On paper, Padres first baseman Eric Hosmer had a trying 2018 in the first season of an eight-year, $144MM contract, though he did impress the team with his leadership, Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune details. As for Hosmer’s production – he hit a below-average .253/.322/.398 in 677 plate appearances – the 28-year-old remarked: “I know I’m going to go back and be the player I know I can be. This isn’t the impression I wanted to make the first year, but there’s nothing I can say to make it any better. Just, I’ll be ready to go next year.” Hosmer added that not having to deal with the free-agent process this winter and knowing he’ll be a Padre for the long haul will help him “have a clear mind this offseason.” And the executive who signed Hosmer, general manager A.J. Preller, suggested that the ex-Royal may have been pressing in his first year of a big contract, adding: “We have a lot of faith we’re going to look up next year and it’s going to be an All-Star caliber season for him. Just because of the type of person he is. That’s what gave us the comfort in signing him and a lot of comfort going forward he’s going to be that guy.”
- Hosmer’s on-base percentage was just above the National League mean of .318, but the Padres as a whole struggled in that department, posting a league-worst .297 mark. The Padres have now recorded the majors’ lowest OBP five times in a row, AJ Cassavell of MLB.com notes, and that’s a trend they’d obviously like to break. “It starts with getting guys who’ve shown a history of being on base,” Preller said. “From a talent and personnel standpoint we’ll continue to look at changing the mix a little bit. … And then from a messaging standpoint we’ll continue to hammer it home every possible way for guys to understand: Getting on base is probably the most important thing in the game.”
- Diamondbacks GM Mike Hazen spoke to the media Monday on the heels of an 82-80 season in which the club went 8-19 in September to fall out of contention. While the offseason’s only about a month from beginning in earnest, Hazen’s not sure yet which direction the club will go, as he suggested (via Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic) that it may take until November for a decision to come. It seems unlikely the club will go all in toward contention or launch a full rebuild, though, as Hazen told Zach Buchanan of The Athletic: “I think realistically it’s probably more narrow than that, than the spectrum you portrayed.”
- Although Ichiro Suzuki moved from the Mariners’ outfield to a front office role in May, the future Hall of Famer’s agent, John Boggs, insisted at the time he wasn’t retiring. That hasn’t changed, as Mariners GM Jerry Dipoto said Monday (via Corey Brock of The Athletic) that the team will give Ichiro a chance to win a job on its 2019 Opening Day roster, if he’s healthy. Notably, the Mariners will begin their season in Ichiro’s homeland of Japan, where he thrived as a professional before immigrating to Seattle in 2001.
- More on the Mariners, who “hope” reliever Sam Tuivailala will return by next June, Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times tweets. The M’s acquired Tuivailaila from the Cardinals in late July, only to see his season end a couple weeks later on account of a right Achilles injury. The 25-year-old Tuivailala pitched to a 3.41 ERA with 7.3 K/9, 2.92 BB/9 and a 49.2 percent groundball rate before undergoing surgery in August.
He will be on the roster when they play in Japan.
he’ll prob get one last game in Japan, then one last in Seattle, then get a proper send off
That’s a lock.
Hosmer signing was a mistake.
Should of rode myers at 1st. Villanueva at 3rd and played the young kids.
This off season I think you trade Reyes. Go with Renfroe Margot and Cordero with jankowski being 4th.
I’d try to trade Myers to someone like Seattle or Cleveland attach a prospect or 2 to facilitate a deal.
In the draft you target quicker ascending prospects. Like Zach Thompson of Kentucky on the 1st.
Villanueva is a great platoon against LHP, but against RHP he has .189/.255/.319. I agree that they should’ve just kept Myers at first, but I guess they saw more value in Hosmer as a leader for their younger players, which I think it was a dumb reason considering they had already payed a large amount for Myers to play first and the leader of the team. The Padres should also stick with Reyes, he’s still just 23 years old and he improved a lot in the second half of the season posting .315/.383/.537 in 162 ab with 10 home runs while also lowering his stirkout rate from 40% in the first half to 25% in the second half. Renfore on the other hand improved mostly in power.
Myers could take over 1B and they could trade Healy to someone like KC.
Kc is solid on infielders. Pitching is where they need the most help
Or hey, the Mariners don’t get a first baseman that hits for a league average slash line.
Why would the Padres trade Reyes? He is part of the answer, not the problem. He and Renfroe are by far the two young hitters who took their games to the next level this year. I would fully expect to see the back. Their plate discipline and approach is noticeably improved. As a Padre fan I’m not worried about those two at all.
The problem with Reyes is the defense – he’s not really playable out there. And his body type – he’s a huge, barrel-shaped guy – doesn’t suggest he has a lot of ability to improve. He had a very nice year with the bat and it’s a bummer he doesn’t have anywhere else to go because of the immovable object at first base.
It’s too bad the Padres had to pay $144 million for “leadership.” Reyes would be much better off at 1b, just like Myers was before this signing.
Tbh I have seen very little improvement from the Padres overall. Luckily they weren’t even expected to be a postseason contender this year, so this is the time to make mistakes and learn from them. Hopefully the Padres front office can focus on aquiring an above average everyday 3B and trade away someone from their already crowded outfield. Also starting pitching could be nice, Joey Lucchesi & Eric Laurer are decent enough to be the 4th and 5th starter for a playoff team. Relief pitching seems strong, Strahm, Castillo, Stock, Wingenter performed well. I’m not counting Yates or Stammen because they don’t seem like they’ll stick with the Friars in the long run because of their age
Who’s Eric Laurer?
he is a pitcher for the Padres
The Padres don’t have a pitcher named Eric Laurer.
It’s Eric Lauer.
Not sure who Laurer is, but thanks for letting us all know who the pedantic jackwagon is.
Ichiro will play one game in Japan in the two game series, and then probably retire for good, I assume.
I did not think Hosmer would be THIS bad. I laugh that they tout a player’s leadership skills on a team that possibly played slightly worse than expected, certainly not better.
Also, you don’t pay a player for intangibles, you just avoid those who don’t fit in with a healthy, upbeat atmosphere.. I think that opinion won’t be popular..
Every team will use refrain from asinine “leader” analogy. You pay player to perform. This isn’t high school
If you wanted veteran leadership, you could have just waited a year and offered Pence a minor league contract. Not pay 144 M for a league average firstbaseman.
So, Preller thinks the Padres can improve to .500 ball, from .400 baseball, in one season?
That’s a tough turn around. The Padres, even after trading several of their best bullpen pieces, still have a good bullpen. Their bullpen and rotation will be acceptable in 2019. Their position players are going to average .240 and hold a .295 OBP? That’s not going to take them anywhere besides last place. I agree, build from within, but the results had better start to show, fast.
That Hosmer contract was brutal. 8 years? Even if he had an all star season he would have declined for the majority of the contract.
There’s an opt-out clause in there, and thankfully they were smart enough to front load the contract, so he’ll get cheaper as time goes on. I think the best case scenario at this point would be for him have a solid all star year in the year he can opt out. Then he exercises the opt out and the team will be rid of him a few years earlier.
Nope. Opt-outs always hurt the team. If he has an All-Star year in 2022 they wouldn’t want him to opt out. Even if they did, Hosmer at 3/$39m would become a tradeable asset at that point. Only way he doesn’t opt out is if he sucks in 2022.
Saying, someone brings leadership abilities is like telling a girl she has a great personality. You’re just reaching for a positive. I just looked at the Padres final stats and they definitely have a ways to go offensively. I didn’t see anyone on their team come close to reaching the next level this year.
So the contract had language stating that it was cool to suck the first year and not worry about it because the free agent winter was weird?
That makes sense.
Leave it to the Padres to sign a guy like this to an 8-year, ridiculously overpriced deal.
Pathetic organization from top to bottom……
Only the Padres would sign someone to that kind of contract when they already have a player on a high contract playing the same position. Myers has been in the league for several years now and has shown that every year you play him in the OF he will spend a good portion of the season on the DL. Maybe if they eat part of his contract they can get the Yankees to take Myers. They love home run hitters and need a 1st baseman. The Mariners are the only other team I can think of that could use his bat at 1st and are willing to spend money. He is made of glass and has a noodle arm so it’s either LF or 1st. Every year they try to play him in LF he is going to spend half of it on the DL.
Myers actually has a good arm; he came up as a catcher and teams don’t try guys at 3rd base unless they can throw. Every other aspect of his defense is not good, though, and he’s only ever been healthy for a full season when he was a primary first baseman. It’s a bad situation all-around and I hope the Padres can at least get some return for him. The Myers situation is just another ancillary effect of the dumb decision to sign Hosmer.
Wasn’t fond of the Hosmer signing and still am not. At times it felt like he was trying to do too much but his plate discipline went out the window and he needs to quit hitting so many ground balls.
Hosmer demeanor talking to every opposing player acting like high school kid gets old when he stunk whole season. He did absolutely nothing on road. This “he’s good every other year” crap is just that. Why sign him then to lose 96 with or without him
The Padres actually lost 91 games without him in 2017. Lost 96 games with him this year. The team got worse record wise and it’s apparent even if you didn’t watch the games intensely this season. Andy Green isn’t a good manager and I hated the signing before the ink dried.
Lame duck coach. Never shows any emotion, Dave Roberts comes in last year and shoves him and they both get suspended but Andy did absolutely NOTHING. If anything, that would have set the tone for his tenure here and it could have been an iconic moment for him. Instead, he gets out managed every time.
I was hoping that he would quietly get fired so we can get Girardi in here or even Ron Washington, I’d even be okay trying out Mark DeRosa, that is type of manager who can be successful here. A guy who isn’t afraid of the big lights who will call guys out when needed, I don’t think Andy is that guy.
It’s a real stretch to put those extra losses on Hosmer. If you really need a scapegoat, it would make more sense to blame Mitchell.
dbacks need a rebuild…no chance in contending in 2019+
Myers is a dumb baseball player. Stupid plays at 1b…stupid base running gaffes. He has to go be a DH. Plus he shot his mouth off at beloved Andy. Reyes needs to be DH too…next big papi. Too slow to play OF. Hosmer…has to stop striking out. He chased some bad pitches all year. Not acceptable for a veteran.
My plan for the Padres offseason if I were GM.
Address the starting pitching immediately. At least two experienced arms need to enter the rotation via free agency or trade. Right off the bat my personal favorites would be Kuechel and Gray.
I’m not sure what Kuechel stands to get via free agency but you figure: Lucchesi, Lauer, Allen, Morejon, Gore and Weathers can all learn a lot from having a veteran Lefty lead the staff and organization, much better than appointing that duty to Clayton Richard, results need to be on the field and for Clayton it’s hard for young guys to look up to him when he still has his fare share of issues. Kuechel fits well.
Trade for Sonny Gray. It was made public all year that this offseason the Yankees could explore dealing him to a smaller market. He kinda has what Grienke had early in his career where playing for big market teams wasn’t always good for his type of personality or demeanor, the same could be said for Gray. He won’t be terribly expensive, and I don’t think a deal will be hard to pull off.
Swap Myers contract with that of any albatross contract/(s) in the league, preferably from a rebuilding team and see if a change of scenery works. A couple of possibilities would be to Kansas City for Duffy and Kennedy- Myers is owed 73 million and they also total that amount combined. Ian Desmond plus Shaw or McGee would also be a realistic option.
Trade Kirby Yates to the highest bidder, regain prospect capital lost in the hypothetical Gray trade, along with if they have to attach a prospect to Myers to send him away. Yates could work the 8th for a lot of contending teams, and is cheap. I would expect to hear a lot on him.
Balsley gets an opportunity to fix either Bryan Shaw or Jake McGee, in which they take the veteran seat next to Craig Stammen and Clayton Richard down in the bullpen. Castillo, Wingenter can close. Strahm could be in more high leverage situations if he doesn’t win a Rotation spot out of camp.
Lastly, Lamet comes back. So the rotation could look like 1. Kuechel 2. Gray 3. Lucchesi 4. Lamet 5. Lauer/Nix/Strahm.
Rockies and Padres not trading especially for Myers. I think Myers for Gray maybe but Padres would have to include $
Keuchel? He’s 30 now want to waste more $. That’s right up their alley
The Royals don’t want Myers back. His attitude in KC made him expendable.
The fact that the Padres have been last in the majors in OBP for five years in a row now is flat out embarrassing. Wasn’t their new hitting coach they hired this year supposed to emphasize a high-OBP approach? Where is the plate discipline with these guys? Granted, some of them got better as the year went on (like Reyes cutting his strikeout rate in the second half), but still, it’s a glaring issue for the entire organization.
That’s AJ Preller he loves strikeouts
personally as a KC fan I wished KC had tried to resign Lorenzo Cain instead of chasing the Hosmer train. LoCain is a dependable player and has that mojo for a team…
Personally as a Padres fan I wished the Royals would have tried a little harder to get Hosmer, that way we wouldn’t be ones stuck with him for 5-8 years
That’s being smart Royals let Padres bury themselves in bad contract