Despite a 10th inning comeback win against the Washington Nationals Sunday that allowed the Philadelphia Phillies to move back to within one game of .500, the club's corner outfielders remain one of the least productive groups in the league.
Though he's an impressive fielder, Peter Bourjos is batting just .189 through the team's first 13 games. Cedric Hunter is batting .088, with many beginning to wonder how long his tenure with the club will be. Tyler Goeddel, who the team picked with the No. 1 pick in the Rule-5 Draft, is batting .077 after a start in Sunday's win. And Darin Ruf was inserted into the outfield Saturday in an attempt to generate offensive production in the outfield, but struggled in the field and is batting .083 himself.
Despite the team's outfield struggles, manager Pete Mackanin told MLB.com's Todd Zolecki this past weekend that the team is not currently considering calling up top outfield prospect Nick Williams.
Mackanin said the Phillies are not talking about top outfield prospect Nick Williams as a candidate.
The 22-year-old, who was acquired in the Cole Hamels trade last July, is currently playing for the Triple-A Lehigh Valley. Williams is batting .192 through his first 26 at-bats this season.
Williams, assuming his production picks up, is likely to make his major league debut at some point in 2016. Due to some service-time technicalities and that he hadn't played above Double-A prior to 2016, it didn't make sense for Williams to start the season with the team and it doesn't make sense for him to be called up this early.
Williams' debut looming, along with Roman Quinn, is a good sign that the Phillies outfield has a bright future. Aaron Altherr will also return from his wrist injury at some point. Adding those three to Odubel Herrera, along with the amount of money the team has available to potentially spend in free-agency the next few years, should set the Phillies up well moving forward. But 2016 has started out as a rather lean year for production from the team's outfield, and that may not drastically change at any time this year.
Tim Kelly (@TimKellySports) is the Managing Editor of Philliedelphia.com, focusing on news and features.
