Phillies' Rhys Hoskins Out 4-6 Months After Tommy John Surgery for Elbow Injury

Philadelphia Phillies first baseman Rhys Hoskins had Tommy John surgery to repair the elbow of his non-throwing arm and will miss four to six months, according to Matt Gelb of The Athletic. 

Hoskins suffered a left UCL injury Sept. 12 during a collision at first base and did not return for the remainder of the season as the Phillies missed the playoffs for the ninth consecutive season.

Hoskins played in all but two games for the Phillies in 2019 and missed just seven the year before. When the 27-year-old was placed on the injured list, he had made 41 appearances and posted a .245/.384/.503 slash line with 10 homers and 26 runs batted in.

In 2020, the Phillies were 22-19 with Hoskins in the lineup but struggled to just a 6-13 record without their first baseman. 

The fourth-year star, who was drafted by the Phillies in the fifth round in 2014 out of California State University, Sacramento, has never been seriously injured. In September, he expressed his disappointment to The Trentonian's Matt Smith: 

"It's just very frustrating. Obviously we spend an entire offseason trying to get our bodies ready for a long season and we're presented with a short sprint of a season we're currently in. All of the obstacles that have come along this season ... we've been able to get over all of them so far, and then we have something like this happen. It's frustrating."

After the injury, Hoskins was optimistic that he would be back on the field in three to four months after a potential surgery (h/t Todd Zolecki of MLB.com). Teammate Didi Gregorius had the same procedure on his throwing arm while a member of the New York Yankees in 2018 and was out eight months.