The Phillies have promoted outfielder Kelly Dugan to Triple-A Lehigh Valley from Double-A Reading.
This season with the Fightins, Dugan tallied a .315/.391/.393 slash line in 44 games.
Coaches love Dugan’s offensive development in recent seasons, but the youngster has suffered repeated injury concerns throughout his career, most recently a foot fracture, which was originally diagnosed as a “stress reaction”, that kept him out of action from spring training until June this year.
In 2013, Dugan posted a career high 20 home runs and drove in 59 runs while batting .291 in 112 combined games with Class A Advanced Clearwater and Reading. He looked primed to bust out in 2014, but missed considerable time with an oblique strain. In 76 games with Reading last year, he sported a .296 average with five homers and 34 RBI.
The 24-year-old lefty batter was the Phillies’ top draft pick (2nd round) in 2009.
The move comes on the heels of the promotion to the big leagues of Jordan Danks, who is set to fill the roster void left following the trade of Ben Revere to Toronto. Danks, who has previous major league time with the White Sox, had been a solid contributor all season for Lehigh Valley.
Also of note, righty pitcher Ethan Martin landed on the disabled list for Reading with an ankle sprain. The 26-year-old was previously among the Phils’ top 10 prospects after being acquired in 2012 from Los Angeles for Shane Victorino.
Shoulder trouble last season resulted in a drop in velocity for Martin, who has a 1-0 record, a 5.55 ERA and a .324 batting average against in 12 games (two starts) this season for Reading.
Martin, a 1st round draft pick of the Dodgers in 2008, has a 2-5 record with a 5.93 ERA in 17 big league games with the Phillies in his career.