When the Cincinnati Rds drafted Phillip Ervin out of Samford in 2013 they drafted a polished college hitter who had a strong track record of hitting with wooden bats, plenty of athleticism and a guy they expected to be able to move quickly through the system. The team signed him quickly and sent him to Billings for his first assignment and he did what you’d expect him to do: tore up the league.
In just over five weeks of playing time, Ervin had hit .326/.416/.597 for the Mustangs with 17 walks and 24 strikeouts before the team promoted him to Dayton. He didn’t skip much of a beat there as he hit .349/.451/.465 with Dayton, but it didn’t last long as he was injured after 12 games and didn’t play for the final three weeks of the season.
That injury ultimately led to wrist surgery in the offseason that lingered into the 2014 season. After not being able to do much over the offseason because of the surgery, the outfielder got off to a slow start in 2014. He began pressing and he never really recovered as he hit .237/.305/.376 with Dayton. His plate discipline suffered, as he walked 46 times with 110 strikeouts and he just looked like a different player than the guy who showed up in Dayton the year before. He would swing at pitches that he had no business swinging at, pitches he would take the year before.
Despite his struggles, the Reds sent Ervin to the Florida State League and the new organization affiliate the Daytona Tortugas. The league is known to be the toughest place to hit in all of the minor leagues, catering to pitchers because nearly every park plays big and power is at a premium. All of that didn’t stop Phillip Ervin from having the best month of his career.
For the month of April the outfielder hit .351/.430/.676, good for an OPS of 1.106. That topped his previous best month of June 2013 where he had a 1.064 OPS, and that came in just nine games. His high for a full month was .970 in July of 2013.
There are plenty of good signs in that statline as well that suggest that the outfielder may indeed have returned to the player that the Reds felt they drafted and the one who showed up in 2013. His batting average on balls in play is higher than is to be expected moving forward at .370, but he’s also not a .351 hitter, so there’s plenty of room for that to fall and still keep a high average. His walk rate is at a strong 12.7% and his strikeout rate is at a good 17.4%. Perhaps the most impressive is his power. Ervin leads the league with six home runs and 12 extra-base hits.
The power is back. The plate approach is back. The walks are back. While it has only been one month, it’s been the best month of his career that followed up a season of struggles and it was coupled with signs that Phillip Ervin is well on his way to re-establishing himself as one of the top position prospects in the system.