Phillies say Rhys Hoskins ‘got better’ as a fielder and list the reasons Nick Castellanos struggled

Every team needs scapegoats, even if they almost win the World Series. The Phillies’, for the moment, are $100 million outfielder Nick Castellanos and chronically errant first baseman Rhys Hoskins; for most people, in that order.

The Phillies disagree.

They say Castellanos just had a lot of distractions this year.

They say Hoskins actually improved as a fielder.

If you just spit out your coffee, you were not alone.

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Castellanos’ OPS fell 245 points, or 24%; his homers fell from 34 to 13, or 71%; while his salary increased to $20 million per year, or 100%.

Hoskins, meanwhile, hit 30 homers in the regular season and six more in the playoffs, but he led the majors with 12 errors at first base and was second worst with a .990 fielding percentage.

Buckle up. Neither guy is going anywhere.

Hoskins, in his last year of arbitration, will get a qualifying offer; the Phillies are not looking to trade him.

The Phillies also have every confidence that Casty will be nasty again once life settles down.

“I’m not sure how much of it is with dealing with all the adjustments of signing with a new club,” said president Dave Dombrowski. “A new baby coming into their life in May. Some of that could be [an issue] from a mental perspective.”

Castellanos welcomed a second son into his family in early May. Right around that time he also bought Ben “The Brick” Simmons’ mansion in New Jersey for $4.5 million, but clearly failed to exorcise Simmons’ lingering offensive demons.

Dombrowski said Philly played no part in Castellanos’ disappearance. There were more than 100 million other reasons, including worse-than-usual strike-zone discipline -- Castellanos swung at non-strikes more often than all but one other player -- and a late-season oblique strain.

» READ MORE: Trading Rhys Hoskins, Phillies World Series goat (not really), would be dumb

“I don’t think this market was his reason behind not performing,” Dombrowski said. “Sometimes they try too hard, coming off free agency.”

Castellanos, who played his first nine seasons in the lower-profile Midwest burgs of Detroit and Cincinnati, disagreed. He didn’t hit a homer in his last 32 games, and he hit .188 in the playoffs, but he’ll be better prepared after a year of swimming with sharks.

“I can come in a little bit stronger knowing how to navigate this organization, this city, the media, everything,” he said after the World Series.

Hoskins has never played anywhere except Philadelphia, but he’s never faced scrutiny like he’s facing it now. His bosses don’t see his bad hands as a big problem, and they don’t plan on addressing it with any urgency.

“Won’t work on his defense this winter,” Dombrowski said. “He actually improved, metrically, compared to how he has been in the past.”

Again, with the coffee-spitting.

Hoskins might be better — more on that later — but man, he just looks bad.

Curiously, his dWAR — his defensive Wins Above Replacement — of minus-0.3 ranked fourth among the 18 qualifying first basemen. Yes, fourth.

That was below NL Gold Glove winner Christian Walker of the Diamondbacks, but it was higher than Gold Glove finalist Paul Goldschmidt, who won his fourth Gold Glove just last year.

General manager Sam Fuld, an analytics expert, said the Phillies don’t rely on publicly available metrics such as dWAR, which seeks to quantify a player’s comparative value as a defender, but they use analytics that made Dombrowski say what he said.

“We have our own way of evaluating defense — not that we are completely shut off from public metrics,” Fuld said. He also noted that first base is where bumblers go to hide. “We see, in Rhys, somebody who drops a ball every now and then. The reality is, most first basemen do that. Sometimes the blunders get spotlit a little bit brighter than the good plays.”

Hoskins might not make many really good plays, but it’s hard to argue he hasn’t improved in the last five seasons.

“I don’t think there’s any doubt that he’s a better first baseman today than he was when we drafted him, or when he got to the big leagues,” Fuld said.

Public-facing dWAR stats support Fuld’s contention. Hoskins was the worst first baseman on the planet in 2018, his first full season in the majors, with a minus-3.6 dWAR. He improved 200% the next season, to a less-than-ideal minus-1.2. He hovered there through 2021.

Then, in 2022, he erupted into a paragon of defensive competence, with that minus-0.3 dWAR, a 400% improvement.

All of which either charts Hoskins’ improvement with the glove or completely invalidates dWAR.

Both Dombrowski and Fuld soft-shoed Hoskins’ .159 batting average in the postseason, as well as the fact that he went hitless in the Phillies’ three straight losses that cost them the World Series, and the fact that he led the majors with 24 strikeouts in the playoffs.

At any rate, Dealin’ Dave doesn’t care about Rhys’ bad hands or Casty’s bad year.

“He’s not a Gold Glove first baseman. I’m sure he’ll work hard in spring training,” he said of Hoskins.

Getting used to playing baseball in a demanding city while buying a haunted house and having a second kid is no excuse for stealing $20 million, but other players have bad first seasons with new clubs.

Witness, Castellanos. Asked if Castellanos will receive off-the-field counseling this winter, Dombrowski refused to comment, but he clearly thinks the $100 million man has a bright future in Philly.

“There’s no reason he still should not hit, with authority,” Dombrowski said. “Sometimes you’ve just got to take that mental step back, and come back, after wintertime.”