Oakland Athletics: Who will have the better career–Matt Olson or Rhys Hoskins?

A lot of attention has been given to Philadelphia Phillies rookie Rhys Hoskins, and rightfully so. But over here on the West Coast, fans of the Oakland Athletics are wondering if Matt Olson, who is on a similar pace to Hoskins, will get his due.

As a lifelong fan of the Oakland Athletics, it’s hard to stay impartial when it comes to issues regarding the team. But Rhys Hoskins seems like a pretty good guy, and he’s from the area, so I’m going to try my best to present the most unbiased case for both he and Matt Olson and the paths their careers may take based upon what we’ve seen thus far.

Hoskins is the more well-known of the two players, making a name for himself after mashing 18 homers in short order to begin his career and get his name mentioned on some lists with the likes of all-time greats like Ted Williams and Joe DiMaggio. I’m not going to sit here and make a case that either of these two will end up being The Kid or Joltin’ Joe, but with the way that each of their careers has started, and with their teams matching up this weekend, I thought it would be an interesting topic.

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Hoskins, 24, is batting .306 with a .433 OBP and a 1.218 OPS through 121 at-bats. Olson, 23, is hitting .267 with a .359 OBP and a .992 OPS. He also broke these two slugger’s home run tie last night in the first game of the series with a second deck shot that travelled an estimated 489 feet, giving him 19 home runs on the season. Olson has a 40 at-bat lead on Hoskins, too.

While Hoskins is setting records with his powerful bat, Olson could be reaching rare air himself with his next dinger. After mashing 23 home runs with the Triple-A Nashville Sounds earlier this year (79 games), he would be the first player since Giancarlo Stanton in 2010 to mash 20 dingers in both the majors and the minors in the same season.

Both players are able to play both at first base and in the outfield, which just adds to the intrigue. Olson has played 91 innings in right field, saving three runs, and 271 2/3 innings at first, saving four runs, per FanGraphs. Hoskins has played 199 1/3 innings in left and 97 1/3 innings at first, playing both evenly.

Olson appears to have the better defensive ability, both by the metrics and by the fact that he is able to play a better than average right field. That should translate into him being able to handle left field without much issue if needed.

On the site’s Twitter account, I tweeted out this poll before the start of the first game of the series and it will be up through Sunday’s finale. Make your voices heard! Who will be the better player when all is said and done?

The reasoning for Olson is that his extra little bit of athleticism may make him more versatile in the long run, but Hoskins, at least for the time being, appears to be able to hit for average and for power, which is a coveted combination in baseball.

Next: Five most surprising 20 home run players of 2017

While the two players won’t necessarily be linked to one another in a Derek Jeter/Alex Rodriguez kind of way, it will be interesting to see how each player is used moving forward as their rebuilding teams start filling out their rosters and how each slugger is able to adjust to pitchers starting to figure them out.