Phillip Ervin got out to a great start after being drafted 27th overall in the 2013 draft. He spent about 75% of his season in Billings before finishing up with Dayton. He hit over .300 at both stops, posting a .331/.425/.564 with 25 walks and 34 strikeouts in 200 plate appearances.
For as good as 2013 was, his 2014 was not. After the 2013 season Ervin had wrist surgery and the rehab led right into spring training of 2014, limiting his offseason activity. Wrist injuries are known to sap a players power for up to a year after the injury, and this one didn’t seem to be an outlier to that rule. The outfielder got off to a slow start with the Dayton Dragons, and he notes that the slow start compounded on itself as he tried to get out of the slump all at once with every trip to the plate.
I came out struggling early, and I started pressing,” Ervin said. “I felt like I dug myself into a hole. I tried to jump 20 points in two days instead of just letting it happen. I tried to do too much, too quickly.
He would wind up with a .237/.305/.376 line on the season with 46 walks and 110 strikeouts. The approach and the results just didn’t resemble the guy from the year before. The tools were still present for Ervin, and he’d flash them often enough, but the results just weren’t there.
In the first week and a half of the 2015 season the Samford University product looks an awful lot like the 2013 version, at least when it comes to the stats. Over 10 games this year, Ervin has hit .316/.381/.579 with six extra-base hits. His .960 OPS is nearly 300 points better than the Florida State League average of .668. He’s also continuing to be successful on the basepaths. He’s now 3-for-3 in stolen base attempts, pushing his career success rate in the minors to 47 steals in 53 attempts (89% success rate).
The outfielder has spent time playing all three positions in his career, but so far in 2015 he has split his time right down the middle between left field and in center field, getting five starts at each position. He hasn’t had too many chances yet, just 15 plays made over those 10 games, but he’s yet to make an error in the field and has one outfield assist