Philadelphia Phillies: The 2019 final players report card

The Infield

First Baseman Rhys Hoskins: C. The only things keeping Hoskins’ grade from being a C- are his age and his OBP (.364), which was driven by 117 walks. Hoskins came to the Philadelphia Phillies with praise for his pitch selection, being mature beyond his years, but this year he saw his RBI and home run totals drop by 11 and five, respectively, with 45 more plate appearances. With a .226 BA in the books for ’19, Hoskins will move into his age-27 season looking perhaps more tentative than mature as a hitter. Maybe manager Girardi’s much-discussed passion will spur him toward taking a few more cuts at early strikes.

Second Baseman Cesar Hernandez: B. Hernandez has never captured the love of the Phillies fan base enjoyed by his predecessor, Chase Utley, but nonetheless he has been one of the most consistent players on the team for his whole career. After playing with a broken bone in his foot for part of 2018, the infielder bounced back in ’19 to hit .279 (+26 points), two points above his career average. However, he did have a couple of lapses in terms of hustle, and for some reason, despite very good speed, has never stolen many bases. For the fourth year in a row, his fielding average at second was in the .981-.984 range, with the past three years all involving 572 chances or more.

Third Baseman Maikel Franco: D. Franco is barely designated the third baseman here, considering super-utilityman Scott Kingery played third in more than half as many games (9) as Franco did (17) in September, and Kingery basically finished the season at third. Once considered a foundation piece for the Phillies, Franco is now almost an afterthought whose offensive numbers have slid downhill badly. He seems unable to handle new, “analytical” coaching (hit the ball in the air, Mike), but may merely need a change of scenery. That change should come this winter or next spring unless Girardi (or the new Phillies hitting coach) and he really hit it off. Franco is still a plus fielder if you take into account his annual handful of spectacular plays.

Shortstop Jean Segura: B-. Like Hernandez, Segura had a couple hustle lapses during this past season, and it will be interesting to see how incoming manager Girardi deals with such matters. That said, Segura had a good season offensively although his three year streak of .300-plus BAs was snapped. Oddly, however, while he did drive in 60 runs, his everyday predecessor at short for the Philadelphia Phillies, Freddy Galvis, drove in 70 runs for Toronto and Cincinnati, and hit almost twice as many home runs as Segura (23-12). No one would have predicted that. Segura did score more runs (79 to 67), and while he is a plus fielder, he is no Galvis with the glove.