The Milwaukee Brewers Are Sure Glad They Kept Rhys Hoskins
Hoskins is off to a great start this season, and the veteran first baseman has been a vital piece of the Milwaukee Brewers' offense.
Stats and rankings taken prior to play on April 26.
Rhys Hoskins’ first year in a Milwaukee Brewers uniform didn’t go as planned. The ball club’s big free-agent signing from an offseason ago put up the worst season of his career in 2024, leaving much to be desired in several facets of his game.
As a result, Hoskins picked up his $18 million player option this past winter. He wasn’t going to get a better offer on the open market after the season he just had, and all of a sudden the cash-strapped Brewers were burdened with a hefty price tag for a seemingly declining player.
In fact, the Brewers were even shopping Hoskins this past offseason, looking to get out from under his contract and turn the page to a new face at first base.
The Brewers clearly didn’t find a trade partner for their 32-year-old first baseman, and the organization essentially had no choice but to head into the 2025 season with Hoskins manning first, hoping that another offseason removed from his knee injury would yield better results.
As it turns out, holding onto Hoskins may have been the best decision they made all offseason.
After a Slow Start, Hoskins Is Returning To Form
Admittedly, it was a really slow start to the 2025 season for Hoskins.
After swinging a very hot bat that included six homers and a .690 slugging percentage in spring training, Hoskins’ performance out of the gate in the regular season once again left the Brewers faithful disappointed with his production.
However, it just goes to show that hitters need time to get into a rhythm, especially to start the season. Even for players with established track records like Hoskins, time is sometimes needed to shake off the rust from a long offseason.
We’re just over a month into the 2025 season, and Hoskins has caught fire in recent weeks:
| March 27 – April 10 | G: 11; PA: 38 | AVG: .161 | OBP: .289 | SLG: .161 | OPS: .451 | wRC+: 41 | wOBA: .227 | K%: 26.3% |
| April 11 – April 26 | G: 13; PA: 50 | AVG: .395 | OBP: .480 | SLG: .661 | OPS: 1.131 | wRC+: 214 | wOBA: .489 | K%: 14.0% |
The results are night and day when comparing Hoskins’ first 11 games to his most recent 13 games. His numbers since April 11 have been some of the best in Major League Baseball, and he’s been a vital piece of Milwaukee’s offense in 2025.
Among Brewers hitters with 50 plate appearances on the season, Hoskins ranks third on the team in batting average (.297), second in slugging percentage (.446), and first in on-base percentage (.398), wOBA (.376) and wRC+ (139).
Even when things weren’t going his way to start the year, he was still doing a good job of working deep into counts and drawing walks at a high rate. That’s something he’s continued to do while the hits are starting to fall.
What’s Led to Hoskins’ Strong Start?
It’s important to remember the difference in sample sizes that we are working with early in the season. So far in 2025, Hoskins has 88 plate appearances under his belt as opposed to 517 in 2024. So, numbers can change quickly given how early it is in the year.
Still, the results at the plate this season have been noticeably better than last season. Therefore it’s valuable to check in and see where he improved the most when compared to his down year in 2024.
Getting Back to His Old Approach
Hoskins expanded the strike zone more than ever in 2024, chasing balls 25.4% of the time. So far in 2025, he’s cut that rate to 20.6%, which would end up being his lowest mark since 2018.
Strong plate discipline and smart swing decisions are at the heart of Hoskins’ success at the plate. Given how much damage he can do on pitches within the zone, when he’s controlling the strike zone the way he is currently, it makes things very difficult for opposing pitchers.
Not only is he limiting his chase, but he’s making contact on pitches more often, cutting his whiff rate by 1.5% from 2024. Relatedly, after reaching a career-low mark last season, Hoskins’ in-zone contact rate is starting to trend back to the level it was at for the vast majority of his career in Philadelphia.
There’s still room for improvement, but even the slightest step forward in that department from where it was at a season ago makes a big difference.
Combine those two improvements, and it’s no surprise to see him cut his strikeout rate from a career-high 28.8% last year to 19.3% this season. He’s also managed to increase his walk rate by four percent to 13.6%.
We’ve established that he has a much better feel for the strike zone so far in 2025 than he did last season. However, his improvements don’t end there.
Demonstrating an Improved Ability To Find the Sweet Spot
Hoskins might not be barreling up balls at the same rate he was last season, but both his average exit velocity (89.8 mph) and hard-hit rate (44.8%) are up from a season ago. He’s doing more damage in the form of singles than in homers, and it’s led to great results thus far.
Last season, when Hoskins wasn’t hitting homers, he provided little value offensively. This year, he’s managed to be a productive hitter despite hitting just three home runs to this point. Hoskins has lifted the ball more this season, specifically in the form of line drives.
His ground-ball rate currently sits at 29.3%, which would be the second-lowest mark of his career. Conversely, his line-drive rate of 27.6% would be the highest of his career.
In turn, that’s led to some much improved expected numbers on top of his actual results. His expected batting average of .263 is up over 60 points from 2024, and it’s a similar story with his xSLG (.401) and xWOBA (.350) as well.
When looking at what’s changed for Hoskins, his drop in ground-ball rate and increase in line-drive rate makes a lot of sense when looking at his substantial increase in launch angle sweet-spot percentage.
Launch angle sweet-spot rate is a metric tracked by Baseball Savant that measures the number of times a player hits a ball with an ideal launch angle between eight and 32 degrees.
Last season, Hoskins was in the eighth percentile in LA sweet-spot rate at just 29.7%. In 2025, he’s increased that rate to a whopping 44.8%, which puts him in the top six percent of MLB hitters.
So while he might not be barreling up as many balls this season, he’s increased his average launch angle by 1.2 degrees, and his LA sweet-spot rate has followed suit. He’s hitting the ball at a more optimal angle more consistently, all while seeing an increase in exit velocities at the same time.
That’s a recipe for success, and his results reflect that.
Getting Back To Crushing Fastballs
Hoskins’ ability to do damage against heaters is what made made him such a steady hitter over the years. After taking a noticeable step back against fastballs last season, Hoskins is teeing off against the pitch type so far this season.
Hoskins is currently hitting .326 against fastballs, which is a noticeable leap from his .241 average against the pitch type last season. All three of his homers have come off fastballs as well.
Interestingly, 62.8% of fastballs Hoskins is seeing are being thrown in the strike zone, which is a big jump from 56.8% a season ago. Not only is he seeing more fastballs bring thrown for strikes, but he’s also cut his in-zone whiff rate against heaters by four percent.
Overall, he’s cut his whiff rate against fastballs from 21.6% last season to 15.7% in 2025, and he’s hitting the ball harder with an average exit velocity that is 2.7 mph higher than it was last season. His hard-hit rate against fastballs is currently sitting at what would be a career-high mark of 51.4%, a tangible jump from 44.7% last season.
All in all, it’s been the perfect storm for a rebound season for the 32-year-old first baseman. As long as he’s maintaining steady production against heaters and making smart swing decisions, his early-season success could be sustainable.
While the ball club as a whole has been struggling as of late, losing five of their last seven and three in a row, Hoskins has been a bright spot in the lineup
Hoskins looks as comfortable as he ever has in a Brewers uniform at the moment. He’s finally rounding into the hitter the Brewers thought they were getting when they signed him last offseason, and his early-season bounce back has been essential to keeping the Brewers’ offense afloat.
Written by
Joey Peterson is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and an editor for Just Baseball. Joey covers the Milwaukee Brewers, along with general MLB topics…