Milwaukee Brewers first baseman Rhys Hoskins may have been Wally Pipp’ed. And a rather nondescript transaction from June 13 could wind up being the top trade of the season.
A hot name in trade rumors through the first few months of 2025, the 32-year-old slugger was putting together a very Rhys Hoskins-like season for the Brewers. Entering July, Hoskins appeared well on his way to 25-plus homers, 80-plus RBIs, a .250 average but with a lot of walks to pad his respectable on-base percentage. And let’s not forget the positive presence he brought to the Milwaukee clubhouse.
That’s not to suggest that a statue of Hoskins was going to be commissioned to erect outside American Family Field. But for a Brewers team that was nipping at the heels of the heavily-favored Cubs in the National League Central division, Hoskins was a valued piece of the puzzle.
Until he wasn’t.
Injury to Milwaukee’s Rhys Hoskins Opened Opportunity for Andrew Vaughn
On July 5, Hoskins suffered a UCL sprain in the thumb of his glove hand while making a swipe tag at first base. It was reported at the time that Hoskins would likely be out of the lineup for about six weeks.
“Every time you don’t get to be on the field, it’s disappointing,” Hoskins told reporters after the diagnosis.
But one player’s disappointment is often another’s opportunity, and the loss of Hoskins opened up a roster spot for Andrew Vaughn.
Acquired in the June 13 trade with the Chicago White Sox that shipped out pitcher Aaron Civale – who was upset by his demotion from the starting rotation following the callup of rookie phenom Jacob Misiorowski – Vaughn had spent the previous few weeks getting acclimated to his new surroundings at Triple-A Nashville. He was brought to Milwaukee after Hoskins’ injury, with the expectation that the right-handed Vaughn would platoon with lefty Jake Bauer until Hoskins was ready to return.
Vaughn apparently had something entirely different in mind.
Put in the lineup for the July 7 game against the Dodgers, Vaughn became just the fifth player in Brewers history to go deep in his first plate appearance for the team, blasting a 3-run homer off of Los Angeles starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto. And that was just the beginning.
Andrew Vaughn Has Been Among MLB’s Top Hitters Since Joining Brewers
Since joining Milwaukee, Vaughn has simply been one of the hottest hitters in all of baseball. In 24 games with the Brewers, the 28-year-old has posted a slash line of .348/.412/.629, with an OPS of 1.041. The No. 3 overall pick by Colorado in the 2019 draft, Vaughn has seven home runs and 28 RBIs in 102 plate appearances.
Perhaps most notable, Vaughn has just 13 strikeouts and 10 walks. While a small sample size, it is a remarkable improvement in plate discipline for a player who had a career strikeout rate of 22.3% and a miniscule walk rate of just 3.6%.
But the proof is in the numbers, and as highlighted on Sunday in a post to X (formerly Twitter) by USA Today’s MLB insider Bob Nightengale, the team numbers indicate that Vaughn has brought something incredible to the Brewers’ lineup.
“The Milwaukee Brewers are now an insane 23-4 since adding Andrew Vaughn to the roster,” Nightengale noted.
On July 6, the day before Vaughn’s debut, Milwaukee trailed Chicago by 4 games in the division. Entering Monday action, the Brewers have the best record in Major League Baseball at 73-44, making them the only team in the league with 70-plus wins, and they lead the Cubs by 6 games.
It’s been a remarkable stretch for the team, led by a rejuvenated slugger who, at the time of the trade, was among the least valuable players in the league.
“This is real,” Milwaukee manager Pat Murphy recently stressed about Vaughn’s outburst.
“Putting guys in environments and situations that can allow them to express themselves, and they can handle it, is the difference. And I think that us, giving Vaughn the chance, everything lining up, Hoskins going down, him getting that chance and being back in the big leagues in a new environment has kind of helped. I don’t think it’s too much more than that.”
And as for Hoskins … well, there’s always the DH spot.
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