Atlanta Braves vs. NL East position by position 2020 preview: first base
By Seth Carter
Philadelphia Phillies
Fangraphs projected team 1B WAR: 2.8
Rhys Hoskins played in 158 games at first last season for the Phillies. He had a bit of down season for what was expected of a player of his talent level. The Phillies finished 2019 with -0.8 wins above average and Hoskins accounted for 96.7% of the plate appearances.
Hoskins remains the primary first baseman for the Phillies. He is coming off a .226/.364/.454 slash. Hoskins struck out 24.5% of his PAs which equated to a total of 173 Ks.
Despite playing in 160 games last season, Hoskins only managed 29 homers. It’s a good number, but not when compared to the top sluggers in the division. Even Eric Thames his 25 homers in over 200 fewer plate appearances. When you combine the one homer about every 20 at-bats with a strikeout in three out of every 10 at-bats, the result was just a 1.5 rWAR for the 26-year old.
Hoskins led the league in flyball percentage with 50.4% of his batted balls going skyward. Unfortunately for the Phillies, only 14.3% of those flyballs went out of the park.
On a very positive note for the slugger, he walked in an insane 16.5% of his plate appearances. And let’s not take too negative of a slant on a 29 homer, 85 RBI season. The Phillies certainly have to be happy to have him. Hoskins is young and still posted a 110 OPS+ with a .454 slugging percentage last season.
Hoskins has certainly showed even more power than what he showed last season. For his career, his 162-game average sits at 36 home runs and 102 RBI. I’d look for a bounceback this season for Hoskins. With the right breaks, he could threaten for the number two spot in the division amongst first basemen.
Believe it or not, Hoskins’ 173 strikeouts were the second-most among NL East first basemen last season. The man who led the way in Ks is up next as our number two ranked first baseman in the NL East.