The Philadelphia Phillies optioned Domonic Brown to Triple-A Lehigh Valley on Tuesday, which has officially cleared some space in the outfield. Third baseman Cody Asche is now working out in left field and could make room for one of the team's top prospects, rumors suggest.
Odubel Herrera has been the lone bright spot in the Phillies' outfield, which, according to Ryan Lawrence of the Philadelphia Daily News, ranks at the bottom of the MLB in a number of hitting categories. Lawrence also noted Asche took pregame work in left field on Tuesday night and manager Ryne Sandberg said it's now part of the third baseman's regular daily routine.
"With circumstances and possibilities and things like that throughout the summer, it's only fair to the player to prepare and to be ready for a situation," Sandberg told Lawrence. "For him to just get some looks out there, and start there, with some basics, I think that's good for him."
Lawrence believes the move is to prepare the club for the eventual promotion of corner infielder Maikel Franco. Asche has never played the outfield since starting his career in the Phillies' farm system back in 2010 and has played all of his 175 MLB games at third base since 2013. He's off to a solid start this year, batting .300/.347/.414 with four runs scored, two home runs and three RBIs in 20 games and a .958 fielding percentage.
Philadelphia could be preparing Asche to take over in the outfield if the team is unable to trade first baseman Ryan Howard this season, and considering the veteran is owed $60 million over the next two seasons, it's highly unlikely they'll cut him. Asche's potential move to left would free up a spot at third for Franco, who has played 471 games at the position since 2010 (and 33 at first base).
Sandberg believes Asche has "a little bit" of versatility, which explains the potential move, but they passed on moving the third baseman to the outfield during spring training, so it's unknown why they're deciding to do so now. Maybe it's because they didn't think Domonic Brown would start the season on the disabled list and then bat .193/.288/.281 with seven runs scored, one home run and six RBIs in 16 minor league games during his rehab assignment.
On the other hand, Franco is slashing .318/.355/.489 with eight runs scored, one home run and 11 RBIs in 20 games with Triple-A Lehigh Valley and the Phillies are in desperate need of an offensive boost, especially from one of their up-and-coming prospects.
While the promotion of Franco aligns with Asche's potential shift to left field, Sandberg provided some insight as to why he thinks Asche would be a good fit out there.
"This is all early stuff, preliminary things," he added. "You're talking the same side of the field - third base, leftfield. The looks are the same. Anything on the other side of the diamond sometimes gets a little trickier. Leftfield is one of the first positions that us as a group thought could suit him."
Jim Salisbury of CSN Philly wrote earlier in the offseason that Asche was a candidate to learn a new position, possibly to make way for Franco, whose best position is third base. He also noted Asche had the versatility to do so, but the team may have jumped ship on the idea after Franco batted just .200/.200/.200 with three runs scored and one RBI in 12 spring training games.
We'll see what happens in the coming weeks, considering since the Phillies can gain an extra season of club control over Franco if they promote him after May 15.
