Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Altherr injury opens door for Hoskins
With a little help from Aaron Altherr’s out-of-tune right hamstring, Rhys Hoskins will apparently have a real chance over the next several weeks to prove he should be here to stay.
Hoskins, the 24-year-old power hitter who, from an offensive standpoint, really doesn’t have much else to prove at Triple-A, made his Major League debut Thursday night, playing left field and hitting out of the No. 7 spot for the Phillies. And if that might not be the best spot for him either on the field on in the lineup, well, Hoskins isn’t complaining.
“I’m here and I’m playing left field tonight and that’s what I’m focused on,” said Hoskins, who was slashing at .284/.385/.581 with 29 home runs and 91 RBIs as the starting first baseman for the Lehigh Valley IronPigs. “They’ve said, ‘Hey, we still want you to do your work at first,’ So I think that means there will be some first base in the future.”
Make no mistake, Hoskins is still considered by most as the Phillies’ first baseman of the future. The thing is they still have the first baseman of the present here in Tommy Joseph. He
was slotted in the six spot Thursday night, entering at a not-so pedestrian .244 with 16 homers and 54 RBIs.
Perhaps Joseph’s presence has been an early block to Hoskins’ career development, but manager Pete Mackanin says Joseph represents something else entirely to his team.
“The whole goal is to find good hitters,” Mackanin said. “I told Tommy he’s a good hitter and so is Rhys Hoskins and we want to get as many good hitters as we can, and, ‘I’m not throwing you by the wayside, you’re going to play too.’ I have confidence in Tommy as well. It’s just a matter of finding as many good hitters as possible and finding a way to play him.”
For Mackanin and general manager Matt Klentak, the convenient play to get an expedited look at Hoskins came via Altherr’s second hamstring problem of the season.
Altherr, who missed almost two weeks in midJuly with a right hamstring strain, aggravated the injury last Friday in Colorado. Other than the injuries he’s been a 2017 success story, going from reserve to stalwart in right field while going .285/.357/.536 with 16 home runs and 49 RBIs. Mackanin and Klentak suggested Altherr could miss a month while they try to get the hamstring strengthened.
That should be plenty of time to see what they have in a future first baseman who is playing left on an experimental basis.
“He had been working out pretty hard (in left field) for the past two or three weeks,” Klentak said of Hoskins. “He was taking fly balls in left field during batting practice, working hard with (minor league instructor) Andy Abad and
others. Once the Altherr injury recurred, then we got him out there for a few games in left field. He demonstrated that he can handle it.”
Klentak said the lateJuly trade of Howie Kendrick and subsequently the Altherr injury created an opportunity to rethink Hoskins’ status in the minors. This after Klentak and Co. refused to address the possibility of promoting him so long as Joseph was healthy and locked in.
“The circumstances changed,” Klentak said. “A month ago, we had four outfielders all playing really well, competing for playing time. That was a clunky situation even then. Now, all of a sudden, we traded Howie and Aaron is back on the DL. We have a better opportunity.
“Obviously the fact that Rhys has continued to hit (counts, too); I don’t want to discount the importance of that. Rhys has handled
himself this year incredibly well. He really, from the beginning of this season until right now, has done exactly what he’s needed to do.”
No matter the circumstances, Hoskins seems determined to not let this chance to stay slip away.
“I joked throughout the year with (Pigs manager) Dusty (Wathan) about taking balls in left field,” Hoskins said, “and then all of a sudden it was ‘Hey, go take it a little more seriously.’ And here we are.”
Here he was, facing Mets ace Jacob deGrom in his MLB debut. Hoskins managed a hard foul off him before taking a nasty called third strike in his first atbat in the second inning. In the fifth, with deGrom working on a two-hit shutout, Hoskins grounded into a 4-6-3 double play. Welcome to the Bigs? “I think just kind of the same stuff that I’ve worked on this year. Hopefully being as stubborn to that plan
as I can and not waiver from it,” Hoskins had said of his hitting approach to the majors. “It’s worked so far. I’ll make adjustments. It’s a game of adjustments but until that has to be done, I’ll stick with what I’ve done.”
Klentak seems to hope it keeps working.
“We think his bat is ready to come to the big leagues and stay in the big leagues,” he said of Hoskins, “and we think that he’s worked hard enough and shown enough in his limited time in left field to be comfortable that he can play at this level. He may have his moments where he takes a bad route and we’re just going to have to live with that.
“But I tell these players, almost every one of them when they come up here, ‘You are here and we want you to stay here. Take the bull by the horns and do what you need to stay here.’ And we have every reason to expect Rhys Hoskins will do that.”