Darin Ruf among three called up to Phillies

On Friday, the first day after major-league rosters expand, Pete Mackanin will receive three players from the minors. One has a familiar ring.

Darin Ruf will rejoin the Phillies for the home game against the Atlanta Braves along with two other call-ups from Lehigh Valley: lefthander Patrick Schuster and righthander Colton Murray.

Players will be added in waves, with the main criteria being that a minor-league player earned his promotion. That applies to both prospects and those who have been in the majors before.

Ruf is 30 now, and for more than three months he has crushed the ball for the triple-A IronPigs. He has hit 20 homers and 18 doubles in 94 games. He has batted .298 with an .895 OPS. But he is a veteran of 274 major-league games, and the Phillies already have two first basemen in Tommy Joseph and Ryan Howard.

They will have other promotions to consider, including Cody Asche, who has worked at left field, third base, and first base in the minors.

"It's a tough situation," Mackanin said before Wednesday's game. "There are so many players. . . . I would like to give [Ruf] another chance, but there are so many guys we have to look at."

Ruf, because of his prolonged demotion, will not be eligible for salary arbitration this winter. Had he spent the season in the majors, he would have received a sizable raise for 2017. Instead, the Phillies can pay him close to the major-league minimum in 2017 - if they retain him on the 40-man roster this winter, which may not happen.

Later in September, the Phillies plan to recall catching prospect Jorge Alfaro. It is possible that Roman Quinn, who is on the disabled list with a concussion at double-A Reading, joins the Phillies later. Quinn should return for the Eastern League playoffs, which begin next Wednesday. Nick Williams, who has scuffled for weeks at triple-A Lehigh Valley, may have played his way out of a promotion.

But there is time, during the minor-league postseason, to change that.

The Phillies will send pitchers Victor Arano, Miguel Nunez, and Brandon Leibrandt; infielders Scott Kingery and Mitch Walding; and outfielder Andrew Brown to the Arizona Fall League for a showcase. Outfielder Andrew Pullin, who has impressed after a brief retirement earlier this season, was slated to go to Arizona. An elbow injury altered those plans. . . . Atlanta comes to town on Friday for a three-game series. The Phillies will start Jeremy Hellickson, Vince Velasquez, and Jake Thompson.