Rhys Hoskins’ lame-duck contract status with Phillies evokes memories of Pat Burrell in 2008

CLEARWATER, Fla. — A few weeks after riding down Broad Street atop a wagon pulled by Clydesdales at the head of a World Series victory parade, Pat Burrell’s phone rang.

The Phillies were letting him go.

It wasn’t surprising. Ruben Amaro Jr., newly promoted to general manager, didn’t want to just run it back in 2009 with a carbon-copy roster, and Burrell was the only player in the Phillies’ championship lineup who was unsigned or not under club control.

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“I, of course, wanted to stay,” Burrell said by phone Tuesday night. “I felt that we had really built something cool. But there’s a lot of things that happened, and it was pretty clear. And you can’t keep everybody. That’s part of the reality.”

Fifteen years later, it’s difficult to see Rhys Hoskins in Phillies camp and not think about Burrell, circa 2008.

It isn’t only that Hoskins is a right-handed power hitter from northern California, just like Burrell. Or that Hoskins endured losing seasons after coming up through the Phillies’ farm system, just like Burrell. Or that Hoskins is a frequent target of fans’ ire despite putting up one 30-homer season after another, just like Burrell.

Hoskins is also notably the only everyday Phillies player eligible for free agency at season’s end. And although the club’s record payroll is nearing $250 million and the Phillies are handing out contract extensions like packets of sunflower seeds (Seranthony Domínguez and José Alvarado got new deals last week, and talks are picking up with Aaron Nola), Hoskins hasn’t heard a peep since he avoided arbitration by agreeing last month to a $12 million 2023 salary.

“Nothing in the offseason,” he said, without a hint of disappointment. “My stance on this has always been the same, that if the organization thought it made sense, then it’s something that I’d love to happen. I’ve been here my whole career.”

Hoskins, who turns 30 next month, claims to not be thinking beyond this season, unless he’s recalling last October. In the offseason, he often watched highlights of the Phillies’ playoff run, from his bat-spike homer against the Braves to Bryce Harper’s pennant-clinching clout against the Padres. His favorite moment: “J.T. [Realmuto’s] inside-the-park home run literally makes me cry.”

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But Hoskins is intelligent and thoughtful. As the Phillies’ union representative, he’s as savvy as any player about the business side of the game. Surely it has crossed his mind that he could be attending spring training elsewhere next year.

“No,” he said, shaking his head. “We have an exciting thing going here. I was excited to get here. Guys showing up sporadically throughout [last] week, it makes you more excited. And that’s all the guys I got to play with last year. Then we got to add a few of the best players in the game at their respective positions. I don’t know how you can’t be excited about that.”

It hearkens back to the spring of 2008. Burrell was 31 and entering the finale of a six-year, $50 million contract. The rest of the core — Jimmy Rollins, Chase Utley, Ryan Howard, Shane Victorino, Jayson Werth, and Carlos Ruiz — was locked up through at least 2011, or longer.

Burrell was popular among teammates. His English bulldog, Elvis, was the team’s unofficial pet. He reported to spring training and said he couldn’t imagine playing anywhere else, insisting that, “In Philly, when it’s good, there’s no better place.”

And Burrell had a good season in 2008. He batted fifth, the primary protection for Howard, and hit 33 homers with an .875 OPS. He went deep twice in the clinching game of the divisional series against the Brewers. His leadoff double in the seventh inning of Game 5 of the World Series wound up as the winning run.

“It’s tough to be on a team that is really close [to winning] to take all the personal stuff out of it,” Burrell said. “But I also knew that Ryan Howard was going to arbitration. I don’t know that anybody had been prepared for what he was doing. Jayson Werth had come over. There was just some things that happened, and it was pretty clear.”

The Phillies were also concerned about Burrell’s aching feet, which led to him often being replaced in left field late in games. Amaro recalled wanting to add another left-handed bat. They identified free agent Raúl Ibañez as “sort of the perfect fit.”

Oh, and Ibañez happened to play left field.

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By the time Amaro called, Burrell said, “I think I already kind of knew that I was moving on.”

“That was one of the tougher ones,” Amaro recalled. “Pat was an important part of what 2008 was all about. He was one of our leaders. Personality-wise, he was one of the core members of that club. But the feeling was, if we were going to make some changes, it may very well be in left field just because of the circumstance.

“Sometimes these decisions happen on their own. They happen by a natural order of progression. And then there’s others where the planning works out, where this is the landscape in free agency or the landscape in your system.”

In the 2023 Phillies’ landscape, Hoskins is surrounded by stars on multiyear deals. Realmuto and Kyle Schwarber are signed through 2025; Nick Castellanos 2026; Harper 2031; Trea Turner 2033. Alec Bohm, Brandon Marsh, and Bryson Stott are under club control through 2026, 2027, and 2028, respectively.

The Phillies lack an obvious in-house replacement for Hoskins. They could move Bohm to first and sign three-time Gold Glove-winning third baseman Matt Chapman. Manny Machado plans to opt out of his contract, if owner John Middleton wants to channel his inner Steve Cohen.

Hoskins’ production wouldn’t be easily duplicated. Fans curse his streakiness, a fault that he admits. But he usually winds up in the same rarified place. Since 2018, only Nolan Arenado, Paul Goldschmidt, Aaron Judge, Matt Olson, and Hoskins have four seasons of at least 27 homers and a 111 OPS+, meaning they were 11% better offensively than league average, adjusted for league and ballpark.

“Every year’s a big year in this game,” Hoskins said. “Only a few guys around the league are just more talented [than everyone else]. I’m not one of those guys. I think that I have to prove myself every year, and that’s gotten me to where I’m at so far in my career. Seems to be a perspective that clicks for me.”

Burrell departed the Phillies as a .257/.367/.485 hitter with 251 homers and a 119 OPS+ in nine seasons. Hoskins will enter this year as a .242/.353/.492 hitter with 148 homers and a 125 OPS+ in six seasons.

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Similar production from similar players.

Will their Phillies tenures end similarly?

“Certainly I can relate to Rhys,” Burrell said. “I don’t know what his experience in Philadelphia has been. I hope they can keep that group together.”

It’s a conversation for another day. Maybe after Hoskins rides at the head of a World Series parade.

“We’re in a nice window here,” Hoskins said. “We’re going to have a chance to win and win a lot. I’ve been on teams here that it necessarily wasn’t the case. I understand, being part of the union, that that doesn’t go on around the whole league. Having a chance to win in a very competitive division and a great city, I don’t know how you can’t be excited about that.”

No matter what the future holds.