BETHLEHEM - Minor league baseball is often thought of as a ladder to the majors, with players moving up the rungs in pursuit of a major league career.

Many think of minor league coaches and managers as the guy holding that ladder, but in reality, they're looking to climb higher just like the players.For Dusty Wathan, the steps have come slowly, but over the winter, he moved to the top rung of minor league manager when he was given the job as Boss Hogg of the Lehigh Valley IronPigs, the Phillies highest minor league affiliate.The move came after five seasons guiding the Reading Fightin Phils, the team a step below Lehigh Valley in the Phillies minor league system. Thanks in part to the length of his tenure with Reading, and thanks in part to his ability as a manager, Wathan is the winningest manager in the history of the Reading franchise, with 373 career wins. He also guided Reading to the postseason in 2012, 2015 and 2016, and was the Eastern League Manager of the Year the past two seasons."I'm thankful for the opportunity that the organization is giving me," said Wathan of the chance to manage the IronPigs. "I don't take it lightly, I think it's a very important step, as they all are, but this is kind of the finishing step for these guys to go up and perform."I'm excited to move up. Anybody that says 'Yeah, I want to stay in the minor leagues my whole career,' I don't buy it, but I don't want to stay there my whole career. The goal in any job is you want to get to the top and for us, the top is the major leagues."Wathan was in the Lehigh Valley Thursday night for the Phillies annual Winter Banquet at the Sands Event Center in Bethlehem. Joining Wathan were former IronPigs Maikel Franco, Tommy Joseph and Aaron Nola, along with Phillies manager Pete Mackanin and members of the Phillies front office.The 43-year old saw his father, John Wathan, play 10 seasons in the majors with the Kansas City Royals and went in pursuit of his own major league career after being signed by the Seattle Mariners as an amateur free agent in 1994.Unfortunately for the younger Wathan, his dream was short-lived, lasting just three games with the Royals in 2002.While climbing toward the majors has been a little different as a manager, Wathan also believes that he was able to learn a lot from his 14 seasons in the minors, with six different organizations, including playing for the Phillies at both the Double-A and Triple-A levels the last two seasons of his career."I try to impress on these guys to really enjoy this, because you never know when it's going to come to an end. For some of these players, they won't even get to the majors, while others will get there and be very successful."With success in Reading the past two seasons, Wathan is looking forward to managing at the next level, especially since many of the players that he has mentored at Reading the past two seasons will be on his roster with Lehigh Valley.Once the roster is announced, it's likely to include a number of the best prospects that the Phillies organization has to offer, with players like shortstop J.P. Crawford, catcher Jorge Alfaro, and outfielder Roman Quinn among them."To be familiar with these guys is good. We don't have that sort of feeling out period; they know what I expect of them and I know what they're capable of doing and what we need to continue to work on at that next level," explained Wathan.One thing that Wathan is looking forward to with Lehigh Valley is continuing the chance to manage a team in front of a large fan base. Besides working to make his players the best players that they can be, Wathan also tries to drill into the young players that they need to take fans seriously, especially if they're planning on playing in Philadelphia."You know, with these ballparks, you can't really hide from the fans. I mean they're right there and you can't just walk past them, because you're going to have to take that walk many times and they'll ride you each and every time," laughed Wathan."In Reading, you literally have to walk through the crowd to get from the clubhouse to the field, so you get used to interacting with fans and there's no reason not to enjoy it, especially when you have kids that look up to you and treasure the time that you give to them. Lehigh Valley has great fans and I'm looking forward to having them cheer us on, because there is no denying that makes a difference."