Brewers lose team-leading home run hitter to injured list

The Brewers announced Tuesday that first baseman Rhys Hoskins has been placed on the 10-day injured list due to a strained right hamstring. Infielder/outfielder Owen Miller was recalled from Triple-A Nashville in a corresponding move.

Hoskins departed Monday’s game early after tweaking his hamstring. He was set to go for an MRI Tuesday, and it appears that the strain was discovered and that Hoskins will need to miss some time. However, it’s still not publicly known how severe the strain is nor how long the club expects him to be out of action.

Regardless, it’s an unfortunate development for the Brewers. Although Hoskins missed all of 2023 due to a torn ACL, he has bounced right back to his old self this year. He’s hit a team-leading nine home runs and is drawing walks at an 11.5% rate so far this year. His .233/.340/.474 batting line translates to a 131 wRC+, right in line with his career slash of .242/.353/.491 and 126 wRC+.

Losing that kind of production will obviously hurt the Milwaukee offense. Hoskins and Jake Bauers have been splitting the first base and designated hitter duties, but with Bauers almost never facing lefties. Of his 92 plate appearances this year, only four of them have been against southpaws.

Perhaps the right-handed hitting Gary Sánchez will cover first base a bit more to continue shielding Bauers from lefties. Sánchez had just four innings of first base experience coming into this year but has already logged 12 2/3 innings there in 2024. Miller is also capable of playing some first base but he has reverse splits in his career. Tyler Black was up with the club for a while but has since been optioned and is a lefty hitter anyway.

Bauers is having a nice season, despite a 35.9% strikeout rate. He has four home runs and is hitting .244/.326/.476 for a 127 wRC+. Perhaps the club will be open to giving him more of a chance against lefties but he has a line of .211/.278/.340 against them in his career thus far.