Adam Morgan glanced over at his friend’s locker and needed a moment.

He was at a loss for words.

It was no longer a minor-league stall. There was no winding down from another day of onerous rehabilitation, just clinging to the major-league dream.

“You get kind of choked up thinking about it,” Morgan said, “because you go through so much.”

And boy, did Tommy Joseph endure.

Morgan was talking in awe of the once prized catching prospect acquired by the Phillies in the 2012 Hunter Pence trade, who at last, arrived to Citizens Bank Park — and not in the shape or form anyone ever believed.

Not even Joseph himself.

After a string of concussions, wrist surgery, a position change, being placed and unclaimed on waivers, taken off the 40-man roster, going unselected in the Rule 5 draft and not making 2016 big-league spring training camp, Joseph shoved all the trials aside on Friday by adding an honor to that grueling list.

Major League Baseball player.

“I think it took a lot longer than people expected,” Joseph said before starting at first base for the Phillies against the Cincinnati Reds. “It took a lot longer than I expected. To go through the winding road that I did and end up here, it makes it all worth it.

“It feels great.”

Joseph, now 24 years old and a first baseman, was promoted to the big club after scalding the baseball at Triple A Lehigh Valley. Darin Ruf was sent to the minors to open a roster spot.

Phillies manager Pete Mackanin tried wrapping his head around Joseph’s story.

“It's incredible,” he said. “He fell off the map. Concussion issues. He was a catcher and now he's no longer a catcher. He wasn't one of the guys we were all talking about, writing about.”

Like Mackanin noted, this was no ordinary call-up. Joseph had fought vision and weight problems, coinciding with his concussions (see story).

His stock as a prospect suffered.

“He had something with his contacts and the concussion and he was hurt and was overweight and now he's lost weight, he's a different player,” Mackanin said. “Maybe it's all falling into place for him. What a great story that would be.”

The pain is still fresh for Joseph.

“The low point was almost every day for the last three years,” he said, “and the high point was yesterday after the game when they told me.”

Joseph was informed by the IronPigs on Thursday that he would be leaving Triple A, where he hit .347 with six home runs and 17 RBIs in 27 games this season.

He and loved ones had to stay quiet until the Phillies announced the move Friday.

“They allowed me to tell my friends and family,” Joseph said. “The one rule was to keep it off social media. So that was the thing I had to end every conversation with: ‘Hey, don’t let it get out.’”

The news hit home with Morgan, who also took the rocky, less glamorous path to the major leagues (see story).

“His persistency is unreal,” Morgan said. “You just applaud guys like that. You want to surround yourself with guys like that. I think me and him have a great relationship because we’ve kind of gone through the same thing, just kept going.”

In fact, Morgan and Joseph did it together.

The two joined each other in 2012 at Double A Reading.

They stayed together through the setbacks, through the early mornings, through the recovery process in Florida.

“Even down there when we were rehabbing together, I would have bad days, he would have bad days, but we would always pick each other up,” Morgan said. “Just go do fun things, get our mind off of it. That’s definitely part of the process, the rehab process, is not sulking over it.”

Morgan called Joseph to congratulate his friend.

“He was excited to see me,” Joseph said.

Seeing Joseph made Morgan remember the darker days and appreciate the brighter ones that lie ahead.

“Until you go through a year in Florida — and everybody thinks, ‘Oh, Florida’s great, go to the beach everyday.’ Until you go a year through all that stuff together, you don’t know how hard it is and how many days,” Morgan said.

“It’s tough. It’s tough to rehab and then watch a ballgame at 7 o’clock. ‘Man, I should be out there.’ You’ve just got to keep going. It’s awesome, it’s awesome having him here and I know he’s going to do great.

“It just puts a smile on your face. He just kept going, kept battling through it all. And that should lift everybody up in here.”

Phillies general manager Matt Klentak said Joseph “earned this.”

“He really did,” Klentak said. “For a guy who had had a lot of adversity in his career, I think this is just a testament to how hard he has worked and really to our whole player development group that has stuck with him.

“For him to reach the big leagues today, I think it’s pretty special.”

Joseph, born in and from Phoenix, Arizona, said he had 12 family members and friends make the trip for his major-league debut Friday night in Philadelphia.

One person was missing, however: his fiancé, Ali, who is first lieutenant in the Air Force.

“She’s stuck at work,” Joseph said with a laugh.

She’s stationed in Florida at Eglin Air Force Base, but is currently on a two-month assignment in Biloxi, Mississippi.

It ends at the perfect time.

“That assignment is actually over tomorrow and she’ll be here for the next week or so,” Joseph said. “It really worked out great.”

Just like his journey, it all came together.