Hosmer has to replace Franchy, so Dalbec still has a role if he's still on the team in a few hours, at least until Devers comes back. Then after that it depends who else is still on the team, but he's probably a bat vs lefties off the bench and likely traded for peanuts in the offseason.
Interesting--wonder if Chaim trying to get ahead of a likely shift ban?
To me, the upside is that we'll have a league-average 1B for the next 2 months. I won't pretend to be an expert on Hosner's defense, but could it really be worse than what we've experienced this year? The guy did win gold gloves earlier in his career.
It's worth clarifying that, yeah, Hosmer is no one's idea of an impact move (I hope), and yeah, they can (and should) be able to do better in the offseason. Maybe more of the frustration is that the front office made a mistake in assuming Dalbec and company could hold down first base, doubled down on that mistake by not acquiring outside help earlier, and are now forced to shuffle on with Eric Hosmer at first instead of someone better. It's a domino effect of disappointment — a failure to plan ahead better and an unwillingness to acquire better solutions leads to a scramble to fix the roster with imperfect, low-upside pieces. What's frustrating about Hosmer isn't so much him but the chain of events that led to him being the best option.
Agreed - this doesn't have to be part of a larger plan. It's adding assets to the team, and any time you can do that essentially for free, you do so because those assets will be useful later. Hosmer's not a great asset, so this isn't the sort of move you build a plan around, but it's the sort of thing you make every time it's available because those little edges add up over time.
Pretty sure if Bloom knew that Dalbec would have a .449 OPS in April, regress defensively, and that Casas would have a serious injury that took him out as an option for a midseason callup he would have signed someone else. Kind of hard to predict that.
Why would the Padres give us a prospect for free? We just upgraded a position on the field for free. I don’t understand how this singular move is bad in any way.
Well, they didn't even know he was on the board until 2pm today. So it's more likely an opportunistic grab, as opposed to whatever Bloom was talking about doing.
Probably, but Bloom said what he said and as of right now... it's Eric Hosmer. There's still 2+ hours though.
He's saying he would prefer to have the deal be set up so that the Red Sox paid more of Hosmer's freight and got another player or players.
This is fair. The questions I had were more about the timing, context, and overall strategy. Everything said here about Hosmer being a (to the Red Sox) cheap, no down side, upgrade to 1B are true. I had come to the position that the season was essentially lost, they aren't a legit contender, so they may as well begin a more aggressive sell-off/rebuild ASAP. I thought maybe CV being moved was the start of that. But the moves since don't really indicate that, which is is fine. Nothing they've done hamstrings them in the future, and if they somehow catch fire and make a run in the last 2 months, great. Given the injury situation and the number of teams they have to beat out to get back in a WC spot, I'm not too bullish on that possibility, but I'll be glad if it happens. Just clarifying my position as to why I was questioning, but by no means ripping, the moves as a whole.
I think he means he'd rather get a prospect and pay Hosmer, than get Hosmer for essentially no salary... of course, people always say that because they don't have to pay the money.
I mean,Dalbec was really bad on D last year too, and didn't have such a big track record that a poor year at the plate was totally shocking. And Casas was in AA, prospects stall or get hurt all the time. If your 1B options on the big league roster are Dalbec and Franchy... you didn't exactly set yourself up with much in the way of quality or depth at the position if you meant to be competitive.
But you need younger, cost controlled guys producing at the major league level. And based on Dalbecs progress at the plate last year, as well as at 1b (IIRC he was better post ASB, but I admit I cant find the #s to back that up)...I think it was a reasonable gamble* to assume that you could get league average production from him this season. Furthermore, based on Casas' trajectory...they were never going to make a splash signing at first base.
Apparently, he's already a mentor of Casas. Same HS. Whether that's a benefit or not, I dunno.
I feel like there is a massive gulf between "splash signing" and "Franchy can play 1st if anything happens with Dalbec and/or Casas"
Fair...and Travis Shaw fell right into that gulf.
broward boy myself here, pitched against Hosmer in HS.
He's not a league-average first baseman. His 107 wRC (per Fangraphs) is 20th of 28 qualified first basemen. His OAA the last two seasons is 21st of 32.
That article was written after his career year in 2017, when he hit the ball to the opposite field more than ever before or since. He had a 1.422 OPS that year in fly balls hit to the opposite field (64 BBE). Since then he's had a .793 OPS on those (190 BBE).
Bloom says things, there's no reason to take them all that seriously. It's the actions and outcomes that matter.
Yeah, I don't get the negativity around the trade. Our first base situation sucked. It's now better with a guy under control for three years who can easily be jettisoned when Casas is deemed ready. It's exactly the kind of move you'd want to make in this situation.
He was much better defensively to end the year last year, and to start the year this year. When that article was written in mid june about the improved Sox infield defense he had a DRS of roughly 0 (league average) Now he's at -5 and was on pace to end up worse than last year.
SoSH really needs to bring back the sandbox. All the garbage posts from lurkers like myself are dragging down the discourse and even good posters are treating this board like a gamethread.
Age 29-32:
Well they both went to the same high school in Florida and have worked out together in the off season so I'd say the chances are good that Hosmer continues his mentoring role to Casas.
I think the point is.... why would you start the season giving yourself no wiggle room. What if the two were flipped, and Dalbec gets hurt while Casas struggles in AAA (not exactly unheard of)... you're playing Franchy.
Who is this player? Who was available for a short term contract that was worth jettisoning Dalbec, or for short money that would be a good fallback for Dalbec but is better than Franchy?
