Eric Hosmer might be what helps the San Diego Padres return to October

Eric Hosmer has been the subject of trade rumors for the last year, but could Hosmer’s hot start to the San Diego Padres season show the failed trade to the New York Mets was a blessing in disguise?

If Eric Hosmer felt like he wasn’t welcomed at Petco Park by San Diego Padres fans heading into the season, it would’ve been understandable why he felt that way.

It been a very tumultuous time in San Diego to say the least for Hosmer. San Diego Padres GM A.J. Preller took a massive gamble in signing Hosmer, giving him a massive eight-year, $144 million contract during the 2017-18 offseason.

The signing of Hosmer was a chance for Preller to prove two things. The first is obvious: to signify to San Diego’s division rival, the Los Angeles Dodgers, that the Padres, that competition was coming for the NL West.

The second reason is also clear: to redeem himself for the failed 2015 offseason frenzy where he acquired everyone from Matt Kemp, Justin and B.J Upton to Craig Kimbrel, James Shields, and Wil Myers, while trading away future MLB stars like Yasmani Grandal, Max Fried, Trea Turner, and solid MLB contributors like Jace Petersen and Zach Eflin.

We all know what happened that year: Padres would only to go seven games below .500, fire their manager (Bud Black), and starting a rebuild immediately right after. Their bench boss that year, Dave Roberts, would only go to the rival Dodgers and lead their rival to three World Series appearances, one of those was a victory in 2020, making things even worst for Preller.

Preller, however, tried to steer the ship and redeem his mistakes. He got rid of bad contracts on the team like Kemp and B.J. Upton. He made some smart trades, like acquiring Jake Cronenworth from the Rays. And, of course, he made one of the most truly historic deals ever, acquiring Fernando Tatis Jr for only just Shields.

Hosmer’s arrival to Petco Park was supposed to symbolize that the Padres were coming after the Dodgers and times were changing south of L.A. While times are changing in San Diego, it’s not because of Hosmer. You can point fingers to the likes of Tatis Jr. and Manny Machado, the latter being signed the following offseason after Hosmer signed.

Instead Hosmer has been seen as an albatross contract for the Padres … and the numbers do show that. Hosmer, has only hit a paltry .264/.323/.415 slash line in his first four seasons in Southern California. The advanced metrics have not been too kind to Hosmer either. Hosmer has only showed a bWAR of 2.7 in those four years, amassing to only a 101 OPS+.

FanGraphs projects that Hosmer’s value in those four years has only been worth  $7.4 million. Hosmer has made almost $71.5 million in that span according to Spotrac.

Some can be attributed to what people saw Hosmer’s swing declining and his lack of getting more home runs and extra base hits. Hosmer even refused to change it in 2019. Taking away the shortened 2020 season, Hosmer, a first baseman, has never had a slugging percentage above .500. The closest was 2017, his last year in Kansas City, where he achieved .498.

In San Diego, he has never been able to get close to it. Take away the shortened season, Hosmer’s slugging hasn’t even reached .430. In 2021, it went down real bad as Hosmer slugging percentage was .395. That was the second lowest slugging percentage in his career.

It was no surprise that Hosmer was the subject of trade rumors in the past year as a team trying to contend having what many see as an albatross contract. Teams like the Rangers were interested. There seemed to be a possibility the Padres would’ve been able to get out of Hosmer’s contract and sent him packing to the Mets, but that crashed last minute.

Hosmer spoke about the trade rumors during spring training and tried to stay on the high road.

“I’m gonna work hard, I’m gonna try to do what I can to produce on the field,” Hosmer told reporters, “The only thing I feel like I have to prove is to my teammates.”

Well the opportunity to prove himself to his teammates has gotten off to a good start for Hosmer. with the loss of Tatis Jr. until the summer for the Padres, they needed people around the clubhouse to step up and fill his void. Jurickson Profar and Machado have done a tremendous job so far for the Padres, but we can’t overlook the role that Hosmer has played as well.

In the first 10 games of the season, Hosmer has been sensational. Hosmer is hitting a .374/.410/.924 slash line so far, and his BABIP is a .519 so far. Obviously the latter stat is very much unsustainable, but what is most impressive so far with Hosmer is that he actually hitting the ball pretty deep so far. Hosmer leads the league right now in doubles right now with five. For context, during the shortened 2020 season, a season where it was still Hosmer’s best year as a Padre, Hosmer had 15 extra base hits, six of them being doubles. That was in 38 games. Hosmer will most likely pass that number easily in fewer games.

Hosmer might be the Padres biggest X-factor in taking this team back to the playoffs. We know how talented this is with the likes of Machado, Tatis Jr, Blake Snell, Mike Clevinger, and others on this roster. This is a team that is talented enough to get to the postseason and, potentially, compete with the Dodgers. We saw hints from the last two years that this team can play with the Dodgers. It’s only a matter of whether they can get to the playoffs and beat them when it matters most.

Hosmer might be that guy that can do that for the Padres. He was paid to get them to October and, while he hasn’t lived up to his contract’s standards, he can still helps them get there. The Padres don’t have Tatis Jr. right now, and they need players to step up. If Hosmer’s start to the season is legit, he could be a key factor in getting Slam Diego back to October.