An old baseball adage is that a team must be “strong up the middle.”

That starts with good pitching, continues with strong catching, and includes the middle infielders and a quality center fielder.

Aside from Jersey Shore’s Mick Abel (2-3,4.00) and Clearwater’s Andrew Painter (0-1, 1.35), there is not a lot of pitching to celebrate throughout the Phillies organization.

What about behind the plate?

While J.T. Realmuto is a fixture in Philadelphia, and Garrett Stubbs is proving himself to be an upgrade from Andrew Knapp as the backup, who else may be in the hunt for a major league job with the Phillies, or as potential trade bait down the road?

Rafael Marchan seemed to have a grip on the IronPigs starting job behind the plate and a shot at being Realmuto’s backup when the season got underway. Instead, he got injured in spring training, went on the IL with a severe hamstring strain and has not been heard from since. That left Stubbs to win the big-league job, and Donny Sands to take over the top catching duties with Lehigh Valley.

Sands was a top 30 prospect in the Yankees organization, and when the Phillies looked to add depth in their search for a backup, they were able to have him thrown into the deal that brought reliever Nick Nelson to Philadelphia. The 26-year-old was putting up strong offensive numbers (2-16-.333/.476/.462) with Lehigh Valley when he went down with an undisclosed injury – he has been seen wearing a boot on his foot – and is currently on the IL.

With Marchan and Sands both nursing injuries, Austin Wynns has stepped into the job with the IronPigs. Wynns, 31, is one of those types of catchers who is good to have around. He has logged major league time with Baltimore in three of the last four seasons, amassing just a .216 average, while providing adequate defense. What Wynns does for a club is provide a veteran backstop who knows how to work with pitchers and is known as one of those “4A guys,” who is great in the minors, but suffers when he plays at the next level. Wynns is a career .278 hitter at Triple-A, and is batting .364 for the IronPigs.

The top catching prospect in the organization is a car ride away from Lehigh Valley and spent time with the team last season. Logan O’Hoppe, 22, was a victim of the numbers game, and since the Phillies figured on having O’Hoppe, Marchan and Sands to fill two starting jobs at the highest levels of the minors, O’Hoppe was squeezed off the Lehigh Valley roster and is at Double-A Reading, where he is batting .304 with a .402 on-base percentage and eight home runs in 33 games. O’Hoppe was named the Eastern League Player of the Week on Monday after hitting .550 (11-for-20) with five home runs and eight RBIs in six games, posting a .640 OBP and a 1.350 slugging percentage.

If Sands is going to be out for any length of time, it reasons to wonder why O’Hoppe is not with Lehigh Valley.

A key for catching is the ability to throw out runners attempting to steal. The Phillies have a definite organizational issue with catching arms. Sands has thrown out just 19% of base stealers, and Wynns just 14%. Across the organization, catchers have thrown out 20% of runners attempting to steal, behind the minor league average of around 28%. The percentages are slightly skewed by Clearwater catchers, who have seen more would-be base stealers than any other Phillies affiliate and have thrown out 33% of them. As for O’Hoppe, he has thrown out 24% of base stealers this season.

MICKEY ON THE WAY? ... Mickey Moniak started his rehab assignment last week with Clearwater and went 4-for-10 (.400) with a double and a triple. This week, the Phillies move him up to Double-A Reading, where he will spend some time before a decision is made on where he goes next. Some time with Lehigh Valley is a distinct possibility, but it might not come until next week when the Pigs are on the road. The Phillies only kept Moniak with Clearwater for three games, so it’s possible that he finds his way to the Lehigh Valley late this week.

DONE ALREADY? ... Steve Carlton made a recent appearance at Coca-Cola Park. Carlton pitched in a day where pitch counts were not a thing. Starters threw until either they were pitching so badly there was no sense in having them continue, or until the game was over. Last Sunday, Ricardo Sanchez became the first pitcher in the International League to throw seven innings this season and did so using just 63 pitches, 45 of which were strikes. In baseball’s new world, manager Anthony Contreras had seen enough, and Sanchez was done for the day. Baseball has moved from where it limits starters to about 100 pitches to worrying about how many times a pitcher goes through the lineup. Sanchez was one batter shy of going through the lineup three times.