Philadelphia Phillies: Cesar Hernandez Showing He Can Play With Late Season Surge

Cesar Hernandez (Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports)

The Philadelphia Phillies have had themselves an underwhelming season to say the least. Plagued by lack of talent and injuries to their pitching staff, this team has found themselves in second-to-last place in the NL East. However, with so many things to look down at, there may still be a silver lining on this Phillies team. That silver lining is none other than second baseman, Cesar Hernandez.

Hernandez started off the season fairly slow. In fact, one could make the argument that his play in the beginning of the season could have warranted him to be benched by the coach. Fast forward to today, Hernandez is arguably the Phillies best hitter.

The 26-year-old is currently batting .296 with 13 doubles and 50 runs scored. While these numbers are not elite by any means, in reference to the rest of this Phillies team they quite exciting.

Cesar is, by no means, a perfect player. His play in the field could definitely use some work and his strikeout-to-walk ratio could be better. But that does not take away from how well he has been able to put the ball in play during this second half of the season.

At 26, it seems unlikely that Cesar remains with this organization through its rebuild. Especially once J.P. Crawford gets called up and the Phillies move Galvis to second base.

With all that said, it still is fun to see a player exceed expectations set forth by an organization. Despite this teams lack of success, Hernandez has proven to not let the record hinder his play and continued to show a true passion for the game that all fans enjoy to watch. Even if you don’t love Cesar Hernandez, it sure is hard to root against a guy who shows the kind of passion that he does in every game.