Rhys Hoskins bats during the 2016 Phillies Futures Game. (Frank Klose/SportsTalkPhilly)
By Tim Kelly, Sports Talk Philly editor 
Lehigh Valley IronPigs manager Dusty Wathan and Rhys Hoskins have had great success in nearly two years together. In 2016, Hoskins played for the Double-A Reading Fightin' Phils, where Wathan was managing at the time. Hoskins slashed .281/.377/.566 with 38 home runs and 116 RBIs, helping the Fightins to a league-best 89-52 record. Both were promoted to Triple-A prior to the 2017 season, where Hoskins didn't skip a beat, slashing .284/.385/.581 with 29 home runs and 91 RBIs.
After a five-RBI evening Wednesday, the Phillies promoted the 24-year-old Hoskins to the major leagues Thursday. Naturally, Wathan was the first one that got to deliver the message to Hoskins:
Dusty Wathan pulled Hoskins into his office after last night's game and said: "Sit down, I'd like to have a conversation with a big leaguer" pic.twitter.com/px7UvQTLdX
— Ben Harris (@byBenHarris) August 10, 2017
Wathan, who is the winningest manager in Reading history and has the IronPigs at a 68-49 record in 2017, handled this pretty well. It's a simple, yet neat way for him to tell a player that he has quite the history with that he was going to the major leagues for the first time. Wathan's effective communication skills and the fact that he's coached nearly all the relevant young talents in the upper levels of the minor leagues or already with the Phillies, are among the reasons that some think he could eventually be the Phillies manager.
As for Hoskins, this wasn't exactly shocking. This week, the team had moved Hoskins to left field, because the organization wanted to get a look at him at the major league level relatively soon. There were rumblings yesterday evening that the Phillies had started to prepare a jersey for Hoskins, with the expectation that he would join the team within the next few days. It would have been a mild shock, especially with how well he played last night, if Hoskins wasn't promoted for this evening's matchup against the New York Mets.
Still, for Wathan and Hoskins to get to share this moment must have been special. Perhaps this won't be the last special moment that the two share in the organization.
