The San Diego Padres signing 1B Eric Hosmer to an 8-year, $144 million deal on Saturday made the least sense of them all.
Hosmer, 28, was one of the driving forces behind the small-market Kansas City Royals winning the 2015 World Series, and getting to Game Seven in 2014. Hosmer rejected the Royals’ qualifying offer on Thursday, thus officially breaking up the core of Kansas City’s rebirth to relevancy the last few years, despite missing the playoffs both years since their championship.
The deal is the richest in Padres’ history, with Hosmer slated to make $20 million the first five years, and $13 million the final three years, assuming he does not use the opt-out clause written in after the first five years. There is also a $5 million signing bonus added in, as if he needed it.
Hosmer’s name was widely rumored to be linked to the St. Louis Cardinals this offseason, as it would have kept him in Missouri. Instead, Hosmer goes to a team that hasn’t reached the postseason since 2006. The Padres are trying to rebuild at the worst-possible time in the NL West. The Dodgers are a World Series contender, and Arizona and Colorado both earned Wild Card berths in 2017. The Giants were only in the cellar after Madison Bumgarner missed a good portion of the first half of the season, due to injury.
With the Chargers gone from San Diego, the Padres are literally the only sporting ticket in town. Despite that, Hosmer will now be playing with Will Myers, San Diego’s leader in just about every offensive category a season ago.
The problem is that Myers is also a first baseman, and there is no DH rule in the NL, as we all know.
Tony Gywnn and Ken Caminiti were MVP candidates for the Padres in their respective eras. In the scale of MLB contracts at the time, neither one got nearly the offer Hosmer just signed.
Hosmer hit .318, with 25 HRs, and 94 RBIs last year, for a Royals’ club that finished 80-82, a full 22 games behind Cleveland in the AL Central. The Padres had a -212 run differential in 2017, which was nearly two-and-a-half times worse than Kansas City.
Reports indicate Myers will move back to the outfield to accommodate Hosmer at first.
Many in the national media are praising San Diego’s gumption to take a big-name talent away from others like St. Louis, Chicago, New York, or Boston, all of which have money to burn every year. If Hosmer works out, GM A.J. Preller comes off as a genius.
Then again, if Hosmer struggles, San Diego is stuck with him for at least five years, while the rest of an already-stacked NL West is only getting more impressive. It’s not an accusation that the Padres should have taken their name out of the running for Hosmer, but rather a case of right idea, wrong time.
The Padres did tie for second in the NL with 12 shutouts last year (LA led with 16), but sported a fifth-worst 4.67 ERA. Jhoulys Chacin was the only Padre starting pitcher to register double-digit wins (13), and threw a team-high 135 strikeouts. If the Padres really want to make a statement to the rest of the division, I’d be calling both Lynn and Cobb yesterday.
Owner Ron Fowler isn’t going to back up a fleet of Brinks trucks to win immediately, but he might have called one too many yesterday.
-JC24