Hosking biding his time

Whenever there is a Phillies game on the TV in the Lehigh Valley IronPigs clubhouse, Rhys Hoskins will sit and watch.

He’ll watch the spirit of some farm-developed players, the live arms of so many young pitchers, the improvement. And he’ll watch the middle of the order, sputtering, seldom hitting home runs, ruining innings, smearing games.

He’ll watch, and he’ll wait, and he won’t wonder, even if so many others are wondering: What is the delay? Why is a player like him, who produced 38 home runs and 116 RBIs in Reading last season and who recently uncorked a 23-game onbase streak while hitting .333 against Class AAA pitching, still a couple of toll booths from Citi-

zens Bank Park?

He’s 24, not 18. He was a college player, at Sacramento State, not a highschool draft stab. He’s a worker, a useful defender, a reliable hitter. Is he blocked by Tommy Joseph at first base? Is he frustrated? Is he wondering?

“I don’t know what the word would be,” Hoskins was saying the other night, in the clubhouse, before going 2-for-3 with two walks, a home run and three RBIs in an 11-7 victory over Scranton/ Wilkes-Barre. “But the organization has their plan, and I’m here. And that’s where I try to stay: In the present. I take each day as it comes, try to become the best baseball player I can. And hopefully, that should be enough to achieve some dreams.”

Hoskins was a fifthround draft choice in 2014, a first baseman in Sacramento, though he does recall dabbling in the outfield. And he still shags pre-game fly balls, just to keep marginally versatile. But when the Phillies handed him a contract, they also handed him something else: “They gave me a first baseman’s mitt,” he said. “And that’s where I have been ever since.”

Thus, the issue ... and an oddly familiar one. It was just last year, at about this time, when another right-handedhitting first baseman was smashing baseballs around Allentown and there was a vivid public hum to use Tommy Joseph to squeeze Ryan Howard into retirement. And Joseph was good last season, in Allentown and Philadelphia, where he hit 21 home runs in 107 games. While Joseph has struggled this year, battling to merely hit .200, he is just 25 and has enough value to remain intriguing.

So there is Hoskins, suppressing his frustration, watching film, hitting in the cage, impressing with his plate discipline.

“He’s got a plan and he sticks to it,” Lehigh Valley manager Dusty Wathan said. “He does all his homework as far as the video and all that. He’s just very consistent. Once he has a plan, he is not going to vary from it. And he’s stubborn. He’s just a very stubborn hitter. He may get a pitch in the strike zone but it’s not where he is looking, so he will just take it for a strike and go on. He’s not afraid to hit with two strikes. And I think that’s a big thing, too.”

Hoskins will be a major-league player because the Phillies cannot afford to deny him the opportunity. They have asked for and have been allowed a chance to rebuild. Already, they have collected a deep stable of young arms. And Hoskins, with Dylan Cozens — who went for 40 homers and 125 RBIs last summer in Reading — have the skills to provide the next Phillies power core. But … when? “It’s a process, and I understand that,” Hoskins said. “I think the organization has done a great job with a lot of guys so far in preparing them to have success where they are and also preparing them to be successful when they get to the big leagues. And they get there and they are ready.”

Unlike Cozens, who has been swinging at too many crooked Class AAA Strike Threes, there has been nothing about Hoskins to suggest anything other than majorleague readiness. Despite his power numbers, he is not a long-ball-or-nothing spectacle. Rather, he will wait for pitches with a big-leaguer’s patience, drive the ball where it is pitched, and put up longball numbers organically.

“I don’t see myself as a home run hitter, even now,” he said. “I’ve always tried to spray line drives all over the field. I try to stay in the middle of the field. I guess some of them went out last year and some of them have gone out this year. But I find myself getting in trouble as soon as I try to hit home runs. My swing goes awry and I have a worse chance of success.”

It’s only early May, too soon for conclusions, even if Hoskins has been leading the International League in home runs, even if Joseph is leaving too many runners stranded. So, the next right-handed power hitter waits in the Lehigh Valley, watching film, keeping an eye on that clubhouse high-def bigscreen.

“It’s exciting, up there where they are, here, and a level below us,” he said. “We have some exiting young arms throughout the organization. And that’s where the winning starts, on the mound.

“We have an exciting, young group. It should be fun in the next couple of years.”

And for him, maybe sooner.