Journeyman David Lough Has One Last Chance With Philadelphia Phillies

The media did not make a big deal of the fact that the Philadelphia Phillies sent OF Cedric Hunter to Triple-A Lehigh Valley and promoted OF David Lough. For Lough, though, it may be his last chance to stick on a MLB team, and he needs to make the most of it.

Hunter was sent down for the usual reasons — he got off to a 3-for-34 start — and Lough was promoted for similar reasons as he was hitting a respectable .280 in Triple-A. His best MLB season came in 2013 for the Kansas City Royals when he hit .286 in 96 games with five homers and 33 RBI, and the Phillies would more than sign for that now. The conundrum for the Phillies is pretty clear and that is they are running out of outfielders who can hit, and Lough appears at least to have that ability. If he can prove he can hit over the next month or so, the Phillies will not have to look at other short-term options like a trade or forcing a prospect up before his time.

That last option is particularly important to the rebuild because the Phillies will have a whole lot of options who could benefit from a full year in Triple-A, and one of them is a top prospect named Nick Williams. The Phillies learned a lot of hard lessons over the last two years and one of them was what can happen if a top outfield prospect is force-fed through the pipeline. One such prospect, Domonic Brown, fizzled after one decent MLB year. If Williams is allowed to advance through the system at his own pace, the Phillies probably will get a lot more confident and polished product next season.

For his part, Lough can hold down left field until then. If he doesn’t, he will likely join Hunter back where he started and that means more bus and fewer plane trips. That should be enough incentive to hit.