Rhys Hoskins is the only good part of the Phillies right now

The Phillies are not good this year, in case you somehow missed that over the last few months. It’s an important preface to this post because otherwise what Rhys Hoskins is doing might not seem as positive.

Philadelphia is the worst team in baseball by multiple games. They lost (again) to Miami on Thursday, 9-8, to drop to a record of 46-80. They are (naturally) in the cellar of the NL East and haven’t been intriguing for all that much of this season.

Besides the “there’s always next year” refrains, which to be fair might not even be true for Philadelphia, there is one good thing to look forward to every game for the fanbase: recent call-up Rhys Hoskins.

Hoskins has only played in his 15 games so far and on Thursday he hit his eighth home run since being called up. That’s after he went 0-fer in his first three games. So in 12 games that he’s had a sense of major league pitchers, Hoskins has homered in two-thirds of them.

In the span of games in which he’s been active in the majors, he is behind only Giancarlo Stanton and Gary Sanchez for dingers mashed. If that’s not impressive, then you’re just someone who really doesn’t want to like a member of the Phillies (which is fine, we won’t judge).

He’s also hitting .271/.407/.729, which gives him a 1.136 OPS and isn’t too impressive considering how well he’s hitting the ball on pitches that do leave the park.

But, it’s also not like the Phillies need to score runs right now since their goal is just finishing the season out without injury or embarrassment. If there were a time for Hoskins to get comfortable with this level of pitching and more consistent at the plate, that time is now.

The fact that he’s mashing dingers — including a 445-foot one on Wednesday night in a Philadelphia win — and providing entertainment during a rough stretch is just a bonus, and hopefully for Phillies fans this is not just a flash in the pan.