Sox acquire Eric Hosmer

cantor44

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I'm hoping another shoe drops somewhere. It seems it has too. But then again, I thought that after the Renfroe-JBJ trade. Is Bloom maybe mistaking quantity for quality?
 

Captaincoop

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I mean Eric Hosmer for basically nothing beats the hell out of the Dalbec/Franchy Plan. A 1% improvement is better than no improvement.

Edit: until we find out what we gave up

Totally agree with all that, but then why did Bloom just trade the starting catcher away for another team's ~20th best prospects? To me, the Vasquez deal signifies a complete white flag for 2022, so why do this now?
 

Harry Hooper

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he refuses to give up the ghost of the 2022 season.
I don't get this. There's no bunch of minor leaguers ready to be called up for a MLB test drive this season. Why should a heavily-subsidized Hosmer be turned down? It's likely he can be cut with minimal payroll implications {for the Sox} for the duration of the contract.
 

Deweys New Stance

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There isn't. It's just the worst of Dan Duquette, throwing as many random washed up and/or injury prone players you can find against the wall and hoping you can piece together a season. Last year it worked, this year it isn't but he refuses to give up the ghost of the 2022 season.
Perhaps wait until we know the full details of this transaction as well as what else the Sox are doing today before throwing out posts like this.
 

curly2

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Really wish he didn't play the same position as the one position prospect they have who is seemingly ready for the majors.
 

cornwalls@6

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There isn't. It's just the worst of Dan Duquette, throwing as many random washed up and/or injury prone players you can find against the wall and hoping you can piece together a season. Last year it worked, this year it isn't but he refuses to give up the ghost of the 2022 season.
I don't think any of the moves to date are necessarily bad for the franchise, but they feel like water treading, and not really moving the ball forward much on a rebuild. If by 6, they move X and Nate, and get a decent prospect haul, that will change the the equation. If not, I would say you're right. An attempt to thread the needle between keeping the slim contention hopes alive this year, without spending any significant assets. We'll see what the next couple of hours brings.
 

TheYellowDart5

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Really wish he didn't play the same position as the one position prospect they have who is seemingly ready for the majors.
Given that the Padres are apparently paying the majority of Hosmer's salary, I can't imagine Bloom and company will hesitate to dump Hosmer if and when Casas is ready, or at least move him into a backup role. It's not as if that would cost them much.
 

Apisith

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I wonder why Hosmer never went along with the launch angle revolution and whether it’s fixable because his FB% hasn’t changed. In 2020 he had a really good year because of a good launch angle. In 2021 he reverted to his career average. It’s even worse in 2022. His batted ball metrics are really bad this year, ugly. EV is down, hardhit% is down, launch angle is terrible.
 

scottyno

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Bloom appears to have given up nothing or little to nothing to add an average player at a position of need, under control for 3 more years, but also able to be easily dumped at any time if/when Casas is ready and people are still complaining.
 

budcrew08

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The folks calling this a giant upgrade at first realize that Hosmer is still a below-average hitter, right? This is the equivalent of going from living in a wet cardboard box to living in a tin shack with a nice paint job but no doors.
At least with the second choice, your head stays dry.
 

joe dokes

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Totally agree with all that, but then why did Bloom just trade the starting catcher away for another team's ~20th best prospects? To me, the Vasquez deal signifies a complete white flag for 2022, so why do this now?
Isn't how a guy ranks on some other teams list only marginally relevant? Has anyone said where the Houston guys now rank in the Sox system. A "complete white flag" involves far more than trading one starting player. Its also just not as binary as people think (or would like to think, because it's a whole lot easier if we "knew" whether the team is "buying" or "selling.")
 

AlNipper49

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Totally agree with all that, but then why did Bloom just trade the starting catcher away for another team's ~20th best prospects? To me, the Vasquez deal signifies a complete white flag for 2022, so why do this now?
Hosmer is under contract for three more seasons and the Padres were obviously moving on from Hosmer now. I do agree that I don't take his statement of still competing this year at face value. Even if they make the playoffs, pitching wins playoff series and the Sox one right now is a whole bunch of who knows.

But if you can move the team forward without taking on risk, why not? This helps mitigate the Casas risk.
 

AB in DC

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Bloom appears to have given up nothing or little to nothing to add an average player at a position of need, under control for 3 more years, but also able to be easily dumped at any time if/when Casas is ready and people are still complaining.
Really curious if Hosmer could play another position besides 1B once Casas is ready.
 

Captaincoop

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Isn't how a guy ranks on some other teams list only marginally relevant? Has anyone said where the Houston guys now rank in the Sox system. A "complete white flag" involves far more than trading one starting player. Its also just not as binary as people think (or would like to think, because it's a whole lot easier if we "knew" whether the team is "buying" or "selling.")
Trading your starting catcher, with no replacement anywhere in the system or coming back in trade, is prima facie a white flag move. If they acquire a starting catcher today, then the facts have changed. Until then, the only logical assumption is that they have no intent to compete this year.
 

Yaz4Ever

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Bloom appears to have given up nothing or little to nothing to add an average player at a position of need, under control for 3 more years, but also able to be easily dumped at any time if/when Casas is ready and people are still complaining.
Sounds good to me. A slight resurgence (or at leas no regression) makes him tradable if/when Casas is available without us having to eat salary.
 

PedroKsBambino

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This trade deadline for the Sox seems like rearranging the chairs on the deck of the Titanic.
I would say it differently, they had a really bad offseason and are trying to plug some holes with more serviceable parts. It doesn't answer all the structural questions, but it addresses smaller problems which are also real.

These are "making awful into average" moves which I get isn't sexy, but it is useful. As is adding prospects.
 

Rovin Romine

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The folks calling this a giant upgrade at first realize that Hosmer is still a below-average hitter, right?
With the exception of 2019, he's been an average or above-average hitter for every year since 2015.

He's been an above-average hitter this year.

So, kinda curious - you just winging it, or getting info from twitter or talk radio or what?
 

joe dokes

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The folks calling this a giant upgrade at first realize that Hosmer is still a below-average hitter, right? This is the equivalent of going from living in a wet cardboard box to living in a tin shack with a nice paint job but no doors.
112 OPS+ this year isn't quite below average. And its a significant upgrade.
 

Yo La Tengo

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From Rosenthal:

"Padres almost certainly paying vast majority of remaining financial obligation to Hosmer - more than $7M this season, plus $39 million from ‘23 to ‘25 - in deal with Red Sox. Boston not on his no-trade list."
 

johnlos

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Totally agree with all that, but then why did Bloom just trade the starting catcher away for another team's ~20th best prospects? To me, the Vasquez deal signifies a complete white flag for 2022, so why do this now?
Depth. Our depth is trash and its shown this year. 2 months of Vazquez was worth two nearly-ML-ready pieces with upside (also Valdez was up to Astros #12 on BA midseason update)
 

DennyDoyle'sBoil

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To me this comes down to what "significant portion" means.

If the Sox paid the equivalent of about 3 WAR for Hosmer that's fine with me. He's worth nothing to them this year but if they took on salary commensurate with 3 WAR over the next three years I'm ok with this deal.

So if "significant portion" means the Pads are paying $20 million I'll be bummed but if it means closer to $27 million then I think we did a nice vulture job here by picking off a player that had become expendable.

Edit --

From Rosenthal:

"Padres almost certainly paying vast majority of remaining financial obligation to Hosmer - more than $7M this season, plus $39 million from ‘23 to ‘25 - in deal with Red Sox. Boston not on his no-trade list."
Ok, I like "vast majority" better than "significant portion."
 
The folks calling this a giant upgrade at first realize that Hosmer is still a below-average hitter, right? This is the equivalent of going from living in a wet cardboard box to living in a tin shack with a nice paint job but no doors.
Is he? He has an OPS+ of 112 and a wRC+ of 107 this year. Isn't that by definition above average? I know you waved away those numbers because of his hot start this year, but I bet if you take just about any slightly above average hitter and took away his best weeks he'd look shitty.

___

As a more general comment: this board is really twisted sometimes. People have been clamoring for an upgrade to Dalbec/Franchy for months and months, lamenting how easy it would be because their production is bad and now that we've actually gotten that upgrade for next to nothing in cost, you all are raging that the acquisition is worthless. A .5 to 2 WAR player for next to nothing that is controlled for a few years and could easily be dropped if and when Casas is ready is a very nice pickup.
 

Ale Xander

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Great upgrade over Cordero at 1B now he can move to outfield with Hosmer coming in

good intangibles too, good team guy

love this deal pending specifics
 

BigEazy

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Will wait to see what "vast majority" means when it comes to the Padres picking up the tab, but on the face of it I can't find any issue with doing this as a short-term upgrade.
 

moondog80

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Over/under on when Hosmer is no longer on the team: next year's trade deadline. I'll take the under.
 

Captaincoop

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Hosmer is under contract for three more seasons and the Padres were obviously moving on from Hosmer now. I do agree that I don't take his statement of still competing this year at face value. Even if they make the playoffs, pitching wins playoff series and the Sox one right now is a whole bunch of who knows.

But if you can move the team forward without taking on risk, why not? This helps mitigate the Casas risk.
If they were focused on winning this year, I'd see it - he's an upgrade over the complete dogshit they currently have at 1B. But if the value in this trade is having Hosmer around playing 1B next year...that makes me feel icky about next year. Sure, I guess he's just an option and can be dumped at any point. But it just feels like another pointless move in a series of pointless moves.
 

chawson

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The Hosmer deal is atrociously bad if there's no prospect attached. With the amount of prospects we need to add to the 40-man, it's truly pointless to have him on the team.

Since he signed his deal with San Diego in 2018, he is -24 outs above average with the glove, which is dead last among 49 first basemen. It's not much better with the bat -- his 100 wRC+ is bottom-five.
 

biollante

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Last year was a nice surprise, now this year we are at .500 ball which would be ok for a college bowl game maybe, but not the MLB playoffs.
Seems strange with the money this team has available.
I'm not sure incrementalism will work, but we will find out !
Of course, there could be some big bombshell left as the trade deadline approaches.
 

TheYellowDart5

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With the exception of 2019, he's been an average or above-average hitter for every year since 2015.

He's been an above-average hitter this year.

So, kinda curious - you just winging it, or getting info from twitter or talk radio or what?
Again: he was above-average in the shortened 2020 season, roughly average last year, and, since the start of May, has been awful (a .637 OPS in nearly 300 PA). Calling him "an above-average hitter this year" isn't accurate; he was an above-average hitter for a month and decidedly below average since. The man has a 103 OPS+ as a Padre; that's as average as it gets, and he's shown no signs of being any better than that (and plenty of being worse) save one month in 2020 and one month this year. His recent success is vastly outweighed by long stretches of replacement-level play.

ETA: Unrelated to Hosmer but I'm baffled at how pointing out that a player is, well, not good will get you lambasted on this site. Like, are people actually happy with this move? Has the bar for this team fallen so low that acquiring a bad-hitting first baseman on the wrong side of 30 counts as a win?

ETA 2: I'll give the Hosmer defenders this: From the beginning of last July to the end of the season, he hit .290/.366/.441. That's a good stretch of play over roughly half a season's worth of at-bats. I suppose that's reason for optimism, but we don't have a lot else to go on.
 
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JM3

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This trade deadline for the Sox seems like rearranging the chairs on the deck of the Titanic.
At worst it's more comparable to moving around the patio furniture at Olive Garden.
 

RedOctober3829

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If they were focused on winning this year, I'd see it - he's an upgrade over the complete dogshit they currently have at 1B. But if the value in this trade is having Hosmer around playing 1B next year...that makes me feel icky about next year. Sure, I guess he's just an option and can be dumped at any point. But it just feels like another pointless move in a series of pointless moves.
If he's very cheap, I don't mind him starting out at 1B next year. It wouldn't stop them from making bigger moves this offseason and it's not putting any undue pressure on Casas. He could start the year in AAA if they feel he lost so much development time this year.
 

cantor44

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I would say it differently, they had a really bad offseason and are trying to plug some holes with more serviceable parts. It doesn't answer all the structural questions, but it addresses smaller problems which are also real.

These are "making awful into average" moves which I get isn't sexy, but it is useful. As is adding prospects.
Actually, I see what you're saying. If Pham and subsidized-Hosmer had been acquired in the off season, I would have liked the moves as complimentary pieces to help create platoons at first and in right. But coupled with trading Vazquez, and I'm scratching my head. Yes, both are relatively modest upgrades given what's there now, but the combination of deadline moves feels like more fence-sitting from Bloom. I hope I'm wrong and the end of the day will bring a couple of substantial prospects, and Pham, McGuire, and Hosmer were acquired to serve as fillers to play out the rest of the regular season ...Bloom is a nibbler, ain't he? Take a big bite Chaim!!
 

mikcou

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Bloom appears to have given up nothing or little to nothing to add an average player at a position of need, under control for 3 more years, but also able to be easily dumped at any time if/when Casas is ready and people are still complaining.
Theres nothing wrong with picking up Eric Hosmer for free or close thereto, but he hasnt seen average in years. He's a quarter step above street free agent level. Now, the fact that we have two guys who are quite a bit worse than him is more sad than anything else.
 

Cesar Crespo

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Totally agree with all that, but then why did Bloom just trade the starting catcher away for another team's ~20th best prospects? To me, the Vasquez deal signifies a complete white flag for 2022, so why do this now?
Maybe he really likes Reese and thinks his D makes him as valuable as Vaz.
 

scottyno

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Theres nothing wrong with picking up Eric Hosmer for free or close thereto, but he hasnt seen average in years. He's a quarter step above street free agent level. Now, the fact that we have two guys who are quite a bit worse than him is more sad than anything else.
He's slightly above average this season per bref
 

BaseballJones

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Yeah it's nuts. All the Sox have needed is a little upgrade at 1b. Now they've got one that costs them very little. What's the problem with that?
 

Ale Xander

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Theres nothing wrong with picking up Eric Hosmer for free or close thereto, but he hasnt seen average in years. He's a quarter step above street free agent level. Now, the fact that we have two guys who are quite a bit worse than him is more sad than anything else.
He’s above average this very year