Why the signing of slugger Rhys Hoskins is exactly what the Milwaukee Brewers needed
With the drop of a hammer – one that in this case is best known for clobbering towering home runs – the Milwaukee Brewers offense is starting to take shape.
And for a team that has been maligned with the bats in recent years, it…suddenly doesn’t look too shabby?
On paper, the Brewers' reported signing of free agent first baseman Rhys Hoskins is the perfect fit for the club built around top-flight pitching and defense but in dire need of a big bopper, of an imposing threat smack dab in the middle of the lineup. In a market light on true impact bats – unless you’re willing to dole out $700 million for Shohei Ohtani or fork over major cash for Cody Bellinger or Matt Chapman – Hoskins seemed to be a sensible match for small-market Milwaukee.
Brewers general manager Matt Arnold has described his free agency approach as “opportunistic,” which, in other words, means the Brewers are willing to play ball and punch at (or above) their weight if the fit is right. Hoskins, a bona fide slugger who averages 36 home runs per 162 games for his career, would be in line for a payday in the high eight figures at a minimum but tore his ACL last spring and missed the entire 2023 season.
A diminished market for a proven player at a position of need? Sounds just like 2019, when the Brewers signed Mike Moustakas and Yasmani Grandal to high-average annual value, short-term deals: a chance to be opportunistic.
Now, the Brewers are looking at a primary lineup that at the top looks somewhere along the lines of…
Christian Yelich
William Contreras
Willy Adames
Rhys Hoskins
Sal Frelick
…and with a mix-and-match of Jackson Chourio, Garrett Mitchell, Joey Wiemer, Brice Turang and Andruw Monasterio at the bottom.
More: What to know about Rhys Hoskins, reported new Brewers first baseman
What makes Rhys Hoskins one of the top free agent hitters
Hoskins has top-tier raw power, about that there is no question. His max exit velocities have hovered around the 80th percentile of all hitters his entire career, and he does a pretty good job of accessing that power with some regularity.
Where Hoskins excels, however, is his ability to hit the ball in the air consistently without dramatically sacrificing contact.
You can appreciate a person who knows what his job is and then attacks his work with a specific plan. That’s how Hoskins operates. From 2017, when he debuted, through 2022, his ground ball to fly ball ratio was sixth-lowest among qualified hitters.
It can be a red flag sometimes when hitters get too uppercut-heavy with their swing, but Hoskins seems to have figured out how it works mechanically within his abilities. The elevated fastball is not the Kryptonite you would expect for someone that tall (6 foot 4) and with such a high desire to put the ball in the air. His fastball swing and miss rates at the upper third of the zone is just 16.7%. Climb a bit higher and measure for just elevated heaters above the zone – which Hoskins doesn’t chase all that often, all things considered – and he still whiffs at a rate (35% of swings) that is above league average.
Mix in Hoskins’ plate discipline (he has a career 13.5% walk rate and a 22% chase rate well below the MLB average of 28.5%) and you’ve got the package of a legitimate middle-of-the-order threat.
Brewers have often missed a legitimate first baseman
It’s rare for the Brewers to spend as much as they are for a first baseman. The fact that they did underscores how desperate they’ve been for a real difference-maker at the position.
The Brewers have, in moments, been able to generate solid production from first base. Carlos Santana had a .773 OPS in two months last year. Rowdy Tellez socked 35 homers in 2022. Jesus Aguilar was a sudden sensation in 2018, making the all-star game. Eric Thames burst onto the scene with fury in 2017.
But even with some solid performances here and there at the position, it has still been a major hole overall for Milwaukee ever since Prince Fielder left in 2011. In that time, the Brewers rank 22nd in baseball in both weighted runs created plus (wRC+) and wins above replacement from their first basemen.
In the three years before tearing his ACL, Hoskins had a 126 wRC+. The Brewers have had 30 seasons in which a first baseman had at least 100 plate appearances; only once (Aguilar in 2018) did any of them have a wRC+ that high.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Brewers signing of Rhys Hoskins fits the team perfectly
