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This Date In Transactions History

This Date In Transactions History: Tim Anderson Extension

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Today marks the four-year anniversary of the White Sox locking up their franchise shortstop. On March 21, 2017, the South Siders agreed to a six-year extension that guaranteed Tim Anderson $25MM. Via a pair of club options, the deal pushed Chicago’s club control over Anderson to the end of the 2024 season.

It was easy to see the appeal for the White Sox in betting on Anderson long-term. He was a former first-round pick and top 100 prospect, so one could envision him as a core piece of the future. Anderson had also held his own as a 23-year-old the year prior. The young shortstop made his MLB debut in June 2016 and hit a decent .283/.306/.432 over 431 plate appearances down the stretch.

There’s also the reality that early-career extensions tend to carry ample upside with little downside for teams. With the MLB salary structure designed to underpay players early in their careers, extensions for those players often tack on extra years of team control at rates well below what the player would’ve made in free agency if they perform at a high level. Meanwhile, the figures are typically low enough the team can paper over the deal if the player busts.

Still, this contract represented something of a show of faith on the White Sox’s part. Anderson had yet to accrue a full year of MLB service, so he would’ve been controllable through 2022 regardless. His strikeout and walk rates had been well worse than the league average in 2016, so a wait-and-see approach would’ve been reasonable, particularly with the organization embarking on a rebuild. Instead, Chicago placed a bet on Anderson’s long-term development. As Jeff Todd examined for MLBTR, the guarantee set a new high-water mark at that time for a player with less than one year of major league service.

The White Sox are now in position to be handsomely rewarded for that decision. After making the playoffs in 2020, Chicago looks well-positioned to continue to contend over the next few seasons. Anderson is a central reason for that. He has hit a stellar .331/.357/.514 (133 wRC+) over the past two seasons, finishing seventh in American League MVP voting in 2020.

While he has never drawn many walks, Anderson has improved in virtually every other regard since his rookie season. He’s cut his strikeout rate in recent years while hitting for more power and reliably posting high batting averages on balls in play. Anderson will play out the next two seasons on respective guaranteed salaries of $7.25MM and $9.5MM. Barring an unexpected drop in performance or injury, the White Sox should have little hesitancy excising the 2023-24 options (valued at $12.5MM and $14MM, respectively) and keeping Anderson in Chicago for the first half of this decade.

This Date In Transactions History: Marlins-Phillies Realmuto Trade

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On February 7, 2019, the Phillies and Marlins lined up on a monumental intra-division trade. Miami sent J.T. Realmuto to Philadelphia in exchange for pitching prospects Sixto Sánchez and Will Stewart, as well as MLB catcher Jorge Alfaro. The then-rebuilding Marlins relinquished their final pair of seasons of club control over one of the game’s premier catchers in exchange for longer-term value. With Realmuto now having played out those two years in Philadelphia, it’s worth taking stock of the progress of the players involved.

To date, the trade is shaping up to be a rare win-win. Realmuto more than lived up to his end of the bargain. Since the start of 2019, the former third-rounder has hit an above-average .273/.333/.492, all while rating as a high-end pitch framer and throwing out an elite 42.9% of attempting basestealers. He and Yasmani Grandal are well clear of the rest of the field when looking at FanGraphs’ WAR leaders among catchers the past two seasons. The Phillies didn’t find much in the way of team success, but that’s not the fault of Realmuto, who has been one of the sport’s two most productive catchers since the trade.

Of course, the Phillies-Realmuto relationship didn’t end once he reached free agency. Philadelphia brought back the franchise backstop on a five-year contract last month. The Realmuto acquisition would have been a successful one for the Phils regardless of whether they managed to re-sign him; trading for Realmuto during his arbitration years is a separate decision from the one to sign him to a long-term deal in free agency. Still, the Phillies acquiring Realmuto two years ago certainly couldn’t have hurt their chances of winning the bidding for him this winter.

The Marlins’ end of the deal is a bit more uncertain (as one would expect when a team trades away an established star for a group of talented younger players) but certainly looks bright. Sánchez was seen as the prize of the package at the time of the deal, and he’s only elevated his stock since then. The young righty spent most of the 2019 season in Double-A, where he was very good, and then made his MLB debut last season.

Over his first seven starts at the big league level, Sánchez pitched to a 3.46 ERA/4.18 SIERA. His strikeout rate (20.9%) was a bit below-average, but Sánchez posted better than average marks in both walk rate (7.0%) and ground ball rate (58.0%) as a 22-year-old. It may be too early to definitively declare the flamethrower a future ace, but he’s clearly a central piece of a young rotation the Marlins hope will allow them to perennially reach the postseason, as the Fish did in 2020.

Alfaro and Stewart remain in the Miami organization, but their respective stocks have fallen since the trade. After a decent 2019 season, Alfaro struggled in 2020 and was eventually supplanted on the depth chart by Chad Wallach. Stewart, meanwhile, had a difficult 2019 season in High-A. Eligible for this offseason’s Rule 5 draft, Stewart was left off Miami’s 40-man roster but went unselected.

Even if neither of the secondary pieces in the deal become core pieces for the Marlins, the Realmuto-Sánchez central framework of the trade will be fascinating to follow. There figures to be plenty of times for broadcasters and fans to rehash the details of the blockbuster when the two square off against one another over the coming years.

Two Years Ago, The Twins Signed An Elite Hitter

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Today marks the two-year anniversary of the Twins announcing a free agent deal with Nelson Cruz. The then-38-year-old received a one-year, $14.3MM guarantee with a $12MM club option covering the 2020 season.

At the time, Cruz was coming off an incredible four-year run with the Mariners. He had hit .284/.362/.546 during his time in Seattle. By measure of weighted runs created plus, the slugger was the sport’s eighth-most productive hitter between 2015-18 (minimum 600 plate appearances). Nevertheless, Cruz’s age and lack of defensive value as a full-time designated hitter limited him to a single year guarantee.

After a surprising Wild Card berth in 2017, the Twins slumped to a 78-84 season in 2018. Surely, the front office hoped that signing Cruz would install an elite bat into the middle of the order and help Minnesota’s lineup emerge as one of the best in the league. That’s precisely how things played out.

If anything, the already-great Cruz took his offensive game to another level in 2019. He hit a career-best .311/.392/.639 with 41 home runs in just 521 plate appearances. As a team, Minnesota slugged a record 307 homers that year en route to an AL Central title. That made exercising the 2020 option a no-brainer. Cruz again mashed at an elite level and helped the Twins to their second consecutive division championship this past season.

Now 40 years old, Cruz is again a free agent, facing the same questions he faced last time he was on the open market (and the time before that). He offers nothing defensively and is among the oldest players in the sport. Yet Cruz has shown no signs of decline at the plate; on the contrary, he’s coming off arguably the two best offensive seasons of his career.

Another deal between the Twins and Cruz makes plenty of sense. Minnesota again looks like one of the best teams in the American League, although the pursuit of another division title looks more difficult than ever thanks to the White Sox’s emergence as a legitimate contender. The past two division crowns haven’t led to any postseason success, which the Twins no doubt hope to change in 2021.  The parties have remained in contact this winter. No deal has come together to this point amidst uncertainty about whether the DH will expand to the National League, which would obviously open up Cruz’s market.

2 Years Ago, The Mets Cut Ties With A Former Star

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It seems like ancient history now, but right-hander Matt Harvey used to be considered among the majors’ elite players. A 2010 seventh overall pick of the Mets, Harvey debuted in the bigs in 2012 and truly broke out the next season with 178 1/3 innings of 2.27 ERA ball. From his first taste of MLB action until 2015, Harvey posted a 2.53 ERA with 9.46 K/9 and 1.98 BB/9 over 427 frames, earned an All-Star bid and was part of a pennant-winning team. Harvey, Noah Syndergaard and Jacob deGrom were supposed to form an unstoppable trio atop the Mets’ rotation for the long haul, but it wasn’t to be, as Harvey experienced a dramatic fall from grace during his time in their uniform.

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Injuries have been an all-too-common problem for Harvey, who underwent Tommy John surgery on his pitching elbow in October 2013 and sat out all of of the next season. Harvey made a triumphant return to win NL Comeback Player of the Year honors in 2015 – the latest season in which the Mets went to the World Series – but it wasn’t a campaign devoid of controversy for the hurler who became known as the Dark Knight. He and agent Scott Boras pushed for a limit of 180 innings for the year, but Harvey ended up exceeding that amount with ease, tossing 189 1/3 frames in the regular season and racking up another 26 2/3 in the playoffs. The workload may have been too heavy for his taste, but Harvey was actually great that October – including an eight-inning, two-run effort in a Fall Classic-deciding, Game 5 defeat to the Royals. Little did anyone know that shining moments would be so few and far between for him since then.

Rewinding to 2016, you’d have a hard time finding many regular starters who have been worse than Harvey. He underwent thoracic outlet surgery in July of that year, and that now looks like a death knell in hindsight. Now 31 years old, Harvey’s the owner of a 5.56 ERA – the third-highest figure among all qualified starters – in his most recent 390 innings.

Having seen enough of Harvey, the Mets – once justified in believing he was a true ace – gave up on him exactly two years ago. It was on May 8, 2018, that the Mets traded Harvey to the Reds for catcher Devin Mesoraco – another once-promising player who didn’t pan out as hoped. Harvey turned out OK as a Red, contributing 128 innings of 4.50 ERA ball en route to an $11MM guarantee with the Angels during the next period of free agency. Likewise, Mesoraco wasn’t horrible as a member of the Mets, with whom he batted .222/.306/.409 in 229 plate appearances. But neither player is even in baseball at this point.

Mesoraco has all but retired after sitting out the 2019 campaign. Harvey could still resume his career, but it’s not looking good. The former front-end starter was so ineffective in his lone year with the Angels that they released him in July. Harvey did catch on with the Athletics on a minor league contract after that, but he didn’t crack their big league roster at all, and there have been few rumblings about him since he elected free agency at the outset of offseason. In fact, MLBTR’s archives have just two somewhat recent news items on Harvey – one on how he auditioned for the Blue Jays as a reliever during the winter and another saying the Mets aren’t interested in reuniting with him. It’s a stunning descent for a pitcher who was among the best during his Mets heyday.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

The 10-Year Anniversary Of A Notable Cardinals Signing

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We’ve reached the 10-year anniversary of a Cardinals move that has paid significant dividends for the franchise. It was on this date in 2010 that the Cardinals signed right-hander Carlos Martinez out of the Dominican Republic for a $1.5MM bonus. The deal came a year after a $150K agreement Martinez had with the Red Sox fell through because of questions over his name and birthday, as Jesse Sanchez of MLB.com detailed back in 2013.

Martinez’s issues were ultimately sorted out after the Boston deal collapsed, and St. Louis has been the beneficiary. After a torrid run through the minors, Martinez ended up debuting in the majors in 2013 as a hyped prospect, even making five appearances in relief against Boston in St. Louis’ World Series loss to the Red Sox. He has since established himself as a key part of the Cardinals’ pitching staff.

Martinez truly broke out as a starter in 2015, the first season of a three-year, 580-inning stretch in which he logged a 3.24 ERA/3.59 FIP with 8.92 K/9, 3.17 BB/9 and a 54 percent groundball rate. The Cardinals made a sizable commitment to Martinez after the second of those seasons, signing him to an extension worth a guaranteed $51MM over five years in February 2017. Martinez is down to his last two guaranteed seasons on that pact, though the Cardinals will be able to control him for 2022 and ’23 via club options; that is, if they’re willing to pay him $17MM in the first year and/or $18MM in the second (otherwise, they could buy him out in either season for $500K).

Martinez seemed to be on pace to have those options picked up just a couple years ago, but it’s less clear what his future holds at this point. Now 28 years old, Martinez spent the majority of the previous two seasons as a reliever – an effective one at that – owing in part to injuries. Dating back to 2018, he has tossed 167 innings of 3.13 ERA/3.34 FIP ball with 9.16 K/9, 4.2 BB/9 and a typically above-average grounder percentage of 51.1.

All 48 of the hard-throwing Martinez’s appearances last year came out of the Cardinals’ bullpen as he recovered from shoulder issues, and he even converted 24 of 27 save opportunities while filling in for the injured Jordan Hicks as their closer. However, before the coronavirus pandemic reared its ugly head and caused baseball to shut down, the 28-year-old looked as if he was on track to return to his prior role in the St. Louis rotation in 2020.

No matter which job Martinez takes on this season (if there is one), it’s fair to say his production as both a starter and a reliever has been a boon to the Cardinals. Ten years ago today, they landed a two-time All-Star for a relative pittance.

This Date In Transactions History: From Cleveland To Cincinnati

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We’ve reached the 14-year anniversary of a pivotal Reds-Indians trade that was hardly a headline-grabber at the time. It was on April 7, 2006, that the Reds acquired 24-year-old second baseman Brandon Phillips from the Indians for a player to be named later. That player turned into right-hander Jeff Stevens, whom Cincinnati sent to Cleveland in June of that year.

Phillips entered the pro ranks as a high draft selection of the Montreal Expos, who picked him in the second round (No. 57) in 1999. He was later part of a Montreal-Cleveland deal that had a massive impact, as the Expos sent Phillips, Grady Sizemore, Cliff Lee and Lee Stevens to the Indians for Bartolo Colon and Tim Drew. Sizemore and Lee became stars in Cleveland, but Phillips didn’t amount to much there in 462 combined plate appearances from 2002-05.

Phillips spent the majority of his final season as a member of the organization with the Indians’ then-Triple-A team in Buffalo, where he put up a .734 on-base plus slugging percentage. Unimpressed, the Indians and former general manager Mark Shapiro soon gave up on Phillips. That proved to be a mistake, at least when you consider what they received for Phillips. Stevens never even pitched for the franchise, instead throwing a combined 37 1/3 innings with the Cubs from 2009-11 after the Indians traded him as part of a deal for utilityman Mark DeRosa (notably, that transaction also saw Chris Archer head to Chicago). While DeRosa was effective for the Indians in ’09, that was his lone season with the club. The team later sent him to to St. Louis in a trade for reliever Chris Perez.

Perez had his moments in Cleveland, but they don’t match up to Phillips’ impact in Cincinnati. “Dat Dude” was a productive Red from the jump and eventually became a franchise icon – someone who was instrumental in breaking their 14-year playoff drought in 2009. The Reds went on to earn two more playoff berths while Phillips was in their uniform. His long tenure with the franchise concluded in February 2017 with a trade to the Braves, but not before Phillips racked up a laundry list of personal accomplishments. As a member of the Reds, Phillips made three All-Star teams, won four Gold Gloves and batted .279/.325/.429 with 191 home runs, 194 stolen bases and 28.1 wins above replacement over 6,899 plate appearances. He’s currently eighth in Reds history in games played (1,614) and PA and 10th in hits (1,774), runs scored (877) and total bases (2,722), to name just a few key statistics.

Phillips, now 38 years old, hasn’t played in the majors since 2018. But he’ll always be a part of the Reds’ rich history, and his acquisition was no doubt one of the shining moments of former Reds GM Wayne Krivsky’s stint. It’s also another bit of proof that you shouldn’t sleep on any transaction, no matter how minor it may seem at the time.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

This Date In Transactions History: An Expensive Mistake

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Big-money free-agent signings in late March aren’t all that common, but the Cardinals pulled one off exactly two years ago. In hindsight, they probably wish it wouldn’t have happened. On March 31, 2018, the Cardinals added right-handed reliever Greg Holland on a one-year, $14MM contract. Holland was supposed to solidify the back end of the Cards’ bullpen, a unit that lost then-standout Trevor Rosenthal to Tommy John surgery late in the previous season. Instead, though, Holland endured a woeful few months as a Cardinal, didn’t finish the season in their uniform and has seen a once-great career continue to go downhill since then.

Holland entered free agency off a nice 2017 showing in Colorado, where he led the National League in saves (41) and logged a 3.61 ERA/3.72 FIP with 10.99 K/9 and 4.08 BB/9 over 57 1/3 innings. Not dominant numbers overall, but Holland picked up his third All-Star nod and was quite strong outside of a couple of blowups. Plus, the fact that it was his first action after a serious injury made his production look even better.

Holland’s best known for putting up excellent numbers in Kansas City from 2011-15, and he was close to untouchable during the Royals’ pennant-winning 2014 campaign. The decline began after that, though, as Holland suffered a torn right ulnar collateral ligament that ended his 2015 season in September. The injury prevented him from aiding the Royals in their run to a World Series championship that fall, forced Holland to undergo Tommy John and then caused him to sit out all of the next season.

Both the Rockies and the Cards were clearly impressed by the post-surgery Holland in 2017. He turned down his half of a $15MM mutual option after the season, but the Rockies then issued him a $17.4MM qualifying offer. Holland also said no to that, which may have been a mistake; however, expectations were that he’d beat that guarantee on the open market. MLBTR forecast a four-year, $50MM guarantee for Holland, but it turns out that he was not among the several free-agent relievers that winter who found a lucrative multiyear contracts (former Royals bullpen mate Wade Davis, who took Holland’s place in Colorado, led the way). Unfortunate for Holland, but considering the way his career has gone since then, the rest of the league’s teams dodged a bullet.

Because he didn’t sign until a couple days after the Cardinals’ season began, Holland did not have the benefit of a normal spring training. He took a bit of time to ramp up and then debuted with St. Louis on April 9, which proved to be his first of several poor outings with the club. Holland took the loss in that game after walking four of the five batters he faced. Walks were an all-too-common problem throughout Holland’s brief run as a Cardinal, as he wound up posting an extremely unusual and hideous line consisting of a 7.92 ERA with 7.92 K/9 and 7.92 BB/9. Holland never even registered a save for the club, which cut ties with him on Aug. 1, 2018, and ate almost $5MM in the process. To worsen the blow for the Cardinals, because Holland was a QO recipient, they had to cough up their second-round pick in 2018 and $500K of international money for inking him.

To his credit, Holland quickly rebounded from his abysmal Cards career. He closed 2018 in outstanding fashion as a member of the Nationals, with whom he recorded an almost flawless 0.84 ERA in 21 1/3 innings. Holland couldn’t follow that up in 2019, however, as he ended up with mediocre stats as a Diamondback. And they, like the Cardinals a year before them, designated Holland for assignment before the season concluded.

The 34-year-old Holland is now once again looking to rebound, this time back in his old Kansas City stomping grounds after the Royals reunited with him on a minor league contract in January. Perhaps Holland will revive his career either in KC or elsewhere in 2020, but the fact that he settled for a non-guaranteed deal two years after receiving such a sizable payday shows how far he has fallen.

This Date In Transactions History: The Return Of Andy Pettitte

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It was on this date eight years ago that one of the members of the Yankees’ famed Core Four came out of retirement to return to the mound. Left-hander Andy Pettitte rejoined two other players from that group (longtime teammates Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera) in the Bronx, agreeing to what proved to be a bargain contract for the club. It was a minor league deal worth up to $2.5MM – money well spent for the Yankees.

Pettitte retired after the 2010 season, his 16th in the majors and his 13th as a Yankee, but felt the urge to pitch again while working as a spring guest instructor for the team prior to the 2012 campaign. As one of the most accomplished pitchers in the history of the organization, the Yankees were happy to welcome back Pettitte, then 39 years old, even though they already had six other arms (CC Sabathia, Michael Pineda, Hiroki Kuroda, Phil Hughes, Freddy Garcia and Ivan Nova) for five rotation spots. But it turns out that they needed Pettite that year. Pineda didn’t pitch after succumbing to a torn labrum following the Pettitte reunion, while Garcia and Nova turned in ineffective seasons.

As someone who signed so close to the regular season, Pettitte took time to ramp up before his return to the mound became official. He didn’t make his 2012 debut until May 13, a 6-2 loss to Seattle in which he yielded four earned runs on 6 1/3 innings.

Pettitte was encouraged afterward, though, saying: “I just cannot believe how comfortable this is for me. I don’t know how to explain it.”

Indeed, while Pettitte’s first game back didn’t produce ideal results for him or his team, he returned to his old ways from that point forward. Pettitte tossed eight shutout frames five days later in a 4-0 win over the Reds. He continued to throw well in the coming weeks, but Pettitte fractured his left fibula in a June 27 start versus Cleveland and didn’t get back until the end of September. Pettitte posted three solid outings to conclude the season, ending it with 12 starts and 75 1/3 frames of 2.87 ERA ball with a lofty grounder percentage of 56.3 and 8.24 K/9 against 2.51 BB/9. His stellar performance contributed to a 95-victory, AL East-winning campaign for the Yankees, who edged out the Orioles by two games.

The Yankees couldn’t have realistically asked for more out of Pettitte, but he provided it in October. Typically impervious to the pressure of the postseason, Pettitte combined for 13 2/3 innings of five-run pitching in two starts (one against Baltimore, the other versus Detroit). The Yankees did get by the Orioles in an ALDS that went the distance, but the Tigers overwhelmed them in the ALCS in a four-game sweep.

While Pettitte was unable to claim his sixth World Series title in his first season back, he fared so nicely that it convinced him to stick around for one more year. The Yankees had to pay up that time, inking the three-time All-Star to a $12MM guarantee, but they also got their money’s worth in 2013. Even though New York finished 85-77 and didn’t qualify for the playoffs, Pettitte’s going-out party was one of the highlights of the team’s year. He put the exclamation point on his career with a complete game, one-run performance in Houston (where he pitched from 2004-06) in his last game.

Thanks to Pettitte’s decision to end his first retirement on March 16, 2012, he spent two years further cementing himself as one of the top pitchers in the Yankees’ storied history.

This Date In Transactions History: The $300MM Man(ny)

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It has been exactly one year since the biggest signing in the history of the San Diego franchise became official. The team stunningly pulled in former Orioles and Dodgers third baseman/shortstop Manny Machado on a 10-year, $300MM contract. The deal easily trumped the Padres’ previous record contract – the eight-year, $144MM pact they awarded first baseman Eric Hosmer in February 2018.

Along with outfielder Bryce Harper, Machado entered last winter’s free-agent market as one of the most ballyhooed free agents of all-time. The two made for rare in-their-prime superstars to get to that stage, but it took quite some time for either to find landing spots. Unlike this offseason, free agency moved at a glacial pace then, leaving Machado and Harper without teams until almost March. However, both ultimately inked two of the richest contracts free agency has seen (Harper’s $330MM guarantee still stands as the largest ever awarded on the open market).

When Machado became a free agent, expectations were he’d sign with a big-spending team like the Yankees, but they and others decided to go in another direction. And Machado didn’t do himself any favors when he said during the prior fall that he’s “not the type of player that’s going to be ’Johnny Hustle.’” Nevertheless, he arrived on the market as an incredibly accomplished player.

Upon getting to free agency, Machado was a 26-year-old with four All-Star nods and two Gold Gloves under his belt, and he showed he could handle both short and third with aplomb. Furthermore, from his first full season in 2013 through 2018, Machado batted .283/.337/.489 with 168 home runs, accounting for the seventh-highest fWAR among position players (28.9). For the most part, he was also rather durable in that span, twice appearing in 162 games in a season and amassing at least 150 appearances five times.

Machado’s sturdiness continued in his first season as a Padre in 2019, when he took part in 156 games. The longtime shortstop did see time there, but only because stellar youngster Fernando Tatis Jr. missed a significant amount of action thanks to injuries. The plan was (and continues to be) for Machado and Tatis to form one of the premier left sides of the infield in baseball. When healthy, there’s a case they did just that, though Machado’s first year in San Diego was arguably somewhat disappointing. Primarily a third baseman, Machado took 661 plate appearances and hit .256/.334/.462 – good for a slightly above-average 108 wRC+. That comes off as pedestrian in comparison to some of his past seasons, yet he still mashed 32 homers and recorded 3.1 fWAR.

Most teams would sign up for the type of production Machado offered in 2019 from their third basemen. However, the Padres probably wanted more bang for their buck in the first season of a $300MM contract. Perhaps the Padres will get it this season, as Machado has shown an ability in the past to bounce back from seasons that have been so-so by his standards (compare his 2017 to his 2018, for example). If he returns to elite form, it would only help the Padres in their quest to break what’s now a 13-year playoff drought.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

This Date In Transactions History: Hoz To Pads

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Two years ago today, a struggling San Diego club doled out what was then the largest contract in franchise history. The Padres added free-agent first baseman Eric Hosmer on an eight-year, $144MM deal, no doubt hoping he’d help legitimize a team that was then stuck in an 11-year playoff drought. That skid has continued since the Padres picked up Hosmer, however.

The Royals made Hosmer the third overall pick in 2008, and he remained among the game’s most prized prospects during his time in their farm system. Hosmer further upped his stock with a quality rookie season in the majors in 2011, the beginning of an up-and-down career. He wound up turning in two sub-replacement-level seasons as a Royal, yet the highs were high when they came. Hosmer took home four Gold Gloves in KC, earned an All-Star nod in 2016 and was an important part of the franchise’s first World Series-winning season (2015) since 1985.

The Royals’ descent in the standings began in 2016, the year after their title-winning campaign, as Hosmer was again closer to replacement level than truly valuable. But Hosmer rebounded in a big way the next season, batting a personal-best .318/.385/.498 with career highs in home runs (25) and fWAR (4.0). Thanks in part to his production that year and his well-regarded clubhouse presence, the Royals – despite being at the start of a rebuild – wanted to keep Hosmer when he became a free agent. In the end, though, they couldn’t keep him from heading to San Diego, which hauled in Hosmer after he remained on the open market for much longer than expected.

At least during the initial stages of his contract, the Padres were banking on 2017-esque production from Hosmer. Unfortunately for them, Hosmer has been more Hyde than Jekyll in their uniform. He accounted for negative fWARs in each of his first two seasons as a Padre, totaling minus-0.5 over a team-leading 1,344 trips to the plate. His .259/.316/.412 line as a Padre has been 7 percent worse than the league-average offensive output, according to wRC+.

Based on his numbers as a Padre, it’s fair to say the Hosmer signing has been regrettable for the Padres. And it has caused other complications, including with Wil Myers. While Myers was the Padres’ first baseman when they signed Hosmer, he then had to shift to the outfield and hasn’t offered much production since. Consequently, Myers has been the subject of trade rumors for multiple years, including at this very moment. He’s a poor fit on a team that’s committed to Hosmer for the foreseeable future, and general manager A.J. Preller has worked to get rid of Myers as a result.

The fact that the Padres also have quite a bit of payroll tied up in Hosmer only adds to their problems. Their combined $444MM guarantees to Hosmer and third baseman Manny Machado – whose $300MM pact trumps Hosmer’s – might say otherwise, but they’ve never ranked among the freest spenders in the game (though they are on track for a franchise-high payroll in 2020). Every dollar counts in the Padres’ situation, so squandering nine figures on a player who has had so much trouble producing in their uniform could have negative ramifications for years.

Although they can’t be pleased with what Hosmer has given them thus far, he’s unlikely to go anywhere. Agent Scott Boras included full no-trade rights in the first three seasons of Hosmer’s deal when he negotiated it, for one. The contract also has an opt-out clause after the fifth year, though the way things have gone lately, it’s hard to imagine Hosmer walking away from the Padres. He’ll certainly be in San Diego in 2020, when the club will hope his age-30 campaign goes far better than his previous couple seasons.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

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