Fantasy Baseball 2018 Rankings: Is Rhys Hoskins the Next Aaron Judge?

Last season, we all knew who Aaron Judge was. But we didn’t know that he was one of the very best players in baseball. Now, in 2018, we all know who Rhys Hoskins is. Is he about to take over fantasy baseball like Judge?

Yes.

Hoskins looked every bit like a superstar in a limited run last season, slashing .259/.396/.618 with 18 home runs and 48 RBI for the Phillies in a mere 50 games (212 plate appearances). Hoskins was homering every 12 plate appearances, a rate that outpaced even Judge’s ridiculous output. Hoskins’ power is no joke, and last year’s supernova debut did not come out of nowhere. Hoskins socked 29 home runs in Triple-A before getting called up to The Show last year, and in 2016 he cracked 38 bombs at Double-A. He has shown monster power at every level, and his MLB debut was no different.

Of course, players have had incredible 50-game stretches before and not been superstars. Why am I so confident that MLB pitchers won’t study Hoskins, identify his weaknesses, and figure out how to tame the beast? Several reasons.

First, is the aforementioned track record. Minor league performance is usually the best indicator of MLB performance; that seems obvious, because it is. Players can change over time, but it’s rare to see a player who doesn’t play well at the lower levels come to the big leagues and thrive. Hoskins has been mashing since Single-A, so it would be a bit of a shocker if he wasn’t an elite source of power.

Second, he hasn’t profiled as an all-or-nothing slugger that can be as big a drain on your team in some categories (batting average, OPS) as he is a plus in home runs. He never posted a batting average less than .284 in the minors since 2015, and in his 50-game Phillies stint he batted a respectable .259. His strikeout rate at Triple-A topped out at 21.7 percent, which isn’t the best mark, but it’s far from the worst. Since I’ve drawn a comparison to Judge, the latter’s strikeout rate peaked at 28.5 percent, and even last season he struck out in more than 30 percent of his at-bats. Hoskins, on the other hand, whiffed a bit more than 20 percent of the time.

What kept Judge afloat and productive – besides his tremendous home run total – was his ability to get on base. Hoskins has shown a Judge-esque ability to get on base, notching a .396 OBP last year and an impressive 1.014 OPS. Hoskins doesn’t have an extreme tendency to strike out, but he does walk at a very high rate. That’s a winning combination for a player with as much raw power as anyone in the sport.

Do you need more? How about Hoskins notching his .259 batting average despite an unlucky .241 BABIP. Last year Judge was very fortunate, posting a .357 BABIP, and that translated to a highly unexpected .284 batting average. If Hoskins has similar luck, he could flirt with .300 as well, paired with 40+ bombs.

Hoskins is eligible for 1B and OF, two deep positions with a loaded upper tier. In my personal rankings, Hoskins is in the first tier of first-sackers, and the second tier of outfielders; he is inside the Top 10 of both positions. This is a man who will be capable of carrying your fantasy team.