June 13, 2015
Heading into spring training, Dom Brown was slated to be the Phillies' everyday right fielder in sort of a "prove it" situation. Then he got hurt, and the Phillies initially surprised everyone (including Brown himself) by optioning the 27-year-old outfielder to Triple-A after he completed his rehab assignment.
Now, on June 13th, he's finally back in the big leagues. After the Phillies' 4-3 loss to the Pirates on Saturday, the team announced that Brown was recalled to the Phillies at the expense of 28-year-old Darin Ruf, who has been optioned back to Lehigh Valley.
Sandberg said move was to get Ruf more steady at-bats. Brown will join #Phillies tomorrow and get some regular starts in RF.
— Meghan Montemurro (@M_Montemurro) June 13, 2015
Ruf, who predictably has never been able to replicate the "Babe Ruf" type of 2012 success he enjoyed in Reading when he led the Eastern League with 38 home runs and 104 RBI, had a well below average .662 OPS. Furthermore, he just wasn't able to hit right-handed pitching at all this season (.152). He had some interesting words for the Inky's Matt Breen:
“It is what it is,” Ruf said. “Hopefully, I’ll go play well and help them win. Everyday at-bats don’t really matter if I’m just going to come back up and be used in the same role. We’ll see what happens.”
Brown, the former top prospect who had a very underwhelming 2014 season, was hitting .260/.315/.366 at Triple-A. He rebounded well from a poor start and was batting .304/.347/.543 in June for the Iron Pigs.
Follow Rich on Twitter: @rich_hofmann
