Things were supposed to go very differently for David Dahl.

The Rockies chose him with the tenth overall pick in the 2012 Draft and he made his major league debut in 2016 when he hit in each of his first 17 games with the Rockies and in 2019 played in the All-Star Game.

Then what?

A year after being an all-star, Dahl was limited to just 24 games with the Rockies in the COVID year and then found himself non-tendered. Since then, he has played in 239 minor league games with Milwaukee, Texas, Washington, San Diego, the LA Dodgers, and Philadelphia, and just 67 major league games with Texas (63 games in 2021) and San Diego (four games in 2023).

The now former IronPigs outfielder played in MLB game number 68 since 2021 when he was in the starting lineup for the Phillies Monday night against Milwaukee. In his second at-bat wearing red pinstripes, Dahl hit a solo home run to right field as part of the Phillies 3-1 win and he finished the night with two hits and two runs scored.

Dahl’s return to the majors came when Brandon Marsh came up lame with a pulled hamstring in Sunday night’s loss to the Cardinals. When the Phillies looked for a replacement, Dahl was the obvious choice given his start at Lehigh Valley where he had 12 home runs and 26 RBI to go with a slash line of .340/.416/.660 in 43 games.

The injury to Marsh puts Dahl right in the middle of the outfield rotation of Johan Rojas, Christian Pache, and Whit Merrifield for playing time in left and center field.

After exiting the Rockies organization, Dahl kind of lost himself and began tinkering with his swing and his approach at the plate. That, combined with a myriad of coaches from different organizations giving him input on what he should or shouldn’t be doing at the plate and his numbers suffered. When he got to the Dodgers organization, the coaching staff there suggested he simply stop tinkering, look at video from when he was hitting well, and try to replicate the form he had at that point in his career. The hands-off approach worked and allowed him return to putting up strong enough numbers to get the call to Philly when they needed an outfielder.

The Phillies also had to place former IronPig Kody Clemens on the IL with lower back spasms on Monday. His roster spot was filled when the Phillies added Weston Wilson to the roster. Wilson not only set an IronPigs record for home runs in a season with 31 last year but made his MLB debut and homered in his first at-bat with the Phillies. Wilson was off to a horrible start at Lehigh Valley but has picked up his production of late. As of May 11, Wilson was hitting .159 this season with the IronPigs and before being brought back to Philly he had upped his average to .211 in three weeks by hitting .286 (22-for-77) in his last 20 games.

Ironically, one day prior to being brought to Philly, Dahl and Wilson hit the first back-to-back home runs for the IronPigs this season when they beat Columbus 7-6 in a game that saw five different IronPigs players hit home runs. The team record for home runs in a game came back in April of 2019 when they blasted nine home runs against the Rochester Red Wings in Rochester.

As an added bonus, Dahl and Wilson will likely be on the roster for the Phillies games against the Mets in London, which will be played this weekend. It’s possible that the IronPigs could lose another player or two who would travel with the team and be in London should the Phillies need a player to step onto the roster.

While Dahl focuses on baseball, his wife Jacqueline keeps her eyes on the NFL. She is the founder and CEO of 1UP Sports Marketing, which represents a number of professional athletes, most of whom are NFL players, including Patrick Mahomes, who is a three-time Super Bowl MVP and two-time NFL Most Valuable Player. Of course, Mahomes is the son of Pat Mahomes, who pitched in the majors for Minnesota, the NY Mets, Boston, Texas, Pirates, and the Chicago Cubs.

GOOD NEWS… The IronPigs (23-32, 10.5 GB) pulled themselves out of the basement of the International League East. The Charlotte Knights (23-33, 11.0 GB), the Triple-A affiliate of the Chicago White Sox, are now at the bottom looking up at everyone else in the division.

SHUFFLE IN FROM BUFFALO… The Buffalo Bisons (30-27, 4.5 GB) come to town this week. The Blue Jays affiliate features the number-two prospect in the organization in infielder Orelvis Martinez, who has a line of 13-40-.245/.326/.500 in 51 games with Buffalo this season.