Nick Williams (Rick Nelson/MiLB.com)

The Philadelphia Phillies traded Cole Hamels to the Texas Rangers and in return received three prospects in Jake Thompson, Jorge Alfaro, and Nick Williams. As of late, those prospects seemed to be going through some growing pains in the minors. Recently, however, Nick Williams seems to have broken through his plateau and is beginning to remake the solid bat that the Phillies traded for.

Williams started off slow this year and things were not looking very good for the prospect. It seemed as though he might have been regressing since his promotion to Triple-A, Lehigh Valley. After all, he also finished last season pretty slow as well, so there weren’t a whole lot of positives to make of his game.

Now, though, Williams looks like he finally has hit his stride and is ready to become the player the Phillies hoped he would be. Currently, the outfielder is batting .278 with 12 homeruns. To put that in perspective, his 12 home runs that he has right now, is only one shy of his total in 2016.

The one thing that could still use work in his game is his plate discipline. As good as his batting average is right now, he still has a tendency to strike out. He has 70 strikeouts to just eight walks this season and so if he wishes to make a big impact in the majors, he will seriously need to work on that part of his game.

Even though Nick Williams is doing very well right now, it does not make sense for the Phillies to rush him up to the big leagues. This team is not competing to make the playoffs, so they should just continue to let him develop in Triple-A. I expect Nick to get a call-up late in the season and be one of the teams starting outfielders come 2018.