By Tim Kelly, Sports Talk Philly editor 
As Tommy Joseph effortlessly launched a home run onto the Tiki Bar in left field of Spectrum Field last Tuesday, he symbolically began his case to be the team's long-term starting first baseman.
A year ago, Phillies outfielder Aaron Altherr appeared headed for a similar "prove-it" type season, as the team seemingly cleared right field for him to get extended at-bats. Unfortunately for Altherr, he tore the sheath tendon in his left wrist early in Spring Training, meaning he didn't get to play in 2016 until the last week in July. Even when he was back, Altherr struggled, slashing just .202/.304/.293 in 198 at-bats, perhaps a sign that he wasn't back to 100 percent yet.
Altherr, still just 26, is off to a hot start this spring, but he missed his chance to essentially be guaranteed a starting outfield job for an extended period of time. The team acquired veterans Michael Saunders and Howie Kendrick this offseason, both of whom are expected to start alongside Odubel Herrera in the outfield to open the season. Roman Quinn, Nick Williams and Dylan Cozens are all expected to start the season a Triple-A, with Williams and Quinn likely to see Major League action this summer.
Altherr may eventually end up being one of the team's long-term starting outfielders, but instead of turning the doorknob and opening the door, he'll have to kick in the door and make sure no one repairs it, so to speak.
In 2017, Joseph is facing a similar make-or-break type season to what Altherr had a year ago. Assuming he makes it out of Spring Training without suffering a major injury, he'll have passed the first part of the test. It will only get harder from there, however.
Joseph will need to demonstrate more power against left-handed pitchers, as he hit just seven of his home runs and drove in 15 of his RBIs against lefties. Interestingly, he'll need to end a strange trend that emerged during 2016 — his inability to hit during the day. In 212 night at-bats, Joseph slashed .292/.336/.599, with 18 home runs and 37 RBIs. During the day, Joseph slipped to a .184/.252/.311 slash line, with just three home runs and 10 RBIs.
If Joseph doesn't improve upon some of his shortcomings, the Phillies will have a surplus of other options to assume the first base position long-term.
I wrote on the potential logjam that the Phillies could have at second base last week, but first could potentially become even more crowded.
Rhys Hoskins, who hit 38 home runs at Double-A Reading a season ago, will open the season a Triple-A. Dylan Cozens, who hit a minor-league leading 40 home runs in 2016, will also open the season at Triple-A. With the amount of outfielding talent the the Phillies have, the team could eventually shift Cozens from being a corner outfielder to a first baseman.
The Phillies also have three talented catchers in Cameron Rupp, Jorge Alfaro and Andrew Knapp, meaning they could end up eventually consider shifting one to first base. In fact, Alfaro took a healthy amount of grounders at first prior to Wednesday's game against the Tampa Bay Rays, which probably means little in the short term, but should be a sign that the organization is at least keeping that route open.
External options could even change the course of the Phillies first base position. There's often speculation about the Arizona Diamondbacks trading Paul Goldschmidt. Kansas City Royals first baseman Eric Hosmer can become a free-agent after this season. Further down the road, if the team signed Baltimore Orioles third baseman Manny Machado after the 2018 season, it could force Maikel Franco to move to first.
In the meantime, the Phillies will end up with other options on their roster that can play first base, but no one that's expected to platoon with Joseph. The 25-year-old, whose 21 home runs were third among all rookies in 2016, can expect to get at least 100 more at-bats than the 315 that he had in his rookie season a year ago. If he's able to have a season where he hits close to 30 home runs and drives in north of 85 runs, then he'll make it difficult for the organization to not look at him as their long-term first basemen heading into the 2018 season.
