Rhys Hoskins may be calling a new city home in 2024, but he’ll always view Philadelphia as a second one.
Hoskins met with reporters via Zoom on Monday, three days after his contract with the Milwaukee Brewers was made official. He said he appreciated Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski for clearly outlining, at the offseason’s outset, the team’s decision to go in a different direction. It gave him closure on a nearly decade-long tenure with the organization that drafted him and helped him reorient himself before the first free agency of his Major League career.
But as much as that transparency helped him move on from Philadelphia, as far as his MLB career is concerned, Hoskins made it clear he’s not putting the city entirely behind him — nor will he ever.
“I have a long list of great things to say [about Philadelphia] and a very short list of things I would complain about,” Hoskins told reporters, including NBC Sports Philadelphia’s Corey Seidman. “Hopefully we’ll have some sort of lasting impact in the community … I hope I’ll always be able to call Philly home.”
Hoskins shouldn’t run into much trouble doing so. As polarizing as he was while wearing red pinstripes, as much as his week-to-week inconsistency enraged much of the fanbase (even though his year-to-year was quite steady), as often as his glove caused people to forget about his bat, Hoskins is generally beloved in Philadelphia, and his departure — which happened on very good terms, if unceremoniously — was met with some sadness. He was the bridge between the rebuilding Phillies and the competitive Phillies, the only position player there for 66-96 in 2017 and the 2022 World Series. And that doesn’t even mention Hoskins’ and his wife Jayme’s work in the Philadelphia community, which only added to the image he’d created between the white lines.
There’s a reason Citizens Bank Park has never been as loud as it was for the Bat Spike, even if other moments from that run carried more weight from strictly a baseball standpoint. Hoskins’ Phillies career in a nutshell: He was booed the at bat before it. It was a love-frustration (not quite hate) relationship, but the former dominated overwhelmingly.
Unless the script writers are purely evil and Hoskins becomes the villain next, with some back-breaking home run in a Brewers jersey ending the Phillies’ season in October, he’ll never have to buy a beer in the city again.
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