Phillies: Tommy Joseph shouldn’t block Rhys Hoskins at first
By John Town
Rhys Hoskins has been having a solid season at Triple-A, but the Phillies haven’t called him up to the majors because of Tommy Joseph in the major-leagues.
The Phillies have several hitters mashing in the minor-leagues, and one of those hitters is Rhys Hoskins. In 95 Triple-A games, Hoskins has a .281/.376/.550 line with 20 home runs and 68 RBI.
Hoskins has been on a bit of cold spell recently, posting a .509 OPS in July. Despite that, he’s been having a solid season overall and a promotion to the majors should come soon.
The only reason the team hasn’t promoted Hoskins yet is because they have Tommy Joseph as the everyday starter at first base. However, his numbers this year haven’t warranted protection from promoting Hoskins.
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This season, Joseph has a .249/.310/.448 line in 88 games with 15 home runs and 43 RBI. He has detracted from the team with -0.2 fWAR, costing the team $1.3 million in player value. He has been about league average at the plate with a 97 wRC+ and a below-average defender.
If Joseph had the power production that he did last year, this would be a different story.
He had a .505 slugging percentage and 36 extra-base hits in 347 plate appearances compared to a .448 slugging and 32 extra-base hits in the same amount of plate appearances this season.
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The team has been trying to find a trade partner for Joseph, but one potential partner in the Yankees found their man by acquiring Todd Frazier from the White Sox. The Mariners are another option, but anyone that wants to trade for Joseph likely won’t give up a whole lot for him. GM Matt Klentak has said before he won’t trade someone just for the sake of trading someone, so he likely won’t part with Joseph for a meaningless piece.
Corey Seidman of CSN Philly said that they may be able to trade Joseph during the offseason, but that this shouldn’t delay Hoskins’ promotion:
"Even if that’s the case, though, they can still call up Hoskins and play him regularly. Joseph is not some seasoned veteran the Phillies should feel locked in to starting. He’s a league-average offensive first baseman with a below-average glove. He has some value, but it shouldn’t come at the expense of finding out what you have in Hoskins."
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Joseph is a decent first baseman and all, but Hoskins has shown he can be an above-average major-leaguer at the plate and the fact that Joseph is in the majors shouldn’t delay Hoskins’ promotion.