Categories: News

Phillies plan to have Bryce Harper play first base; Rhys Hoskins’ tenure with team likely over

Bryce Harper’s shift to first base has likely ended Rhys Hoskins’ time with the Phillies. (Rich von Biberstein/Icon Sportswire)

There is an answer to perhaps the most important question surrounding the future of the Philadelphia Phillies lineup: Bryce Harper is going to be the team’s first baseman in 2024, and presumably for the foreseeable future.

President of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski revealed the news — which will have a ripple effect on the rest of the lineup — in a meeting with the media Wednesday at the MLB general manager’s meetings.

“We decided we’re going to play him at first base,” Dombrowski said, according to MLB.com‘s Todd Zolecki. “He’s happy to do whatever we wanted him to do. He said he’d play first base or the outfield. He feels great. But the more we talked about it internally, we liked the idea of playing him at first.”

While Harper seemed open to the possibility of a hybrid role between first base and the outfield when asked during the postseason, Zolecki adds that the Phillies do not plan to have the two-time NL MVP play at his natural position of right field. Presumably the same goes for left field, meaning Harper is seemingly now into the second phase of his career, one where his primary position is first base.

Dombrowski added that the Phillies have informed free-agent Rhys Hoskins that Harper will play first base. That decision, coupled with Kyle Schwarber likely being entrenched at DH, will end Hoskins’ time with the Phillies.

A fifth-round pick by the Phillies in the 2014 MLB Draft, Hoskins slashed .242/.353/.492 with 148 home runs, 405 RBIs and an .846 OPS in six seasons. He missed the entirety of the 2023 season after tearing his left ACL in Spring Training, though it felt entirely possible that Hoskins would have been an option as a pinch hitter had the Phillies advanced to the World Series.

The Phillies — likely afraid Hoskins would accept it — didn’t extend a one-year/$20.325 million qualifying offer to the free-agent first baseman before Monday’s deadline. That means that they will not recoup any draft compensation when Hoskins signs with another team.

Harper remaining at first base ensures that Nick Castellanos will stay put in right field, rather than potentially shifting to left field. Castellanos didn’t grade out well defensively in right field this past season — -9 defensive runs saved and -7 outs above average — but did seem to improve noticeably from his first year with the team. He’s a creature of habit, and if he’s comfortable in right field, it’s probably best not to move him. Castellanos is owed $60 million over the next three seasons by the Phillies.

As for Harper, he will now have an entire offseason and Spring Training to prepare for a position he learned on the fly during the 2023 season as he also rehabbed from Tommy John surgery. No one is suggesting first base is easy to play, but it probably is less taxing than patrolling an outfield spot.

For someone who is under contract through 2031 and has talked about wanting to play until he’s 45, this may very well be the correct long-term play, both for Harper and the Phillies. But there will no doubt be disappointment from Phillies fans that Hoskins — potentially a future Wall of Famer — will not be returning to the team in 2024.