay there.
Long’s name was a major buzzword last season because he worked with Kyle Schwarber, who then had the best season of his career. He hit 32 home runs, including 16 in 18 games in June.
Fittingly, Schwarber also homered on Sunday.
Yeah, that was a bomb.
— Philadelphia Phillies (@Phillies) April 3, 2022
A Schwar💣 pic.twitter.com/IUMrBuY45U
Between 2020-21, Moniak played 29 games in the majors. He hit a meager .128/.241/.191 with a minuscule .432 OPS, and six hits, including one home run. Spring training is a small sample size, but it’s more about how different, how confident he looks at the plate than the numbers themselves. Those are pretty good, though: 9-for-29, five home runs, nine RBI, a .310 AVG, and 1.241 OPS.
The grandson of a Boston Red Sox minor leaguer who never made it to the big show, Moniak knows how easy it is for someone to come close to their dream, but never see it realized. This will be his third year getting big-league playing time, but for the first time, it looks like he’s truly poised for a breakout season.
Nearly six years after he was the first overall pick in the MLB draft, there was plenty of doubt about the young prospect.
Not from Moniak, though: “I always knew it was in there.”
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