Rhys Hoskins on joining the Brewers: ‘I feel like I always will be able to call Philly home’

Rhys Hoskins tried not to play the guessing game, but the mind tends to wander, especially while the body is healing. He was relieved, then, that closure came early, a few days into November, with a phone call from president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski.

Ten years after drafting Hoskins, the Phillies were moving on.

“Super grateful for the transparency and him being upfront with me about which way they were going to go,” Hoskins said Monday on a Zoom call with reporters to announce his contract with the Brewers. “I was able to set the offseason off on the right foot because of that.”

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It took until last week for Hoskins to find a new team. He agreed to a two-year, $34 million deal to restart his career, at age 31, in Milwaukee after missing last season with a torn ACL in his left knee. He received a multiyear guarantee but also a chance to opt-out and reenter free agency if he has a solid season.

So, yes, everything worked out fine for Hoskins.

But there’s still the matter of saying goodbye to a city and a fan base that came to mean so much to the homegrown slugger from California. He will be able to do it in person on June 3, when he returns to town with the Brewers for what figures to be an emotional night at Citizens Bank Park.

(According to MLB.com, the Phillies have sold more than 1,500 tickets to that game since single-game tickets went on sale last Thursday.)

For now, three months after coming to grips with his separation from Philadelphia, he offered up his first public comments about what he will miss most.

“I think people say this a lot about big change in their life, but it’s just the people,” Hoskins said. “You just create relationships with people, and all of a sudden, those will be different. I’m sure it won’t be the last time I see a lot of those same people. I hope not, just because I feel like I always will be able to call Philly home.”

Hoskins connected with the community as much as any recent Phillies player. Drafted in the fifth round in 2014, he made a smashing major-league debut with 18 homers in 50 games in 2017 and gave hope to a moribund franchise that was in the throes of a full-scale rebuilding project.

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Off the field, Hoskins and his wife, Jayme, worked closely with the Philadelphia chapter of the Muscular Dystrophy Association and made “an incredible difference,” according to Amanda Sweet, the MDA’s account director of signature events. They hosted an annual fundraiser at Yards Brewing Company and visited summer camps.

“Hopefully it will have some sort of lasting impact within the community,” Hoskins said. “There’s a couple of different organizations that we were able to cultivate really, really strong relationships with, hopefully lasting relationships.”

The Phillies could’ve re-signed Hoskins and moved Bryce Harper back to the outfield. But because Hoskins will have to split time between first base and designated hitter as he returns from knee surgery, Kyle Schwarber would’ve had to play left field more often than the team wants.

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And after playing at a 100-win clip over the final few months of last season with Harper at first base, Schwarber at DH, Brandon Marsh in left field, and rookie Johan Rojas in center, the Phillies opted for the more athletic, defensively superior lineup over a reunion with Hoskins.

By contrast, the Brewers see Hoskins as the middle-of-the-order power bat that they have lacked over the last few years. In his four full seasons with the Phillies, he averaged 30 homers and slugged .482.

“I wasn’t sure we were going to be able to access a player like him,” Brewers general manager Matt Arnold said. “I couldn’t be more excited to have this type of profile here because he fits so well. It’s just the type of player that we’ve needed.”

So much so that the Brewers’ social media department got creative in welcoming him.

At the considerable risk of angering Phillies fans, the Brewers took the video of Hoskins’ signature Philly moment — his bat spike after a homer in Game 3 of the 2022 National League division series against Atlanta — and turned his red-pinstriped uniform into the Brewers’ blue and yellow.

Hoskins knows Phillies fans well enough to guess their reaction.

“I can imagine that there’s a newfound competitive reason to be mad at each other, or get after each other between Brewers and Phillies fans,” Hoskins said, smiling. “Hey, I’m all for the competitiveness. A little fun goes a long way with those things.”

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And if fans have June 3 circled on their pocket schedules, well, you can be sure Hoskins is looking forward to that game, too.

“I’m sure it will be emotional. I’m sure it will be weird,” he said. “But at the end of the day — and I think Philly will be able to appreciate this — I hope the Brewers win.”