The Philadelphia Phillies didn’t just lose their first baseman Thursday, they lost one of their top leaders.
Rhys Hoskins tore his ACL playing a ground ball in a spring training game. The when or where of his eventual surgery is to be determined, and while the Phillies didn’t give a recovery timetable, it’s likely he misses all of this season.
There are some in-house options to take over at first base, namely Darick Hall. But Hoskins has been around the organization for a while, and is a respected player both in Philly and beyond. It’s clear that Phillies players are devastated by the injury.
“It sucks, man,” new Phillies shortstop Trea Turner said in an appearance on 94 WIP’s midday show. “I’ve only been here, what, three or four weeks, but you can see he’s one of the leaders of this clubhouse. He’s our rep when it comes to CBA stuff, he’s put a lot of effort into this organization. He’s been here a long time, and I think this was his free agent year.
“Everything going into this just sucks for him, and we feel so bad. He was going to be a huge part of our team, obviously. You hate to see it, you hate to see it happen to anybody, but definitely him. We were bummed, we were all texting him yesterday trying to make him feel better, do everything we can to just be there for him. But it’s just a bad situation.”
Kyle Schwarber, who signed with the Phillies ahead of the 2022 season, has a little more experience playing alongside Hoskins.
"Obviously it's unfortunate," Schwarber said on 94 WIP. "You hate seeing the non-contact injuries and things like that, especially an ACL, for a guy who put himself in a really good position coming into this year. He felt really good with his swing, was looking really good in the spring. Going into the final year of (his contract) and things like that, it was a big year for him.
"It just stinks, and it stinks for the team too. You're losing the guy who has been through it all. The guy who has seen the ups, seen the downs, a lot of downs and been through it all and stuck with it, the city loves the guy and we love the guy in the clubhouse, and what he means to us is hard to replace. But we're going to have some guys that step up, but yeah man, it sucks but I know he's going to kill the rehab."
As Turner alluded to, Hoskins was in line to become a free agent after this season. Dave Dombrowski said on 94 WIP earlier in the week that they were basically taking a wait and see approach with Hoskins since they have a handful of players – like Hall and Alec Bohm – who can play first.
So, it’s possible that Thursday’s game was Hoskins’ final one in a Phillies uniform, which would certainly be a shame.
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