Hosmer: ‘Something wrong’ with slow MLB offseason
Eric Hosmer’s eight-year, $144 million deal with the San Diego Padres is everything he always wanted and what every player desires.
Yet that merely leaves Hosmer seething at the major league teams that don’t share the Padres’ vision and whose inaction has left many of his major league comrades jobless this winter.
“(Commissioner Rob) Manfred says the integrity of the game is first and foremost, that’s what we want to protect,” Hosmer says. “But the way the process went down this year, something is wrong with it.
“I don’t think all of the teams are trying to be competitive or doing everything they can to protect the integrity of the game. If that was the case, why are guys like Carlos Gonzalez and (former Royals teammate) Mike Moustakas still on the market? That raises a lot of red flags. When you’ve got guys that are proven at this level and have done it for many years at this level that are still on the market looking for jobs, that just tells you something isn’t right about it.
“Carlos Gonzalez is one of the better hitters this game has ever seen. Moose is an All-Star who hit 38 homers. And they’re still looking for jobs? That’s mind-boggling. It makes you think about things.”
Hosmer, 28, hopes Major League Baseball is listening — not just the central office, but all 30 franchises that seemingly over-corrected toward youth — efficiency trumping experience perhaps a little too much.
“That’s why it’s so hard to grasp that Moose and some of these guys don’t have jobs,” he says. “These guys bring that professionalism on a day-to-day basis. Nothing against young prospects, but it takes guys like this to get it done and understand how everything works up here.
“Now, it just seems like that a lot of that has disappeared.”
Hosmer’s future is settled, but he still has plenty of questions.
“Have you heard anything about Moose?” Hosmer says. “Anything at all? I’d love to have him here.
“It’s just so weird.”