Phillies slugger Rhys Hoskins has enlisted agent Scott Boras to represent him moving forward, Jim Salisbury of NBC Sports Philadelphia reports (via Twitter).
It’s a high-profile addition for the Boras Corporation, as Hoskins has quickly emerged as one of the game’s top home run hitters since debuting last August. Through 817 career plate appearances, Hoskins is a .253/.368/.529 hitter with 49 home runs and 41 doubles already under his belt.
The Phils have been playing Hoskins in left field this season following the signing of Carlos Santana to a three-year contract this offseason, though defensive ratings have been unkind, to say the least. Defensive Runs Saved pegs Hoskins at a whopping -25, while Ultimate Zone Rating (-11.5) and Statcast’s Outs Above Average (-18) are similarly bearish on the former first baseman’s glovework at his new position.
Hoskins won’t be arbitration-eligible until after the 2020 season, and he won’t reach free agency until the completion of the 2023 campaign. The move to the Boras Corporation is of particular note for Phils fans, though, given the rarity of multi-year extensions for Boras clients prior to reaching free agency. While there are some notable exceptions (Jered Weaver, Carlos Gonzalez, and Carlos Gomez among them), Boras clients typically don’t sign away free-agent seasons in advance.
MLBTR’s Agency Database, which contains representation info on upwards of 3,000 Major League and Minor League players, has been updated to reflect Hoskins’ switch. If you see any errors or omissions within the database, please let us know via email: mlbtrdatabase@gmail.com.
Lol because the events of last off-season really convinced him to hire Scott!
Wait til you see what Bryce Harper gets
Seeing what overrated Hosmer got I’d definitely hire him.
Yeah, Hosmer’s contract is already an albatross for the Padres and they were, essentially, bidding against themselves to fill a need they didn’t have. Boras is the best at his job. That’s why people hire him.
There are only a few players on the entire Padres active roster that make more than 1 mil…its hard to call it an albatross when the entire team payroll is less than 100 mil and the active team payroll is less than 50 mil.
Its really hard to have stellar numbers when half of your teammates should be in the minors, what don’t you guys get? insert any superstar bat into this current Padres lineup and watch there numbers tank,
Hey buddy, how’d that “Padres 4 games back of the Wild Card in late August” prediction work out for ya?
Hosmer’s extreme groundball tendsencies are a huge red flag; a first baseman with a 314 OBP and 399 slug is terrible; I don’t care how good his defense is or how good of a clubhouse guy he is.
But here’s the bigger thing – Hosmer didn’t have an offer that even touched what the Padres gave him. KC was topping out around 100 million. So they were esssentially bidding against themselves.
And then, here are the two biggest things: The Padres biggest need was definitely not a first baseman – they already had Wil Myers, who is at least a better hitter than Hosmer, to play first. And signing Hosmer to such a long deal means there’s nowhere to slide a less talented defender to first. For example, San Diego has this outfielder, Franmil Reyes. He is a good hitter- miles better than Hosmer this year – but an abysmal outfielder. But he’s a big tall guy and might be a passable first baseman – but we’ll never know. San Diego will probably have to trade him because his defense in the outfield is unplayable and they can’t shift him to first because the unmovable contract is there for years.
As far as this assertion of Hosmer being surrounded by minor leaguers, so of course he’s going to be bad, well, do you realize that by any metric you want to use – WAR, OPS+, etc, Hosmer is not even one of the 12 best players on the team? Take out the pitchers and Hosmer isn’t even one of the 8th best position players on the team – Renfroe, Myers, Villanueva, Reyes, Margot, Jankowski, Hedges, and even Freddy Galvis – who can’t ht at all – all top him in WAR. At the very least the guy making 20 million should be the best player on a team of scrubs, right? That’s your assertion. That contract is going to haunt the Padres for years. As a fan, I was mad when they signed him, and watching him ground into 17 double plays because he hits everything on the ground, with a 47/136 BB/K rate, has just affirmed that I was right. .
Adding on to what David said, I heard conflicting reports on how much money the Royals offered Hosmer, but in any event, the Padres’ offer was greater because it was frontloaded (higher real value due to inflation) and included an opt-out. And as for being a good clubhouse guy, just because a guy’s personality meshes well with one clubhouse doesn’t mean it will mesh well with any clubhouse. Like, that was apparently part of the reason the Padres signed James Shields but by the time he was traded (only 16 months later) everyone was calling him a clubhouse cancer (granted, every player who signs a big free agent contract and then underperforms seems to get that label slapped on them regardless of whether or not it’s true). But there are already talks about Hosmer and Green allegedly not getting along.
One other thing is that one of the Padres’ better prospect, Josh Naylor, is a first base-only guy, so when he’s ready for the majors – which should be soon, the Padres will have to deal him, hopefully for a major-league asset, although Naylor might end up being a better hitter than Hosmer.
Yup and they probably get pennies on the dollar for Naylor cuz everyone knows they have to trade him
I feel like I would never hire Boras after last offseason.
JD could have gotten much more. If it wasn’t for Scott waiting it out and JD’s own bit of selfishness he could have gotten 25-30 M more.
From who, and for an aging dh only? Yes jd tearing cover off ball, but will he in year 5 at 36 y/o. 5 for 110 was probably best on table and boras hoping to get bosox to up the offer against themselves.
WTF are you talking about?
Boras got his client huge money first 2 seasons,
3 player opt outs for a 30 year old DH who wasnt expected to have an otherworldly season. Many posters here were skeptical JD would hit away from Dbacks park and his defense was always questionable at best.
$23.75M annual salary, three opt-out provisions that enable Martinez to re-enter FA market after the second, third or fourth years of the deal. Win!
Not to mention….$ 110M guaranteed!
I hate Boras as much as the next guy… But this is just more nonsense from you… and I’m a NYY fan.
I agree with everything in your post except for the useage of the word hate. That is a word for people or something that has effected someone personally..like cancer.
Fair enough. How about “vilified”?
Hey, he’s praised for securing ridiculous long-term contracts, and gets vilified when he fails. (Moose, Stephen Drew, Kendrys Morales…)
Even JD’s $200M asking price was “genius.” Worked out in the end….
When he fails? Boras works for the players. He’ll maybe advise them not to take a deal but he can’t force them not to. It’s up to the player to say yes or no.
xabial: “… and I’m a NYY fan.”
Sorry to hear that.
Did I forget to mention a medical red flag came up in JD’s physical?
And that this was a special offseason with regards to big money contracts?
JD got 60M first 2 years before can test FA again. You think you can do better representing him?
Boras doesn’t do any “waiting it out” unless his clients agree to it.
Boras goes where most agents aren’t willing to go.
The clients are well informed of everything, period.
Nobody else was bidding on Martinez and was rumored Dombrowski was holding the line at 100m until the compromise deal was made.
Dislike Boras as much as anyone, but he got as good of a deal as possible. Had he a better offer? He’d have jumped all over it and he got the best 2 money years (25m each) up front and then has the option to opt out should Martinez produce, exactly like he’s done this season.
can’t do much better than that and Boras has a history of doing well for his top clients, like him and poorly for the lower to mid tier ones.
Why? Arrieta(3/75m), martinez(5/110m), hosmer(8/144m),all got paid.
What was your major league salary last year?
Good luck Philadelphia
Are you a Phillies fan?
I’m a “keep your home-grown FA” type of guy.
Problem?
“I’m a “keep your home-grown FA” type of guy.”
And you think this would be a problem because?
Utley, Howard, Rollins, Hamels, Ruiz, Burrell all waive hello.
The days of Scott Rolen are long gone. Boris or not, there is no way they let Hoskins walk unless his production completely tanks.
Boras doesnt affect me because of the Yankees’ staunch refusal to work out extensions. (Stupid, antiquated policy)
Also, when it comes to bidding wars, few can outbid the Yankees. (We are spoiled fans)
Let’s hope they make an exception for Didi.. Yankees make an exception once a blue moon.
Let’s hope they sign Machado and move Torres back to his natural position…
Great move. He did such a bang up job for Jake Arietta. Oh wait…..
Haha 3/75 not too shabby considering he’s 32 with declining metrics past couple years.
Not boras’ fault arrieta didn’t get paid. Had he been a FA the year before he would’ve been easily a 100MM pitcher but it didn’t work out that way. I wouldn’t want arrieta for anymore than the deal on he’s on now for sure.
It’s absolutely his fault, seeing as how he was the one that advised him to hold out for the Cubs — thinking the Cubs would cave, and award him that ridiculous amount of money and years.
You understand, however, that in the end it’s Arrietta’s choice to say yes or no. Boras isn’t handing out the contracts or playing for the teams.
I doubt he told the likes of Arrieta and Moustakas that they were making a mistake turning down the pre 2018 offers from their then current teams. That’s poor service, and in the case of Arrieta, he ended up on a much worse team..
He works for them, not the other way around. The player makes the final decision on whether to sign a contract or not. And, ummm….a player agent is not a fortune teller.. Nobody in baseball knew the market was going to collapse last offseason (or that collusion was maybe going to happen). Player agents advise players based on the information at hand, not in their crystal ball.
Maybe. All the Cubs did was waste a whole lot more money on Yu Darvish. I’d rather have Jake for 3/$75 million at this point.
“That’s poor service, and in the case of Arrieta, he ended up on a much worse team..”
A MUCH worse that was in playoff contention until the last month of the season? Which still technically has a chance to win the division?
They are 5.5 out with 12 left to play and 7 of those games are against the Braves. Sure the Cubbies are division winners but the Phillies have had a great year considering they were still supposed to be taking steps forward in a rebuild.
That’s the 1st…”I was by this site to do research however here’s my email address to point out miskates”…lmao
And now I don’t like Hoskins. Good thing I dont buy jerseys anymore.
For years, owners have taken advantage of players. Like keeping them in the minors to slow down the ML clock. I don’t blame any players getting what they can.