Kapler should let Hoskins settle in at cleanup spot

PHILADELPHIA » To the eye, to the gut, to the traditional baseball observer, there is only one place for a 6-foot-4, 25-year-old, all-fields-power, generally slow runner to settle into any baseball lineup.

Rhys Hoskins is one of those players.

Rhys Hoskins is destined to be a cleanup hitter. Right? “I’ll answer that question with a question,” Gabe Kapler was saying Tuesday, before the Phillies’ game against the Boston Red Sox. “Is (Paul) Goldschmidt’s destiny to be a cleanup hitter? Is Mike Trout’s destiny to be a cleanup hitter? They are two of the best right-handed hitters in baseball. Where are they hitting?”

They generally bat second, Goldschmidt for Arizona, Trout for the Angels, two of the best players in baseball, a couple of developing Hall of Famers. That’s where Kapler wanted Hoskins to hit, too, which is why he crammed him behind the leadoff hitter 74 times in the Phillies’ first 118 games.

“The fact that Rhys is hitting second in our lineup is more an indication of how good he is,” Kapler said, “and how excellent he is at getting on base and hitting home runs.”

He’s got a special command of the strike zone, which allows him to draw walks, expand pitch counts and wait for a pitch that he can smash over any fence. But he doesn’t have the speed of Trout, who has led the major leagues in stolen bases, or the consistency of Goldschmidt, a career .297 hitter. And though the Phillies’ mundane road trip and accompanying fall from first place in the National League East was not entirely his fault, Hoskins did return to Citizens Bank Park Tuesday having not had an RBI in eight games or a home run in nine. Nor did he have the No. 2 spot in the lineup, the one the new-age thinkers reserve for the versatile greats. Instead, he was back at cleanup, which the other-age thinkers believe makes perfect sense for a traditional slugger.

“I honestly could care less where I hit, as long as I get to be in the lineup,” said Hoskins, before hitting his 23rd home run Tuesday, a fifth-inning blast to left. “Gabe and I have gone back and forth about what makes me most comfortable and I’ve said to him all year, ‘Ask the other guys first. If they have answers, then go with that.’ I could care less.”

Hoskins had batted second 74 times, hitting .236. He hit fourth 31 times, good for a .294 average. But he did hit 18 home runs from the twohole and four from in the middle of the lineup. So the results were open to interpretation.

As for the interpretation Kapler had Tuesday, it was that something had to change for a team that had lost four of its last six and was 5-for21 with runners in scoring position on the troubling trip. So Nick Williams hit second for the first time this season. Odubel Herrera was at No. 7. Maikel Franco was at No. 6. And the 6-4 guy who so entertained in the Home Run Derby that he received a standing ovation from Nationals fans during the All-Star break, was where those kind of hitters usually thrive.

“The first thing I’d say is it is not some sort of major-shakeup juggle,” Kapler said. “I think it’s just, ‘Let’s take a fresh look at this.’ And another factor that comes in is rewarding Nick and giving Rhys a different look. (Asdrubal) Cabrera kind of fits nicely right there in the middle as a switchhitter.

“If you look at our lineup today, you’ll see switch, left, switch, right, switch, left, right. You are going to see that kind of balance. And we did that by design, so the opposing manager isn’t picking off parts of the lineup to deploy the relievers who would get those guys out.”

That’s what managers do, for every reason from the nuances of the opposing pitcher to the mood of their better players. The Phillies were flailing, and Kapler reacted. But the use of Hoskins, and his continuing growth as a franchise jewel, eventually must be more than a night-tonight feel. It was not practical for the Phils to give the trained first baseman that position in the big leagues, so they shoved him to left field and hoped not to crack his development. At some point though, they should give him a lineup spot to call his own.

That four spot? It sounds about right.

“Um, we’ll see,” Hoskins said. “I think there are guys excited about a little bit of a different look. Obviously, we’ve scuffled a little bit lately as an offense. So anything new, I think, would be good.”

Since the day he was hired, Kapler has been promising to manage not just by the numbers, but by his instinct. His analytics tell him that it is wise to have his best player in the No. 2 spot with a greater likelihood to have an additional late-game atbat. He also has acknowledged that the No. 4 spot remains vital for all of the traditional cleanup opportunities. Either one, then, would work fine for Hoskins.

Long term, though, one should work better.

Short term, too.