first season in Milwaukee was a disappointment. The Brewers signed the veteran slugger to a two-year, $34MM free agent contract over the 2023-24 offseason. Hoskins had mi sed his entire walk year because of a Spring Training ACL tear. He entered the offseason healthy, and Milwaukee placed a sizable bet especially by their standards that hed look no worse for wear in 2024. The deal included an opt-out after the first season. The ideal outcome for everyone involved was Hoskins would mash for one year, opt out, potentially receive and reject a qualifying offer, then sign elsewhere on a longer-term contract. That isnt how things played Moritz Wagner Jersey out. Hoskins started the season well enough, but he hit .203/.285/.395 from the start of June through seasons end. He decided not to opt out, leaving the Brew Crew with a $22MM commitment for a first baseman coming off the worst season of his career. The contract meant they couldnt drum up trade interest, leaving them to retain Hoskins as the teams second highest-paid player. While it wasnt what the front office had planned, that investment looks a lot better now than it did two months ago. Hoskins has been one of the best hitters in baseball. Hell take a .300/.402/.500 batting line into tonights series opener in Pittsburgh. He joins , and as the only four hitters with at least 100 plate appearances and the rare .300/.400/.500+ triple slash. Hoskins looks like the impact bat he was throughout his tenure in Philadelphia. Hes taking walks at a characteristically excellent 14% rate while striking out at a manageable 22.3% clip. He has hit seven home runs while averaging 91.4 MPH on batted balls. Its an acro s the board improvement relative to his first season in Milwaukee. Hes taking more free pa ses, striking out le s often, and making more authoritative contact. This has been a better start than his strong first two months of last season. He carried a .239/.342/.471 slash with fewer walks and hard-hit balls through the end of May 2024. Its true that Hoskins has benefitted from a career-high .362 average on balls in play. Thats going to come down, and Hoskins is highly unlikely to hit above .300 all year. He was more reliably a .245 hitter for the Phillies. Thats a fairer baseline. Thats also sufficient for a player with 25-30 home run pop and an extremely disciplined plate approach. Hoskins was consistently around 25-30 percent better than an average hitter during his time in Philadelphia, as measured by wRC+. That was enough to make him a top 40 or so hitter in MLB. Hoskins rebound also figures to make him an interesting trade candidate. The Brewers are out to a 24-26 start, putting them fourth in the NL Central. Theyre six games back in the division and 4.5 out of the Wild Card race with five teams to jump. Theyre certainly not out of it with more than 110 games to make up the gap, yet theyre also not clear-cut contenders as they were every season between 2018-24. Even if the Brewers dont find themselves as true sellers, they could try to move Hoskins. Like many small-market contenders, Milwaukee tends to take a more flexible trade approach shopping expensive veterans with dwindling club control windows while targeting cheaper players who could immediately contribute to the MLB team. Hoskins would be a candidate for that kind of move even if the Brewers are at or slightly above .500 in July. On the one hand, Hoskins would be a straightforward trade candidate as one of the best available rental bats. The Red Sox need first base help after the injury. The Giants have gotten a dismal .193/.294/.339 line from their first basemen and could use a short-term bridge before calling upon top prospect . (That Hoskins is a Sacramento native who attended Sacramento State would be an added bonus.) The Mariners, Twins and Reds are other teams that could upgrade at first base. Thats complicated by the contract, which could be onerous for some teams. Hoskins is living up to his salary in a vacuum, but many clubs are reluctant to take on significant money midseason. There will still be roughly $5.6MM of his $18MM salary to be paid from the deadline through the end of the regular season. More notably, theres a $4MM buyout on an $18MM mutual option for 2026. The option is going to be declined quite likely by Hoskins and the team will need to pay the buyout on February 1, 2026. That might be a bigger stumbling block for an acquiring club. Its po sible teams will want the Brewers to cover a portion of the buyout to facilitate a trade. Teams may negotiate conditional cash considerations for option buyouts in trade talks; last summers trade of from the White Sox to Baltimore is one . Thats not an option on waivers, however. Hypothetically, say the Brewers hold Hoskins past the deadline but fall firmly out of contention in August. Its po sible theyd take the of trying to dump his salary by placing him on outright waivers before the September 1 deadline for playoff eligibility. Theres a decent chance Hoskins would clear in that scenario, as a claiming team would become responsible for the entire option buyout for what amounts to one regular season month (plus a hopeful playoff run). Perhaps the Brewers will catch fire over the next two months and make that all a moot point. If Hoskins rakes all season and helps Milwaukee back to the postseason, they could hold him and even consider a qualifying offer to potentially recoup a draft choice if he walks as a free agent. Image courtesy of Klement Neitzel, Imagn Images. Troy Brown Jr. Jersey