ST. LOUIS — Not so fast, Domonic Brown.
That essentially was Ryne Sandberg’s response to Brown’s telling reporters in Lehigh Valley that he would be joining the Phillies on Wednesday, the day after his 20-day injury rehabilitation stint.
“We haven’t had official conversations about him, but from what I’ve seen I don’t know if he’s ready for major-league pitching or to come up and give us a punch, the way things have gone for him there,” Sandberg said late Monday afternoon.
Brown entered Monday with just four hits in 31 at-bats for Lehigh Valley. Before that, he went 5 for 17 with the Clearwater club.
Brown opened the season on the disabled list as he recovered from Achilles tendinitis.
Sandberg said Brown has been making “some fly ball outs and he just hasn’t connected and hit for the average you’d like to see.”
The Phillies are not obligated to reinstate Brown to the 25-man roster when his rehab stint expires after Tuesday's game. They could option him to Triple A, where he could continue to get at-bats and earn his way back to the majors.
“We’ll see,” Sandberg said when asked whether optioning Brown to the minors was a possibility. “We’ll have more conversations.”
Brown spoke to reporters in Lehigh Valley on Sunday and told them he had two more games left in the minors before joining the Phillies. Sandberg made it fairly clear that he did not appreciate Brown's speaking prematurely.
“Unless he’s player-slash-GM,” Sandberg said wryly.