Phillies again experimenting with Cody Asche in the outfield, possibly for real

Cody Asche showed up to spring training three weeks early this year - gosh, the Utley-esuqe gumption on this kid, I tell ya what - and since he was around, Phillies management shrugged at each other and told him to try his hand at being an outfielder.

Why? Well, Maikel Franco is going to be a thing one of these days, so third base is going to be a contested position, also the Phillies just have a bunch of outfielders with whom nobody would want to take into the future, so. "Cody Asche is a left fielder now" was the answer to a couple questions.

Except wait, they weren't doing that, and it was all lies.

LRT: Also, the Phillies are not auditioning Cody Asche in the outfield this spring. Some misinformation there.

— Ryan Lawrence (@ryanlawrence21) March 17, 2015

So, is this another classic Phillies communication implosion? Or simply misdirection, for no reason? Or did somebody just hear something wrong?

Well, it doesn't matter now, because once again, we're seeing headlines saying that the Phillies want Asche to be an outfielder, and you know what that means - Maikel Franco is definitely being promoted very soon to save the franchise.

But ha ha, hold your horses - no one actually has any idea what's going on. Franco's not going to be up soon or anything. Asche's going to need a few more pregame fungo sessions before that happens, and Sandberg was just telling Todd Zolecki that "they haven't talked much about him" (Franco, that is). But yes, part of BP today was spent monitoring Asche take some work in left field. Asche was willing and congenial about the whole affair, matching Domonic Brown in his laid back acceptance of his current situation.

Franco is currently hitting .333 with an .833 OPS in 19 games with the IronPigs of Lehigh Valley, and Asche, in 68 AB with the Phillies, is hitting .309 - a team leader on offense. To have both of them in the lineup would be something else, assuming there's no such thing as a transition period from minor to major league pitching.

The Phillies: Force the Future!