Can Rhys Hoskins Bounce Back?

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Photo via Rhys Hoskins - Instagram

Rhys Hoskins

Rhys Hoskins

On Nov. 5, 2022, Hoskins started at first base for the Phillies in Game 6 of the World Series, but the following March he tore the ACL in his left knee in a spring training game and missed the entirety of the 2023 season. While there’s every reason to believe Hoskins is healthy now and will be ready on Opening Day, it’s only fair to wonder how an extended layoff might affect his performance when he returns. 

In recent MLB history there are only a few examples of a position player who missed an entire MLB season for any reason and returned to a fulltime role in the major leagues. Self-proclaimed “baseball nerd and road trip legend Michael Mountain” profiled here in 2018 recently compiled a list of 67 players since 2000 who had at least 1500 plate appearances in the majors (about half of Hoskins’ career total) before missing a full season, then returning to MLB. The list includes players who lost a season due to injury but also players who spent a season in the minors, played overseas, opted out of the 2020 season and, in the case of Alex Rodriguez, a player who missed an entire year due to suspension.

Even with that variety of reasons for missing time, however, the vast majority of players who sat out a full season never returned to their prior levels. Only 17 of the 67 went on to accumulate more than 500 more plate appearances at the MLB level, the equivalent of one full season. One of the players who fell below that threshold will be familiar to Brewers fans: Corey Hart was 31 years old and a two-time All Star when a knee injury cost him the entire 2013 season. Hart returned to the majors with the Mariners in 2014 but logged just 103 more games across two franchises before being done as a big leaguer at the age of 33.

There are, however, a few examples of players who missed an entire season due to injury and returned to the majors in a full-time capacity:

Victor Martinez

Among the players in Mountain’s sample, the one who lasted the longest after returning to the MLB level was former Tigers DH Victor Martinez. He had logged portions of 12 seasons in the majors, including many behind the plate, when a knee injury cost him the entire 2012 season. Martinez was a .312 hitter with a .372 on-base and .481 slugging in the three seasons before his injury, however, and in 2013 he was about 60 OPS points short of those levels. He was able to play in 159 games, however, even if he spent 139 of them as a designated hitter.

Aaron Boone

 A longtime Red and a postseason hero in New York in 2003, Aaron Boone was a career .270 hitter with a .332 on-base and .448 slugging when he injured his knee playing basketball in January of 2004 and missed the entirety of what would have been his age 31 season. Boone returned to the majors and played 143 games with Cleveland in 2005, but never really returned to the offensive levels he’d reached before surgery. That was the last time he played in more than 104 games in an MLB season.

Salvador Perez

The most recent example on the list might also be the most promising one: The longtime Royals catcher had logged 942 games at the MLB level and made six consecutive All Star Games when an elbow injury derailed his 2019 season. After missing the entirety of what would have been his age 29 season at the plate, however, Perez was even better offensively upon his return: He had a career .739 on-base plus slugging before the injury and has an .800 mark since, including a season in 2021 where he led the American League in home runs and RBI.