This physician’s clinic is the ballpark, and his patients the Phillies

Phillies first baseman Rhys Hoskins was set for a big season when those dreams were shattered before the season even began.

The fan favorite had torn his anterior cruciate ligament, or ACL, on March 23, just a week before opening day. The first person to learn about the injury was Steven Cohen.

The Phillies doctor was at his daughter’s high school lacrosse game when he received the images on his iPhone and immediately knew what it meant: Hoskins was unlikely to play for months. It was up to him to break the news to the first baseman.

Cohen stepped aside from the game and called Hoskins.

» READ MORE: Rhys Hoskins tore his ACL. Here’s what to know about the Phillies first baseman’s injury.

Most fans have never heard of the quiet messenger who delivers season-altering news to some of Major League Baseball’s biggest stars. As the head team physician, Cohen tracks every player’s health, travels with the team during playoffs, and ensures there’s a medical professional in the ballpark at any game he doesn’t attend himself. The orthopedic surgeon often performs surgery when players are injured, including on outfielder Cristian Pache’s knee earlier this month and on Hoskins’ elbow in 2020.

Cohen has worked with the Phillies for over a decade and been a fan of the team since he was a kid growing up in South Jersey. But when he’s on the clock, Cohen is a doctor first, a fan second. He treats the players he’s come to know as friends just like any other patient.

“It’s hard,” he said of the day he had to tell Hoskins he’ll watch most of the season from the dugout.

Cohen decided he wanted to pursue medicine after his uncle, a primary care physician in Maine, introduced him to an orthopedic surgeon. He liked that surgeons use their hands, that they “can correct things and fix things” inside the human body, Cohen said.

He built a reputation at the Rothman Orthopaedic Institute as a straight shooter and reliable surgeon treating athletes at lower levels. When Rothman gave him the chance to work with elite athletes, he jumped on it.

But Cohen’s “day job,” as he calls it, is still as an orthopedic surgeon and sports medicine specialist, seeing patients of all ages. Some don’t play sports at all.

» READ MORE: Going home the same day you get a new hip or knee: Patients like it, but it hits hospital finances

Cohen started his day the morning of the April 27 game against the Seattle Mariners at a clinic at Riddle Hospital in Media.

When a high school baseball player came in with elbow pain, Cohen worked up a treatment plan “not that different” than what he’d recommend for a pro.

Cohen leaves his white coat behind when he heads to the ballpark. Standing behind home plate for the national anthem, his formal slacks and suit jacket stick out from the Phillies’ powder blue uniforms and fans’ red caps and jerseys.

As the game begins, he retreats to a front office box between home plate and first base, where he has an unobstructed view of his patients.

It’s among the best seats in the house, but Cohen’s attention is split between the game and his phone. Mid-game he receives an X-ray of one of his patients, and an injury report of another team. He pays attention to players from both teams. If one of them leaves the field, his “antenna goes up a little,” he said.

“I’d love to enjoy the moment more,” he jokes, glancing at the fans sloshing beer and downing hot dogs nearby. “But you’re working.”

In addition to the Phillies, he also serves as team doctor for a few minor league, triple A, and college teams. He previously was on the Philadelphia Flyers medical team, until the organization’s agreement with Rothman expired in 2020.

Communicating medical findings and developing a plan with the athletes and trainers is an important part of the job, said Michael Ciccotti, a Rothman orthopedic surgeon who served as the Phillies’ head physician for more than two decades and now oversees the medical team’s operations.

“That’s the most important thing, and he’s really outstanding at that,” Ciccotti said of his colleague.

Cohen’s “quietness” is an asset that helps him establish trust with wary patients, he said.

Athletes are often skittish around team doctors, who they associate with injury. Football teams even separate injured and healthy players, as if a sprain can be contagious.

» READ MORE: Bryce Harper, Joel Embiid and the most devastating injuries in Philly sports history

Cohen can sense some players get a bit uncomfortable when he walks in the room. He lets them know he’s there to help them meet their goals, not to bench them.

And when they do have to be benched, he helps players understand that sometimes injuries are beyond their control.

After Cohen told Hoskins his ACL was torn, the first baseman asked what he could have done to prevent it.

It’s a question Cohen has been asked by lots of patients, but the answer never gets easier.

“Sometimes you are at the mercy of luck,” he said.