The worst fears of everyone in the Phillies organization were realized on Tuesday evening, when The Athletic’s Matt Gelb took to Twitter to confirm that Phillies outfielder Andrew McCutchen did indeed tear his ACL on Monday.
It didn’t take long for ‘Cutch’ to make an impact in Philadelphia, appearing in 59 games and batting .256, slugging .457, hitting 10 homers and scoring 29 runs in total.
In his place, highly-rated prospect, Adam Haseley will get the call. But now the pressure is really on.
Haseley started the season at AA Reading and was recently promoted to AAA Lehigh Valley. In his 6 games with the Iron Pigs, Haseley had a .320 average with a .440 slugging percentage.
It looks like Haseley will be thrown right into the fire, as Scott Kingery is the only other player on the roster that has played center field this season (beside Sean Rodriguez after the McCutchen injury).
The Phillies started out with average center field depth this season. Odubel Herrera started in center, Aaron Altherr was the backup, and Scott Kingery had started to get some reps at center.
It remains to be seen whether the Phillies will seek to add more depth in behind Haseley, but this will be a big leap for the eighth overall selection of the 2017 MLB Draft.
Mandatory Credit: Jake Roth-USA TODAY Sports
