Hoskins hopes he’s ahead of rehab schedule
Rhys Hoskins confirmed Monday what optimistic manager Joe Girardi had said in recent days: That by the time the Phillies embark on what they hope will close to a regular season, he should be ready to serve as a middle-of-thelineup mainstay.
This despite Hoskins being only four months removed from Tommy John surgery on his left elbow. His recovery time then was pegged at four to six months. Hoskins has made every day of it count.
Asked if he thought he’d be ready to go by Opening Day on April 1, Hoskins was ready, with cautious optimism.
“I was medically cleared yesterday, and as of right now I see no reason why I shouldn’t be,” he said on a Zoom call Monday. “But we’re going to use these next four or five days before games start to
get the rep count up, get it a little more normalized, and as long as I can get the amount of at-bats that I’m used to during spring, which should be no problem, I don’t think Opening Day is out of the picture.”
That simply didn’t seem possible in mid-September, as Hoskins first tried to rehab without surgery in an effort to be ready for what the Phillies were sure would be a playoff appearance.
Hoskins tried to catch a throw from catcher J.T. Realmuto in a Sept. 12 game against the Marlins, the ball curving away from him and almost into Marlins baserunner and former teammate Corey Dickerson. Hoskins’ arm bent back as his glove collided with Dickerson at the bag.
Trying to shake it off, Hoskins finished that game, seemingly in pain. Afterward his season would be over, most unfortunate since he’d been fairly hot at the plate over the prior month.
He’d had a horrendous start to the 2020 season. By his 11th game on Aug. 9, the first of a doubleheader against the Braves, he had a batting average of .111 with no homers,
one RBI and a .533 OPS.
But Hoskins had two hits and a walk in three plate appearances in the nightcap. He finally hit his first home run Aug. 18 and by early September had his average briefly in the high .260s.
He’d finish the season hitting .245 (thanks largely to an 0-for-6 with the injury in his final game) with 10 homers, 26 RBIs and a respectable .887 OPS.
As it turned out, his team’s run of competency went with him. The Phillies flopped the rest of the way, finally bowing out with a loss to Tampa Bay on the last day.
A week later, Hoskins had surgery. He already had the commitment to the rehabilitation.
“He loves to play and that’s what keeps him going,” Girardi said of Hoskins. “... Last year I felt when he got hurt that he didn’t have much of a chance of playing, just because I didn’t think it was going to heal enough to where he could have joined us at the end of the year if we were fortunate enough to make the playoffs. But he kept working and working; I saw him on the bike and on the elliptical and he was running and trying to use his left hand and I was like, ‘This kid really wants to play, this kid loves the game.’
“I was like, ‘Wow, what an
attitude.’ I fell in love with Rhys even more than I was before. I think that’s what keeps him going, is his love for the game.”
Hoskins would love to pick up where he left off in September but knows that reality will demand more than that. Considering the timetable of his planned recovery, he’s already ahead of the game. But he doesn’t know how quickly his game will come back to him. So far, so good, though. “I feel pretty comfortable,” Hoskins said. “This offseason, a lot of it was focused on the rehab, but these last six weeks or so we’ve really gotten to kind of hone in and make sure I felt the way I did last year. I’m trying to replicate that right now as much as I can, but I also understand that things are going to change, man. They always do.
“As hitters, it’s a big-time skill to be able to make adjustments when we need to, pitch to pitch or game to game or whatever it may be. But we’re going to work.”
Hoskins feels he cleared a hurdle Monday, the first day of full-squad workouts in Clearwater, by doing drills where he had to dive in the infield. Next up will be working on his elevated expectations at the plate.
“I feel pretty normal,” Hoskins concluded. “It’s a good place to be.”
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Girardi weighed in on a couple of other players with injury/illness questions last season. Again with optimism: “Cutch looks great,” Girardi said of left fielder Andrew McCutchen, who played last season (253/.324/.433 and 10 home runs in 57 games) coming off major knee surgery. “He’s really moving better, so that’s exciting as well.”
As for utility man Scott Kingery, who had a terrible short season after missing summer training camp with COVID-19, Girardi said he trimmed about 12-15 pounds in the offseason, and voila: “He looks great. He likes it, too. He was talking about how he just feels better.”
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While the diminutive Kingery trimmed his weight, the lanky Alec Bohm added a few pounds ... of muscle, according to the manager.
“Seems like he’s starting to fill out a little more,” Girardi said of his third baseman. “And lots of times what comes with that is you hit balls harder, and when you hit balls harder, sometimes you’re even more productive, and he was really productive last year. So I thought he looked really good.”