Milwaukee Brewers Slugger Picks Up Option, Will Be Back in 2025

Milwaukee Brewers first baseman Rhys Hoskins has exercised his player option and will return to the team in 2025.

Per Adam McCalvy, who covers the Brewers on social media:

Rhys Hoskins has exercised his $18 million player option to come back to the Brewers in 2025.

The 31-year-old signed a three-year deal with the Brewers last offseason. The second year included this player option and next offseason there will be a mutual option.

Coming off a torn ACL suffered in 2023, Hoskins helped lead the Brewers to the National League Central title in 2024. He hit just .214 but had 26 homers and 82 RBI. Those are solid numbers for sure, but Hoskins still posted just a 98 OPS+ for the year, suggesting he was a slightly below average player.

Now that the Brewers have a resolution on his status for next year, they’ll need to figure out a way to make him even more productive. The assumption is that Willy Adames is going to leave in free agency this offseason, meaning that Hoskins and Christian Yelich will need to pick up the slack and help carry the offense.

Hoskins is a seven-year veteran of the Philadelphia Phillies and Brewers. Lifetime, he’s a .238 hitter with 174 home runs. He hit a career-high 34 homers back in 2018 and has topped the 30-homer mark one other time (2022).

The Brewers were beaten by the New York Mets in the wild card series in these playoffs. The Brewers lost a crushing Game 3 as the Mets ultimately went to the NLCS.

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