Phillies make final decisions on futures of Bryce Harper, Rhys Hoskins

Just two weeks after the Philadelphia Phillies season came to an end, they've already settled one of their biggest offseason decisions.

Club president Dave Dombrowski announced that Bryce Harper will remain at first base full-time, giving the face of the franchise a full endorsement:

"He’s happy to do whatever we wanted him to do. He said he’d play first or the outfield. He feels great. But the more we talked about it internally we liked the idea of playing him at first. We think he’ll develop into a Gold Glove first baseman. He’s committed to doing that."

This creates a domino effect in Philadelphia's defensive alignment. Harper spent the early part of the season as the Phillies' designated hitter while recovering from Tommy John surgery. Now that Harper will play the field full-time, his obvious successor as DH is Kyle Schwarber, who had become a defensive liability in left field.

This also affects Harper's predecessor at first base, Rhys Hoskins. Hoskins missed the entire 2023 season, the final year on his contract, after tearing his ACL in spring training. 

Dombrowski informed Hoskins that there currently seem to be too many cooks in Philadelphia's kitchen:

"We look at Bryce being our first baseman, we look at Schwarber being our DH the majority of the time. So, I did talk to Rhys on Sunday, let him know about the situation ... We don’t want to 100 percent close any doors, but I’d say when we look at the situation … he understood. If he's not back with us, we wish him nothing but the best. But he’s fantastic."

Once Harper proved his proficiency as a first baseman, Hoskins' days appeared numbered. It seemed as though Hoskins was continually living off his astonishing rookie season of 2017 when he hit 18 home runs in his first 50 major-league games. 

Aside from leading the National League in 2019 with 116 walks, Hoskins has never put up any gaudy numbers compared to his rookie year. He's never hit more than 34 home runs or driven in more than 96 runs in one season. 

Schwarber, on the other hand, has hit 93 homers for the Phillies over the past two seasons. Philadelphia also saw resurgent seasons from right fielder Nick Castellanos (29 home runs) and shortstop Trea Turner (26 homers) in 2023.

Hoskins is sure to have several suitors as a free agent, likely as a DH. The Phillies have made it clear that this is strictly a business decision. Hoskins was always a fan favorite, but at the end of the day, this was a move that had to be made.