Darick Hall Delivers Legit Power

Darick Hall continues to open eyes in the Phillies system.

Important eyes.

First-year big league manager Gabe Kapler was recently moved to cue up video of the 22-year-old, power-hitting first baseman at high Class A Clearwater.

“He’s leading the Florida State League in homers and doing some really cool things around the bag,” Kapler said. “Any time you get off to a start like that it opens up your eyes.

“And it’s kind of fun because you start following the box score and looking for him specifically on a daily basis, asking more questions, learning what else he brings to the table. It’s nice to have another guy to keep our eyes on outside of (Triple-A) Lehigh Valley.”

Hall is a 6-foot-4, 235-pound lefthanded hitter who was a 14th-round pick out of Dallas Baptist in 2016. He actually opened a lot of eyes last season when he won the South Atlantic League MVP after hitting .272 with a league-leading 27 homers and 96 RBIs in 114 games at low Class A Lakewood.

Through the first 32 games this season, Hall hit .291/.371/.607 with a 10 homers. On his current trajectory, he could get to Double-A Reading before long. A number of the Phillies’ power-hitting prospects, from Ryan Howard to Darin Ruf to Dylan Cozens to Rhys Hoskins, have put together huge offensive seasons at Reading over the years, so that could be something to watch.

“He’s a big man. He’s strong, and he just keeps getting better as a hitter,” farm director Joe Jordan said of Hall. “The power, the bat, it’s real. If there’s one thing we’d like to see it’s that he learn to take a few more walks, because they will try to expand the zone on him. But his bat-to-ball abilities have really gotten good. He can adjust his barrel all over the strike zone.

“He’s a run-producing bat. He proved that last year. He did things in Lakewood that no one has ever done, and there’s been some good guys go through there. He’s a legit prospect.”

>> Outfielder Dylan Cozens got off to a nice start in his return to Triple-A. He hit .250 with seven homers and an .842 OPS through 32 games after hitting .210 with a .719 OPS at Lehigh Valley last year.

>> Triple-A lefthander Brandon Leibrandt will shift from starting to relieving. Power-armed righthander Seranthony Dominguez made the conversion at the start of the season and was called to the majors on May 7.