Joseph last man standing for Phillies at trade deadline, but for how much longer?

He wasn't supposed to be here, was he? Tommy Joseph spent a beautiful summer afternoon Monday lashing base hits to right field, three in all, and driving in two runs and helping the Phillies finish off a four-game sweep of the Atlanta Braves with a 7-6 victory, and, all the while, time was ticking down on Major League Baseball's 4 p.m. trade deadline. Pat Neshek: gone. Howie Kendrick: gone. Jeremy Hellickson: gone. Joaquin Benoit: gone within minutes of the final pitch of the Phillies' win. It was natural, for a time, to think Joseph would be shoving his clothes and sliding his bats into his bags soon enough, too. Yet there he was Monday, still in red and white, the last man staying put among those presumed to be on their way out the door.

"I haven't thought about it in a while," he said. "When stuff first started coming out, yeah, I mean, you can always think about it and try to get an idea of maybe what could happen. But now that it's passed, I'm happy that I'm still here."

Is it wrong to wish good things for Joseph, given all the obstacles thrown in his path over the last several years? There was the rash of concussions that forced him to change positions, from catcher to first base, and that threatened his career in pro baseball. Now there is the specter of Rhys Hoskins and his 24 home runs this season at triple-A Lehigh Valley, threatening to take Joseph's job away. Neither of these developments is Joseph's fault, and all he has done in the meantime is hit enough to compel the Phillies to play him every day, to stop giving at-bats to Ryan Howard last season and give Joseph at least a fighting chance of solidifying himself at first base this season. No, it is not wrong.

That doesn't necessarily mean those good things will happen for him, and it doesn't mean that the Phillies shouldn't afford Hoskins, who by all accounts has the swing and maturity to be a powerhouse run-producer for years to come, ample opportunity to fulfill his potential. If the cost of that opportunity is the need to trade Joseph in the offseason, well, the Phillies would call that a happy problem.

But Joseph is not a fully formed hitter yet, either, and it's not unheard of in baseball to have a player take a great leap forward merely with what would seem a simple adjustment. Jose Bautista started lifting his front leg and adopting a more aggressive approach at the plate, and he went from a journeyman John Doe to one of the game's best hitters. J.D. Martinez experimented with his swing over three seasons with the Houston Astros, and it didn't come together for him until he was with the Detroit Tigers.

These things happen. Joseph is 26. There is time for it to happen to him. In a small way, it already has. Joseph was batting .179 this season through April. He had noticed how Aaron Altherr rested his bat atop his shoulder. "He was playing pretty good," Joseph said. "Still playing pretty good." Joseph decided to try the same approach; he thought it might help him the timing of his swing. Since then, he has batted .273 with an .842 on-base-plus-slugging percentage.

"I can be a special hitter," he said. "It's just a matter of making those adjustments every day. You have to keep that momentum, keep that fire. People who lose that fire, lose that edge, that willingness to become a special player — everybody who gets to this level has the opportunity to be a special player. It's just a matter of making sure you put it together between the ears."

Joseph's season-long averages and totals — 16 home runs, a .769 OPS — rank him in the bottom half of National League starting first basemen when it comes to offensive production. You look at those numbers, and you look at the numbers that Hoskins has put up in the minors, and it's understandable why the Phillies might be higher on him than they are on Joseph. Just because great leaps happen doesn't mean the Phillies can count on Joseph's making one.

"It's something we ask our scouts to look for all the time," Phillies general manager Matt Klentak said. "We have a lot of data that talks about certain components and potentially things that can lead to future success with some subtle twists and turns. Ultimately, it's up to the players to buy into that and then execute. It's something that we are cognizant of.

"You know what? Tommy Joseph had three more hits today. He had a couple of big hits on this homestand. Tommy's having a pretty good year. So we're not going to rush anything while we're getting pretty good production out of first base. Rhys is having an outstanding year himself. There will likely come a time when we'll make a decision on that."

Everyone has a pretty good idea what the Phillies want that decision to be. Joseph has tried not to think about it, he said. Sure, he reads about the rumors when he's away from the park, but he's happy, generally, with the way he's kept his mind clear. "In this game, you have to be comfortable being uncomfortable at the same time," he said. "This is a hard game, and not everybody plays their whole career with the same team. We're all aware of that. You just continue moving." And maybe you move on, and maybe the great leap comes somewhere else. Tommy Joseph is entitled to that hope.