Free agency first baseman Rhys Hoskins was allegedly being pursued by a number of organisations, including the Chicago Cubs. However, Hoskins is expected to sign a contract with the Milwaukee Brewers, thus he will be travelling around 90 minutes north.
According to ESPN’s Jeff Passan and other reports, Hoskins, who missed the entire 2023 season due to a knee injury, will sign a two-year contract worth $34 million with Milwaukee.
The rumours state that there is an opt-out clause in the pact after the first season.
The Brewers allowed Carlos Santana and Rowdy Tellez to depart via free agency, so they had to find a first baseman.
Hoskins hit 30 home runs, drove in 79 runs, and slashed.246/.332/.462 in 672 plate appearances during the 2022 season.
The Cubs have other possibilities at first base in their organisation, including recent addition Michael Busch, despite reports that they were interested in Hoskins. In 2023, Busch, who was acquired via trade from the Los Angeles Dodgers, led Oklahoma City in RBIs with 90 and hit 27 home runs. In 2023, he made his Major League Baseball debut, hitting two home runs in 27 contests.
Additionally, Matt Mervis is a member of the Cubs team. Mervis had a breakout season in 2022 and finished the previous season in the minors with 22 home runs and 78 RBIs. In addition, he made his Major League Baseball debut with the Cubs, contributing three home runs and eleven RBIs in 90 at-bats across 27 games.
Cody Bellinger, who played centre field and first base for the team in the previous season, is another player the Cubs could yet sign.
The Phillies have been trying to bolster their pitching depth as their roster is essentially full, with the exception of possible outfield, bench, and bullpen help. They made the announcement on Tuesday that they and left-hander Kolby Allard have reached a one-year agreement.
Allard, 26, played with the Braves during the previous season. In 2015, Atlanta selected him in the first round, five slots ahead of the Phillies, who had selected high school outfielder Cornelius Randolph.
Allard has a 6.10 ERA in 69 career appearances, 38 of which have been starts. At 90–91 mph on average, his fastball is not very powerful.
For a Phillies team lacking depth beyond its five starters (Zack Wheeler, Aaron Nola, Ranger Suarez, Taijuan Walker, and Cristopher Sanchez), Allard might offer depth to the rotation. Nick Nelson and Dylan Covey are the only other possible starting choices on the 40-man roster.
Allard has one more option year, which means the Phillies can call him up from Triple A to the major leagues as needed. If he makes an impression this season, the club may take him through the arbitration procedure as he is under club control until 2026.
When Adrián Beltré signed with the Dodgers in 1994 for $23,000, he was regarded as a youthful prodigy. However, there wasn’t much about his early career—which was clouded by a problem with his birth certificate and his delayed recuperation from an unsuccessful appendectomy in the Dominican Republic—that screamed “surefire Hall-of-Famer.”
During his first five big league seasons in Los Angeles, from 1999 to 2003, Beltré averaged just 16 home runs and 65 RBIs each season while hitting.262 with a.748 on-base-plus-slugging percentage.
After a Major League Baseball investigation revealed that the Dodgers had signed Beltré before he turned sixteen, the team was on the verge of losing him to free agency in 2000. Beltré missed the first six weeks of 2001 due to surgery to seal a wound in his large intestine, which had resulted from an infection following an emergency appendectomy that January.
