The numbers look bad right now, especially when you hold up the free-agent contract Carlos Santana signed this offseason next to them. The Phillies’ highest-paid position player, at $20 million per season over the next three years, will carry a .150 batting average and a .245 on-base percentage into the Phillies’ game Friday night against the Tampa Bay Rays at Tropicana Field.
When Gabe Kapler goes over his potential concerns every morning, you can be sure that his switch-hitting first baseman’s early-season numbers do not make the list. What the Phillies manager has seen so far is a guy hitting in some tough luck.