After concussions and setbacks, Phillies rookie hits first homer

Tuesday night was a night of firsts for Philadelphia Phillies rookie first baseman Tommy Joseph. Just four days after his call-up to the bigs, he hit his first home run, had his first three-hit game, hit cleanup for the first time, and was involved in his first challenged play.

A player’s first major league homer is something he never forgets, and Joseph’s came early in the Phillies’ game against the Miami Marlins. In the bottom of the second inning, Joseph was leading off against Marlins pitcher Wei-Yin Chen. Chen’s 1-2 pitch to Joseph was right down the middle, and Joseph hit a bullet to far left field that just cleared the big yellow foul pole.

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After Joseph made his trip around the bases, he came back to – what else? – an empty, silent dugout. It didn’t take long for his teammates to rush out and mob him with congratulations.

It’s been a long, tough road for Joseph to get here. He was one of the first pieces the Phillies obtained in their rebuilding effort. He came over from the San Francisco Giants in 2012 when the Phillies, recognizing that 2012 wasn’t going to be like their 102-win 2011 season, traded Hunter Pence. Back then, Joseph was a catcher, and an important get for the Phillies’ relatively barren minor league system.

That’s when the trouble began.

Catchers are particularly vulnerable to concussions, and Joseph proved that in spades. Concussion after concussion began to pile up, ending seasons early and deeply hindering his progress. In a story from 2015 by Meghan Montemurro of The News Journal, Joseph himself isn’t sure of how many concussions he’s had.

“Officially diagnosed is, I think, three or four,” Joseph said of his concussion history. “I don’t know. I started losing track if it was diagnosed or a setback or what it was.”

He began the 2015 season with more protective catching gear, but by midseason he was being converted to a first baseman. His troubles weren’t over, though, as Joseph noticed he was having issues tracking the ball that were connected to his vision. According to CSNPhilly’s Jim Salisbury, in the offseason he went through an eye therapy program and discovered he has an astigmatism, and now wears a contact lens to correct that.

In October 2015, the Phillies placed Joseph on waivers, where every other team passed on him. Unclaimed, they took him off their 40-man roster and left him exposed in the rule 5 draft where again, the rest of baseball paid him no mind. While some players would have been frustrated with their team, Joseph had a kinder view. From Salisbury’s story:

“I hadn’t been a very reliable player,” Joseph said last week. “I hadn’t been a very good player. They could have easily kicked me to the curb and said I was never going to figure it out. But their patience has always been unbelievable and they gave me another opportunity to come to spring training.”

It all paid off. Joseph absolutely tore up the International League this season, batting .347/.370/.611 with six home runs in 27 games for the Triple-A Lehigh Valley IronPigs. His performance was too much for the Phillies to ignore, and with part-time first baseman Darin Ruf struggling mightily, the Phillies decided send Ruf down and call up Joseph to replace him.

The day after his call up, CSNPhilly’s Jordan Hall caught this quote from Joseph.

“The low point was almost every day for the last three years,” he said, “and the high point was yesterday after the game when they told me.”

For Joseph, the triumph was finally making it to the majors and achieving his dream. Propelling the fightin’ Phillies to a win on Tuesday night was merely the icing on a cake he fought long and hard to bake.

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