Cody Asche Getting Closer to Return to Phillies

Cody Asche went 2-for-5 with a homer and two RBI on Tuesday night at Double-A Reading and appears that he will be ready to go when his 20-day rehab ends on June 1.

The former third baseman, now leftfielder has been on the disabled list the entire season because of a Grade 1 strain of his right oblique that he suffered in late February and then had an untimely setback at the end of spring training and was placed in the disabled list back on April 2.

So what will his role be when he returns and who will be the odd man out?

The most likely answer is that he will do a little bit of everything, getting reps at first base, third base, and in the outfield. As far as the odd man out, that most likely candidates are Emmanuel Burriss or David Lough with Lough the favorite to be sent down.

Burriss, while he doesn't get a lot of time can play the middle infield and has also been used at first base and in the outfield. Lough, who is already losing playing time with the emergence of Tyler Goedel, if an outfielder only.

The most likely scenario is Asche comes back and plays leftfield, Goedel moves over abnd play rightfield and late in games, Peter Bourjos comes into the games to replace Asche for defense.

With Asche coming back, the Phillies should make some tweaks to the line-up, using Goeddel in the No. 2 spot. Goeddel has struck out only 3 times in 53 plate appearances during May (5.7%), which is the lowest strikeout percentage of any ML player with at least 40 plate appearances during the month - perfect for the two-hole.

Here is what I think the Phillies line-up should look like on most nights once Asche returns:

1. Odubel Herrera - CF
2. Tyler Goeddel - RF
3. Maikel Franco - 3B
4. Tommy Joseph - 1B
5. Carlos Ruiz - C
6. Cody Asche - LF
7. Freddy Galvis - SS
8 - Pitcher (Not my favorite, but what Pete Mackanin does)
9. Cesar Hernandez - 2B