Dombrowski: Darick Hall Favorite For Majority Of First Base Reps

The Phillies were dealt a huge blow yesterday when Rhys Hoskins went down with an ACL tear that’ll require surgery. They’ll now have to patch things together at first base unexpectedly.

Darick Hall appears the next man up. The left-handed hitter got into his first 42 MLB games last season. He connected on nine longballs and slugged .522 in 142 plate appearances. That’s a promising start but a meager 3.5% walk rate and elevated 31% strikeout percentage contributed to a .282 on-base mark. Hall had hit .254/.330/.528 with 28 homers, a 9.5% walk percentage and a 22.6% strikeout rate in 101 games with Triple-A Lehigh Valley.

President of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski told Alex Coffey of the Philadelphia Inquirer today that Hall looks like the favorite to take the bulk of the first base reps. That could come in a platoon capacity, as the 27-year-old had dramatic splits last year. Between the majors and Lehigh Valley, Hall mashed at a .280/.344/.601 clip over 436 plate appearances against right-handed pitching. He limped to a .175/.242/.314 line over 149 trips to the dish against lefties — all but 12 of those coming against Triple-A arms.

“We have not made that decision yet,” Dombrowski said of a possible platoon. “I know he’ll get the majority of playing time, but of course the majority of playing time we’ll face righties. But I don’t know what we’re going to do in that regard. We haven’t discussed that part of it yet.”

Philadelphia could slide the righty-swinging Alec Bohm over to first base on days when there’s a left-handed opposing starter. That’d leave third base to a more defense-oriented player, likely one of Edmundo Sosa or Josh Harrison. The Phils could also take another look at Scott Kingery, who isn’t on the 40-man roster but has played well this spring. If they wish to look outside the organization, Miguel Sanó remains unsigned while Keston Hiura will be traded or waived within the next week.

As for Hoskins, Dombrowski noted the surgery comes with a recovery timetable of seven months. The Phils haven’t officially ruled him out for the entire season, with the baseball ops president telling Coffey they’re uncertain if Hoskins has a chance to return if the club makes a deep playoff run.