Rhys Hoskins Out of Running for 2018 Rookie of the Year – and That's OK With Him

Rhys Hoskins won the Eastern League Rookie of the Year award in 2016.
 
He won the International League Rookie of the Year award - he was also the league's Most Valuable Player - this season.
 
Hoskins will not make it three straight rookie of the year awards next year.
 
His eligibility for rookie status in 2018 quietly expired Monday night when he collected his 131st at-bat since joining the Phillies on Aug. 10. Once a player exceeds 130 at-bats (or 50 innings for a pitcher) he is not considered a rookie for the next season.
 
Hoskins is not disappointed that he won't be in the running to be the National League's top rookie next season.
 
He'd much rather have come to the big leagues when he did.
 
"There's too much valuable information being learned up here," he said.
 
Hoskins is eligible for this year's NL Rookie of the Year award, though he won't catch Los Angeles Dodgers slugger Cody Bellinger, who is the favorite to win the award. Bellinger, in town this week with the Dodgers, has 38 homers and 88 RBIs.
 
At the time of his recall from Triple A Lehigh Valley on Aug. 10, Hoskins was leading the International League with 29 homers, 91 RBIs and a .966 OPS. He ended up third in the league in homers and retained his RBI and OPS leads.
 
Hoskins has had a dynamic arrival in the majors. He entered Monday night's game against the Dodgers leading the majors in homers (18), RBIs (38) and OPS (1.244) since Aug. 14.
 
And he was the NL Rookie of the Month for August.
 
So he can live without the chance to win one more rookie honor.
 
The Phillies have had four rookies of the year in their history - Jack Sanford (1957), Dick Allen (1964), Scott Rolen (1997) and Ryan Howard (2005).
 
Rolen, interesting enough, was on his way to exhausting his rookie status when his season in 1996 ended at 130 at-bats. He was hit by a pitch from Chicago Cubs pitcher Steve Trachsel on Sept. 7 and suffered a broken wrist. The injury ended his season but preserved his rookie status for 1997 and he won the Rookie of the Year award.
 
"At the time, I wasn't really happy with [Trachsel]," Rolen said on the day he was announced as the award winner in November 1997. "Now, I might give him a call and thank him."
 
Rolen hit .283 with 21 homers and 92 RBIs that season. He made $150,000 that year, then the major-league minimum, but earned a $25,000 bonus for winning the Rookie of the Year award. So a little pain equaled a nice gain.
 
Rolen's winning the award in 1997 snapped a string of five straight Dodgers' rookies of the year - Eric Karros (1992), Mike Piazza (1993), Raul Mondesi (1994), Hideo Nomo (1995) and Todd Hollandsworth (1996).

Copyright CSNPhily
Contact Us