The baseball season has finally ended. What a journey and story it was. A season that was truly unpredictable but now that the season is over teams need to prepare to bolster their rosters.
The Philadelphia Phillies have two important potential free agents in starting pitcher Aaron Nola and first baseman Rhys Hoskins. There’s an important question that needs to be asked: should the Phillies extend qualifying offers to Aaron Nola and Rhys Hoskins?
It would certainly behoove the organization to offer these deals to these homegrown Phillies for two reasons: the team values both players' on-field contributions and values them with a financial commitment. The financial commitment of the qualifying offer is $20.325 million.
Nola and Hoskins are the two latest success stories from the Phillies’ minor league clubs and player development department. Both players do have value to the team in some manner. It will take some creativity in his wheeling and dealing for Dave Dombrowski to keep Rhys Hoskins on the team, with Bryce Harper being able to stay in the lineup at first base. Nola’s situation is more cut and dry as the team needs to keep the high-end talent while developing the new crop of starting pitchers.
Nola is a 200-strikeout-per-year pitcher, and he stays on the field. His durability is quite valuable as he’s made over 30 starts in the six seasons he’s played the entire year. Besides the years 2015, 2016, and 2020, Aaron Nola is a punch-his-clock-type of starter. Nola is there every fifth day, ready to give the team a good chance to win. Nola’s production, stuff, and dependability health-wise are valuable to a team looking to avenge their past two postseason exits.
His teammate, Rhys Hoskins, is a solid right-handed power bat. Hoskins is a durable player as well. In four of his six seasons, Hoskins has played over 105 games and logged over 440 plate appearances. Hoskins has the ability to get himself in scoring position, drive in runs, hit home runs, and get on base. Besides his rookie year in 2017 and the pandemic-shortened season of 2020, Hoskins has been a productive middle-of-the-order bat as he posted 25-plus doubles, 25-plus home runs, and 70-plus runs batted in.
For the sake of good optics, the Phillies should extend qualifying offers to both Nola and Hoskins. It shows that the club is going to take care of internal business first. Then, the team can make external moves to improve the club.
It makes sense to at least look like the team is attempting to bring back both players as their talent will still be helpful to the club winning ball games and, ultimately, a World Series.