October 25, 2023
Rhys Hoskins was in the Phillies' dugout for Game 7 after having flown in from Clearwater earlier that evening.
It was important for him to be there.
To be with the club he had worked so tirelessly all year to have a shot to come back and play for late, he said, and to take in the unmatched scene of playoff baseball in South Philadelphia at least one more time before he might've.
But the Phillies' offense stalled out, their pitching in turn gave up a run too many, and a season with World Series aspirations from the beginning instead slipped away to an Arizona Diamondbacks team that just wouldn't.
The Phillies devastatingly watched the end Tuesday night down at Citizens Bank Park.
And Hoskins and Aaron Nola – the organization's two longest-tenured players, but players who are now both slated for free agency this winter – they began staring into the unknown.
"I don't know if I'm thinking about my future here in that moment," Hoskins said in the somber quiet of the clubhouse after the Phillies lost in the winner-take-all NLCS finale. "You obviously want to be on the other side of that bottom of the ninth inning in the championship series, in the Game 7, to send your team to the World Series. Those are the type of moments we've been dreaming about since we were three and four years old...I was just trying to soak that in and support my guys who were trying to win the game."
But they couldn't, leaving themselves and the entire city that had been behind them full stop all October feeling empty, trying to process what went wrong in the immediate aftermath, and perhaps more daunting long term, what happens next.
Because some tough decisions now lie ahead for the front office, largely on if they can bring back the two guys who have championed the franchise for years and through just about everything – and if they should.
"Those decisions are way above my pay grade," Hoskins said. "If there are ways for me to be back, then I'm sure the people who make those decisions will find ways for me to be back."
Each drafted by the organization as college prospects in 2014, Hoskins and Nola were both homegrown products who developed into the early faces for the next era of Phillies baseball – an era that until last season's breakthrough to the NL pennant, only ever seemed to know pain.
Hoskins, while he never broke out into a true star, was the power-hitting first baseman capable of hurting any pitcher in the heart of the lineup, while Nola quickly became a top starter with a breaking ball that could rack up strikeouts in bunches.
Bigger names eventually came along to push the Phillies forward – Bryce Harper, Zack Wheeler, Kyle Schwarber, Nick Castellanos, Trea Turner, and so on – but at the heart of it all still were Hoskins and Nola.
Now it's a matter of will they continue to be.
Hoskins tore his ACL fielding a ground ball way back in spring training, which effectively wiped his entire 2023 season. He always held out hope, however, that his rehab would progress quickly enough for him to make a late postseason return provided the Phillies got that far. Once they were in the playoffs, Hoskins reported down to Clearwater to take live batting practice while manager Rob Thomson would occasionally hint that he had a chance to be activated as a possible bat off the bench in the World Series.
That scenario though is nothing more than a "what if? now.
"I still think there were some finishing touches to be had over the next couple of days here," Hoskins said of his rehab. "But yeah, I felt ready."
Nola, meanwhile, put in a wildly up and down contract year as the No. 2 starter in the rotation.
For every quality start, there was either an outright bad one or an infamous fourth-inning blowup to match, which left fans wondering (and fearful of) what Aaron Nola they were going to get on any given day.
But he was locked in for the playoffs, pitching lights out with just two earned runs allowed over his first three postseason starts – that is, until the fourth one when he hit a wall in the Game 6 loss to the D-backs on Monday that forced the do-or-die Game 7.
There was nothing Nola could do after but watch it all unravel from the dugout, with the thought in the back of his and everyone else's mind that that could've been it for him as a Phillie.
"It was tough," Nola said. "I'll come back, for sure, but I don't know what the future holds yet."
Hoskins doesn't either.
Both want to be back, they said. The Phillies are the only organization either has ever known, and the club does have the framework to make another run next year and for the foreseeable future.
But the fit for them maybe isn't as clear as it used to be.
Aaron Nola's future beyond this postseason run is uncertain, but he hopes he can stay a Phillie.
— PhillyVoice (@thephillyvoice) October 17, 2023
"I love it here," the right-hander said.https://t.co/Sp3XQGrTtW
Payroll aside – knowing that Nola is likely looking at a new deal worth north of $100 million – Wheeler as the No. 1 starter is due up for another contract after next season when he'll be 34, and top pitching prospects Mick Abel, Griff McGarry, and (eventually) Andrew Painter are still on their way.
Harper took up first base in the back half of this season and held up, and there's only one designated hitter spot to share between potentially him, Hoskins, Schwarber, and Castellanos – who are all everyday players that would be stuck in a logjam.
There are no easy solutions here, which might force some difficult and emotional goodbyes.
Even for the two who've been through everything in Philadelphia and want to see that much more.
"Every year's not the same," Nola said. "Hope I'm back next year, but guys come in and out. You form relationships and you make good friends each year, new guys come in, you form that bond.
"No team's the exact same, and it's the hard part about the business, right? You spend pretty much the whole year together, battling through the ups and downs and successes and struggles, that's what makes the game so pretty, and what makes a good team a good team. You got a lot of good guys in this clubhouse. You got a lot of good players in this clubhouse, and the way that we play together, as one team, nobody's selfish. That's what makes it so special."
"I've said this all along and I'll say it again, but I would love to be back here." pic.twitter.com/juMUHzj2ZM
— NBC Sports Philadelphia (@NBCSPhilly) October 25, 2023
"I've said this all along and I'll say it again: I would love to be back here," Hoskins said. "This is a team that has a ton of fun, and we've seen that all year long.
"Fun to play with, competitive as hell, and we have a chance to win the World Series here every year with this group. That doesn't exist around all of baseball, and that's something that's important to me as a competitor...It's just an easy organization to be a part of."
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