Phillies Top Prospect, 1st Round Draft Pick, A Step From Majors

It's almost June 1, 2019, and the Phillies outfield picture for the forseeable future is becoming a lot clearer than it was just one month ago.

The team promoted one their top prospects, former first round draft pick Adam Haseley, to Triple-A Lehigh Valley on Wednesday.

Haseley, who just turned 23, was taken eighth overall by the Phillies in the 2017 draft. As an advanced college hitter out of the University of Virginia, scouts projected that he would move through the minor leagues fast, and he's done just that, moving within a step of the big leagues in the start of his second full professional season.

For the year, Haseley has hit a solid .268 with seven home runs at Double-A Reading. He also sports a solid .356 on base percentage and an .827 OPS. While those numbers aren't alarming for player at Double-A, they come after Haseley struggled in the opening weeks of the year; the past month he's been on fire, and he's batting .368 in his last 10 games.

As man who has experience at all outfield positions, including centerfield, who has a good eye and who can run a little bit, the Phillies were basically drafting an older Mickey Moniak (who they took first overall in 2016). Both fit the mold of Christian Yelich, the 2018 National League MVP whom the Phillies were enamored with years before he blossomed into the superstar that he is today.

Moniak and Haseley have shared centerfield duties at Double-A Reading this year, and Wednesday's promotion would hypothetically allow each to focus on center moving forward. The Phillies have not said as much, but they'd have good reason for doing so.

As recently as a month ago, the Phillies had an embarassment of riches of high-ceiling centerfielders who were contending for full time jobs in the future. Here's what's happened to their centerfielders since then:

• Aaron Altherr's struggles at the plate continued, and he was ultimately designated for assignment and signed elsewhere.
• Roman Quinn's injuries problems surfaced, once again. He's been on the disabled list for weeks.
• Dylan Cozens, the big power hitter who is not primarily a centerfielder but has some experience there, underwent season ending surgery last week.
• Odubel Herrera was arrested and charged with assaulting his girlfriend. Even before that, he'd make his future murky through his struggles at the plate.

The team's centerfield depth chart is now some combination of superutility man Scott Kingery, who is untested there, and Andrew McCutchen, who is a former Gold Glove winner there, but who the team clearly prefers to keep in left field if they can.

After that it's Haseley, then Moniak.

Haseley is just off of most national top 100 prospects lists, but, then again, so was Rhys Hoskins for most of his minor league career. MLB.com ranks him third in the Phillies system. After years of frustrating first round draft results (Aaron Nola is the team's only standout first-rounder since Cole Hamels in 2002), the team in banking heavily on Haseley, Moniak, and 2018's pick, Alec Bohm.

While the franchise surely always hoped Haseley would eventually make himself the heir apparent in center, there was never any need to accelerate the process until now. The biggest problem in 2019, most thought, would be finding Herrera and Quinn enough at-bats.

But despite his incredible speed and dynamism, are significant doubts that Quinn will ever be healthy enough to be relied upon as the lone option in center. And Herrera's future with the Phillies, and in baseball in general, is in even greater doubt.

For the time being, the Phillies have called Nick Williams up from Triple-A to play left field most days. McCutchen has been slotted in center; Kingery will play there too, shifting Cutch back to left and Williams to the bench on certain days. It's still an excellent outfield. But if Haseley continues to hit in Triple-A, don't be surprised if the next part of the Phillies young core is here to stay by the end of the summer.