By Tim Kelly, Sports Talk Philly editor 
Following the trade of franchise icon Carlos Ruiz, the Philadelphia Phillies don't seem to be wasting any time in welcoming the man who the club hopes will be their next franchise catcher, even if his promotion is brief.
According to Jeff Passen of Yahoo! Sports, the Phillies are going to call up Jorge Alfaro following the trade of Ruiz:
Source: Jorge Alfaro is coming up for Phillies. One of key players in Cole Hamels trade return, Alfaro is a rocket-armed, big-power catcher.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) August 26, 2016
Alfaro, 23, was already on the 40-man roster according to Meghan Montemurro of the News Journal, who suggests that Alfaro will be optioned once Ellis joins the team:
Phillies need a backup catcher until Ellis joins team. Alfaro already on 40-man roster. https://t.co/zzR7UkEkSR
— Meghan Montemurro (@M_Montemurro) August 26, 2016
Though Alfaro could come back up when rosters expand on Sept. 1, that seems unlikely to happen. He's only played with Double-A Reading this season, who has the best record in all of professional baseball, so the Phillies figure to let him play in the playoffs with Reading. Whether he joins the team later in Sept. or not remains to be seen.
Alfaro, who the club acquired as part of July 2015's Cole Hamels trade with the Texas Rangers, is batting .279 with 13 home runs and 60 RBIs in 2016.
Andrew Knapp seems like a safer bet to open the 2017 season as Cameron Rupp's backup, but wasn't on the team's 40-man roster, which may have been the difference in Alfaro being promoted over him.
