Brewers home run leader gives fans a scare, leaves Monday game due to leg injury

One risk that a team takes when signing a player coming off a major injury is not returning to the level of production from before the injury. The other risk is that the player somehow reinjures that same body part.

Milwaukee Brewers fans got a scare in the latter department during Monday night's home contest against the Pittsburgh Pirates. In that game, one of the team's top sluggers who missed all of 2023 due to injury exited the game early.

After ripping a single to right field in the second inning off Pirates starter Mitch Keller, Brewers first baseman Rhys Hoskins suffered an injury on his way to first and came up gingerly to the bag. He would immediately be removed from the game.

Of course a leg injury is exactly the last thing that you would want to see for a player like Hoskins. The whole reason he ended up missing all of last year was because he suffered an ACL injury, so naturally, many Brewers fans imagined the worst case scenario of a recurrence of that injury.

Despite Brewers fans' worst fears, first baseman Rhys Hoskins thankfully did not reinjure his knee.

Shortly after Hoskins was pulled from the game, Brewers general manager Matt Arnold was able to set everyone's fears aside, at least for the time being. He relayed that the initial reports were that the 31-year-old had suffered a hamstring injury, not an injury to his knee.

Of course a hamstring isn't exactly a walk in the part and could still result in Hoskins missing some games. But it still has to be better than his ACL issue flaring back up.

Of course that ACL issue is one of the only reasons the Brewers were able to land a player like Hoskins. The long time member of the Phillies took a shorter term "prove it" deal with Milwaukee this offseason in a move that benefited both sides: the Brewers get to finally solve first base, at least for a little bit, while Hoskins gets to re-establish his value and prove that he is again healthy.

So far, Hoskins has done everything the Brewers have needed to do as a run producer in the middle of the lineup. He leads the team with nine home runs and his tied for second on the team with 27 RBIs, just behind William Contreras' 30.

Now we await word on the severity of Hoskins' injury. Hopefully the slugger can avoid a stint on the injured list, something that would've been a certainty if he'd suffered the same injury as last year.