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Padres Press Clips

Friday, December 15, 2017

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Padres acquire shortstop Freddy Galvis from Phillies SD Union Tribune Lin 2

Hall's bells must toll for Trevor Hoffman this time SD Union Tribune Acee 3

Padres roster review: Alex Dickerson SD Union Tribune Sanders 6

Shelter to Soldier providing helping hands, paws for veterans SD Union Tribune Sanders 8

Source: Phils near deal with Padres for Galvis MLB.com Macklin 10

Meetings set Padres up for busy offseason MLB.com Cassavell 11

Phillies trade SS Freddy Galvis to Padres for pitching prospect ESPN.com ESPN 13

Padres On Deck: 17-year-old Arias on Fire Down Under FriarWire Lafferty 14

Margot Makes His Winter League Debut FriarWire Center 16

Freddy Galvis Reportedly Traded to Padres; Phillies Bleacher Report Nathan 18

Receive Enyel De Los Santos

Report: Padres ‘clear-cut favorites’ for Eric Hosmer NBC Sports Calcaterra 19

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Padres acquire shortstop Freddy Galvis from Phillies Dennis Lin

The Padres have acquired shortstop Freddy Galvis from the Philadelphia Phillies in exchange for pitching prospect Enyel De Los Santos, according to sources. The trade is pending medical reviews.

Galvis represents the Padres’ latest attempt at plugging a troublesome position, though he is a younger and more viable option than recent predecessors. The 27-year-old, a season away from free agency, presumably will tide the Padres over until prospect Fernando Tatis Jr. is ready for the majors.

Galvis started all 162 games for the Phillies last season, posting a .255/.309/.382 slash line with 12 home runs and 14 stolen bases. He is considered a strong defender, something the Padres have lacked at short. The Venezuela native emerged as the leader in a young Phillies clubhouse, relating well with teammates in two languages.

Over six seasons, Galvis is a career .245 hitter with a .287 on-base percentage, 52 home runs and 43 stolen bases. He originally signed with the Phillies as an international free agent in 2006, when Don Welke, now the Padres’ vice president of scouting operations, was a special assistant for Philadelphia. San Diego’s new hitting coach, Matt Stairs, occupied the same role last season with the Phillies.

MLBTradeRumors.com projects Galvis’ 2018 salary at $7.4 million. He made $4.35 million in his second arbitration-eligible year.

De Los Santos posted a 3.78 ERA in 26 appearances (24 starts) with Double-A San Antonio last season. The 21-year-old right-hander would have been in line for an invitation to the Padres’ major league spring training camp.

Tatis, who will turn 19 in January, emerged as one of baseball’s elite prospects this year. He hit .278 with 22 home runs for low Single-A Fort Wayne, earning a late-season promotion to San Antonio. Evaluators think he could push for a September call-up in 2018, though having a veteran such as Galvis could allow the Padres to exercise more patience.

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Hall's bells must toll for Trevor Hoffman this time Kevin Acee

There was excited. Then hopeful. Now there is, essentially, Zen.

“I’ve had a different take each year,” Trevor Hoffman said.

Yes, he hopes to gain a percentage point. But he knows he isn’t getting another save.

If five more voters are going to decide he deserves to be in the Hall of Fame, it won’t be because of anything Hoffman does now.

So he attended baseball’s Winter Meetings, will play some golf, make some appearances, hang with the family.

“That’s all you can do,” he said. “The numbers aren’t going to change.”

That ability to basically just let it be is why Hoffman got those 601 saves with a fastball that was hardly fast and a go-to pitch that is called something that makes you think it doesn’t know what it wants to be.

Certainly, nothing called a change-up should be so lethal that it makes you one of the very best in the world at what you do.

But that was what made Hoffman so effective, and it made Hoffman even more of a stud than he gets credit for.

But it really doesn’t matter how he got the job done. What matters is that he got the job done. He did so as well as almost anyone in history.

That’s why he belongs in the Hall of Fame. His kind is who the Hall of Fame is for.

He missed induction by a percentage point last season, getting 74 percent on his second year on the ballot.

History says he’ll get in eventually, probably this year, a part of the Class of 2018 that will be announced Jan. 24. Every player who ever got 67 percent their first year of eligibility, as Hoffman did, and at any point received 74 percent of the vote, has eventually made the Hall.

The contentions keeping Hoffman out of the Hall so far — and which seemingly in the minds of some make his candidacy iffy even now — are so subjective as to be ridiculous.

So let’s just meet these arguments head on.

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First, Hoffman wasn’t great in the postseason. It might be generous to call him average. He blew two of his six save opportunities and had a 3.46 ERA in 13 innings.

The postseason is important. How one performs when it really matters is a factor in determining greatness. And only greatness belongs in the Hall of Fame.

Hoffman pitched in just four postseasons. Not his fault. He also saved three games during the Padres’ 1998 postseason run to the World Series.

Another “knock” on Hoffman is that he converted “just” 88.8 percent of his save opportunities. That ranks eighth among those with at least 100 career saves. Eighth, the argument goes, is not Hall of Fame material.

But talk about making stats say what you want in order to make a point. Why is 100 saves the benchmark when talking about a great closer? Hoffman had six times that many, plus one.

Sure, Eric Gagne converted 91.7 of his save chances — 187 of 204.

There is a monster difference between 187-of-204 and 601-of-677.

You can’t assume Gagne would have continued at a clip of almost 92 percent. Hoffman’s conversion rate after 487 saves (end of 2006) was 89.1 percent. So it went down a few ticks over his final four seasons.

Again, he saved 601 games. That’s second-most ever – 51 behind the arguably incomparable Mariano Rivera, who will almost certainly be a first-ballot Hall of Famer next year – and 123 more than the next-closest total.

Hoffman was a closer for 16 full seasons (not counting 2003, which he largely missed due to shoulder surgery). Most closers last five or so seasons in that role.

He had 30 or more saves in 14 of 15 seasons starting in 1995. His nine seasons of 40-plus saves is tied with Rivera for most in history. (The next-highest total is five seasons.)

Longevity is a facet of greatness. It at least enhances it. That isn’t to say every middle reliever who pitched 15 years automatically gets a plaque in Cooperstown. But a player producing at an elite level for 16 seasons is far more impressive than one who did so for seven or eight or even 10.

Now, it’s true that Dennis Eckersley, Rollie Fingers, Rich Gossage, Bruce Sutter and Hoyt Wilhelm, the five Hall of Famers who were primarily relief pitchers, all threw many more multi-inning saves than Hoffman. He had just 55 saves in which he worked more than three outs.

Those guys were horses from a different era. Kudos to them. But because the current Hall of Famers worked longer for many of their saves does not mean Hoffman doesn’t deserve to join them. Neither does the fact Fingers went four outs or more for 201 of his 341 saves mean he would have had hundreds more saves had he not been asked to get the extra outs he did.

Assumptions shouldn’t keep Hoffman out of the Hall. He did the job he was asked to do as well as anyone in his era. And again, his era was equivalent to at least a couple eras for most closers.

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There is also the wins above replacement argument.

Among those who made at least 600 relief appearances, Hoffman ranks seventh with a 28.0 WAR. That’s not even half of the WAR value for Eckersley (63.0) or Rivera (57.1), is much lower than Wilhelm (47.3) and Gossage (42.0) and ranks one spot behind Lee Smith (29.6), who is not in the Hall of Fame. However, it’s five spots ahead of Fingers and seven spots ahead of Sutter.

Willie Mays’ career WAR was 156.2, so by the logic that WAR is some magic measure it’s sort of amazing Eddie Murray got in with his 68.3 WAR.

Finally, speaking of comparisons, it can be extremely tough on Hall of Fame voters to fit everyone they deem worthy into one ballot. They are limited to voting for a maximum of 10 players, and there is no minimum. Discerning voters are what keep the Hall special.

So if we graciously assume voters felt compelled to get Tim Raines and Jeff Bagwell in last year, there is no such crowd that has to get in ahead of Hoffman this year.

At most, there are five other players on the ballot as/more deserving than Hoffman. And that would be setting aside PED concerns over Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens. Chipper Jones and Jim Thome are good shots to make it in their first year of eligibility, and Vladimir Guerrero got 71.7 percent last year.

There is simply no good reason to keep Hoffman waiting any longer.

It is definitely Trevor Time.

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Padres roster review: Alex Dickerson Jeff Sanders

ALEX DICKERSON

• Position: Outfielder • 2018 Opening Day age: 27 • Bats/throws: L/L • Height/weight: 6-foot-3 / 235 pounds • Acquired: From the Pirates in November 2013 trade • Contract status: Earned $541,500 in 2017; Won’t be arbitration-eligible until 2020 at

the earliest • Key stats: Did not play (injured)

STAT TO NOTE

• 293 – Plate appearances over 95 games since his big league debut in 2015. Dickersonhas contended with injuries each year in the organization.

TRENDING

• Down – The Poway native’s star appeared pointed in the right direction last spring when manager Andy Green, preparing for his second year in San Diego, declared Dickerson’s at-bats as “professional” as anyone in 2016. He paired a .257/.333/.455 batting line with 10 homers and 37 RBIs after forcing his way to the majors that year and was looking to parlay that momentum into a shot at an everyday job in the outfield. Only his health didn’t cooperate – again. A bulging disc in his lower delayed the start of his spring training and ultimately cost him the entire season as Dickerson finally elected season-ending surgery in June. Hip issues slowed him at times in 2015 and 2016 and surgery on his left heel limited Dickerson to 41 games in the minors the year he was acquired from the Pirates, so Dickerson will have to prove he can stay on the field long enough to factor in the Padres’ plans for a crowded outfield picture.

2018 OUTLOOK

• When healthy, Dickerson provides a number of tools that the Padres desire in their lineup: A left-handed bat, power potential and an ability to take a walk. He’ll never be the defenders that Travis Jankowski and Manuel Margot are, but he was eager last spring to show he’s capable of covering more ground than he’s given credit for. He’s expected to be healthy for the start of spring training, but he’ll have to leapfrog Jose

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Pirela if he’s going to win regular at-bats in left in 2018. He’ll also have to hold off Franchy Cordero’s rise in the organization.

PADRES POWER RANKINGS (Currently 40 players on 40-man roster)

1. Carlos Asuaje 2. Franchy Cordero 3. Alex Dickerson 4. Carter Capps 5. Colten Brewer 6. Buddy Baumann 7. Jose Castillo 8. Miguel Diaz 9. Allen Cordoba

Traded away: Jabari Blash

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Shelter to Soldier providing helping hands, paws for veterans Jeff Sanders

Crowd noise. Ringing bells. The flashing lights at a checkout counter.

It doesn’t take much to transport Vic Martin from somewhere as benign as a grocery store back to his post on a Navy minesweeper in the Persian Gulf, where it wasn’t uncommon for ships of all sizes to charge his vessel in an attempt to draw fire.

Mia – a 2-year-old chocolate Lab matched with Martin through the Oceanside-based Shelter to Soldier– brings him back.

“Mia will put her head in my lap and start to kiss me, start to take my attention away, start to redirect my attention to what she’s doing,” Martin said, “and a lot of times that’s redirecting me to a more positive place, a more positive realm to be in.

“It is really huge.”

Life-saving, too.

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs reports 20 suicides a day, an avenue that Martin was considering several months into his attempt to reintegrate into society after he was medically retired from the Navy. His search for help at the pleas of his wife landed him on the doorsteps of Shelter to Soldier, a nonprofit that trains adopted dogs to become psychiatric service dogs for post-9/11 combat veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injury and other injuries. The organization is currently working with 11 dogs adopted from local shelters and a $25,000 donation accepted Thursday from the Petco Foundation during a Padres Holiday Caravan visit can help pair two more dogs with two more veterans in need.

“It means lives changed and lives saved,” said Graham Bloem, the shelter’s founder and training director.

It did for Martin.

Today, he is veteran advocate at Shelter to Soldier.

Four years earlier, he was sinker deeper and deeper into depression after leaving the Navy due to a cardiac episode and a subsequent lack of oxygen to the brain as his unit attempted to drive him through combat zones to get him medical care.

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Attempting to re-acclimate back home with his wife and three children, aged 6 to 17, Martin was contending with PTSD, a severe anxiety disorder and a panic disorder on top of the brain injury he endured.

“When they wanted me to go grocery shopping or go see their performance at school, I was unable to do it,” Martin said. “I became more and more fearful of everything around me. I became fearful of going outside, the phone, checking the mail. My mailbox is literally on my porch and I could not open the door to check it.”

Seeking to free himself from this new prison, free his family from his debilitating condition, Martin worked up the courage to tell his wife that he planned to commit suicide.

She plead with him to instead seek help.

What Martin found at Shelter to Soldier was community: He was not alone in his fears as post-combat veteran and there was help available.

The shelter’s rescued dogs are trained in a number of ways to help veterans live a normal life, from blocking their handlers from people in crowded environments to medication reminders to settling emotions that might build up in a freeway traffic jam akin to a busy road in Baghdad.

A lick on the cheek. A paw on the shoulder. A nudge with her nose.

The smallest gesture from Mia helps Martin through one day after another.

“It’s been unbelievable,” Martin said. “It’s changed my life. It’s given my (children) their father back and my wife her husband back.”

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Source: Phils near deal with Padres for Galvis By Oliver Macklin MLB.com 12:27 PM ET

Shortstop Freddy Galvis could soon be on his way to San Diego.

The Padres are nearing completion of a deal with the Phillies to acquire Galvis, a source has confirmed to MLB.com's Todd Zolecki. According to the source, the Phillies will receive right-hander Enyel De Los Santos, which was first reported by USA Today. Neither club has confirmed the report.

The Padres have been reportedly looking into potential upgrades at shortstop, and the Phillies have a surplus of middle infielders, with prospects J.P. Crawford and Scott Kingery waiting in the wings.

Galvis batted .255/.309/.382 with 12 home runs and 61 RBIs in 162 games for Philadelphia in 2017, and he has 41 steals over the past three seasons. The 28-year-old was also a runner-up for the National League Gold Glove Award at shortstop.

Crawford, a September callup with the Phillies last season, batted .214/.356/.300 with four doubles and six RBIs in 23 games with the big league club. The 22-year-old hit .243/.351/.405 with 15 homers and 63 RBIs in 127 games for Triple-A Lehigh Valley prior to his promotion. He is the club's No. 4 overall prospect per MLBPipeline.com.

Kingery, the Phillies' No. 3 overall prospect, is a career .284/.341/.437 hitter with 34 home runs and 132 RBIs in 329 games over three seasons in the Minors.

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Meetings set Padres up for busy offseason Club acquires Headley, Mitchell from Yanks, but there's still work to be done By AJ Cassavell MLB.com @AJCassavell Dec. 14th, 2017

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. -- It was a busy week at the Winter Meetings for the San Diego Padres. The rest of the offseason will be even busier.

The Padres swung a pair of trades Tuesday, landing Chase Headley and Bryan Mitchell from the Yankees, while sending Ryan Schimpf to Tampa Bay and Jabari Blash to New York.

The deal with the Yankees gives San Diego an affordable starting option in Mitchell -- one the club believes could flourish with the opportunity. It also gives the Padres another infielder who can play third base in Headley.

, 2017

General manager A.J. Preller was already likely to deal one of his second-base/third-base options. Now, it's a near certainty.

"We're open to hearing what different teams have to say," Preller said. "We'll see how the next few months play out."

What's next Beyond this week's trades, the Padres also made progress in their search for a shortstop. They entered with a list of "eight or nine" candidates, according to Preller -- an assortment of free agents and trade pieces.

That list has apparently been trimmed. The Padres, sources said, are closer to acquiring a shortstop, though it's unclear which route they'll take. They've been linked with free agents Zack Cozart and Alcides Escobar.

"We're probably focusing on what's maybe less than a handful [of shortstops] right now," Preller

Of course, nobody on the free-agent market would move the needle for the Padres like Eric Hosmer. And their interest in Hosmer is evidently "very real," according to a source.

On the surface, he's a strange fit in San Diego. The Padres committed the largest contract in club history to Wil Myers a year ago. But Myers is comfortable moving to the outfield should the Friars land Hosmer. And the 28-year-old free agent is young enough that his prime would still mesh with the Padres' window for contention.

. 13th, 2017

Rule 5 Draft Late Wednesday night, the Padres made the decision not to clear any space on their full 40-man roster. As a result, they didn't participate in the Rule 5 Draft -- a stark departure from the past two years, when they took an MLB-most seven players.

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"I'm the only manager that stays around for the Rule 5 Draft, because that's how half my team was formed over the last couple of years," Padres skipper Andy Green joked at his media session. "But I think we're migrating away from that pattern of behavior. ... We're getting roster constraints that make that really hard to do -- which is a good problem. People are going to start talking about our guys in the Rule 5 rather than us taking everybody else's guys."

No Padres prospects were poached Thursday, easing the worry for some in the organization that righty slugger Franmil Reyes would be taken.

In the Triple-A phase of the Draft, San Diego snagged lefty Jose Carlos Medina from the Mets. Meanwhile, Oakland took right-hander Jaimito Lebron, who played Rookie ball for the Arizona League Padres this past season.

GM's bottom line By acquiring Headley, Preller only added more work to his plate. He got a controllable starter in Mitchell. But now he's going to need to deal an infielder, maybe two.

He's also looking for a shortstop, a couple of starters, some bullpen help and a backup catcher. Oh, and don't be surprised if the Padres continue to be linked with Hosmer. The next month should be an active one.

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Phillies trade SS Freddy Galvis to Padres for pitching prospect 10:00 AM PT

ESPN

The Philadelphia Phillies have agreed to trade shortstop Freddy Galvis to the San Diego Padres, according to multiple reports. Philadelphia will receive minor-league pitcher Enyel De Los Santos in the deal, according to reports. The trade was first reported Friday by USA Today.

Galvis has been Philadelphia's starting shortstop for the last three seasons and has emerged as one of the sport's top defensive players at the position. He batted .255 with 12 home runs, 61 RBIs and 14 stolen bases this past season, his sixth overall with the Phillies.

Galvis, 28, is eligible to become a free agent after the 2018 season. The trade likely will open up an opportunity for top prospect J.P. Crawford to become Philadelphia's starting shortstop. De Los Santos, who turns 22 on Dec. 25, went 10-6 with a 3.78 ERA in 26 games -- 24 starts -- for Double-A San Antonio in 2017.

Galvis would mark the second infield acquisition this week for the Padres, who already brought back third baseman Chase Headley in a trade Tuesday with the New York Yankees.

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Padres On Deck: 17-year-old

Arias on Fire Down Under Shortshop will compete in Australian Baseball League All-Star Game

By Justin Lafferty

The Padres are absolutely loaded with teenage talent. Reliever Andres Muñoz, 18, wowed the Arizona Fall League with 102-mph heat. The system’s №1, №4 and №5 prospects (lefty MacKenzie Gore, shortstop Fernando Tatis Jr. and lefty Adrian Morejon) are all just 18.

Now it’s Gabriel Arias’ time to shine. Arias, a 17-year-old shortstop from Venezuela, has been tearing up the Australian Baseball League. He was named to the ABL’s World All-Star team, joining fellow Padres prospect RHP Lake Bachar. Additionally, 17-year-old Padres signee SS Jarryd Dale will represent Team Australia. ABL’s All-Star Game takes place Dec. 21 in Melbourne.

Arias was recently honored as Player of the Week, batting .412 with 3 doubles and 3 home runs for the Canberra Cavalry.

Baseball America, in its latest Padres prospect ratings, ranked Arias as the 10th-best minor leaguer in the system.

Arias’ coaches in Australia believe he has the talent and drive to succeed well beyond the ABL. In a recent Canberra Times feature story, Cavalry manager Michael Collins applauded Arias’ impressive glove, noting that his bat has come alive lately.

The shortstop wants to soak up as much as he can before returning stateside.

“I feel proud because the fans think that way about me, but the first thing is I try to go to the field positive and do the right things and try to enjoy the game every day,” Arias told the Canberra Times. “It’s a goal for me to make the big leagues. I started my career when I was two years old, that’s how young I was when I decided to play baseball. … That’s what I want to be — in a team in the big leagues and be there to help the San Diego Padres win.”

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Arias signed with the Padres in 2016 as an international free agent from La Victoria, Venezuela. He split 2017 between the Arizona Rookie League Padres 2 and Class A Fort Wayne. With the AZL Padres 2, Arias hit .275 with 13 RBIs. In 16 games with the TinCaps, Arias batted .242.

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Margot Makes His Winter

League Debut

Cordero remains hot; Arias, Reed hot in Australia

By Bill Center

Center fielder Manuel Margot made his winter league debut with the Toros del Este in the Dominican Republic last week.

The 23-year-old native of San Cristobal, D.R., was 2-for-3 with a RBI in his off-season debut last Friday night. He was 2-for-5 in his second start Tuesday night.

Meanwhile, fellow center fielder Franchy Cordero continues to be one of the hottest hitters in the Dominican Republic while younger prospects Gabriel Arias and Buddy Reed had strong weekends for Canberra in the Australian Baseball League.

Cordero, 23, has hit safely in 16 of his last 18 games in the Dominican Republic and is currently hitting .340 with six doubles, four triples and four home runs in 42 games. As the Dominican Republic comes out of a three-day break Tuesday, Cordero is riding a four-game hitting streak during which he is 11-for-15 with a double, a triple, a home run, three RBIs, seven runs scored with a walk and a steal.

Cordero now ranks first in the Dominican Republic in slugging percentage (.503), second in OPS (.903), third in batting average and fifth in on-base percentage (.403). He ranks second in triples and tied for second in homers. He leads the league with 25 runs scored and is tied for seventh with 18 RBIs.

Arias, a 17-year-old shortstop, was 7-for-17 in Australia last weekend with three home runs, six RBIs and six runs scored in four games with Canberra against Melbourne. Reed, a 22-year-old center fielder, was 7-for-19 with Canberra with two RBIs and six runs scored.

Two pitchers are the latest players in the Padres system to complete their winter programs.

Right-hander Kyle Lloyd, 27, had a 1.96 earned run average in five starts with Jalisco in the Mexican Pacific League. He had 22 strikeouts in 23 innings with four walks and 23 hits (1.17 WHIP) allowed.

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Submarining right-handed reliever Eric Yardley, 27, had a 0.48 earned run average in 18 appearances with the Gigantes in the Dominican Republic. He allowed 14 hits and four walks with eight strikeouts in 18 2/3 innings for a 0.96 WHIP and a .206 opponents’ batting average.

Catcher Luis Torrens, 21, continues to hit .275 with a .340 on-base percentage in Venezuela. Right-hander Trevor Frank, a 26-year-old product of Valhalla High, made two scoreless appearances in Venezuela last week and now has a 3.32 ERA over 19 innings in 21 appearances. Left-hander Jose Castillo has a 3.52 ERA in nine appearances in Venezuela.

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Freddy Galvis Reportedly Traded to Padres; Phillies Receive Enyel De Los Santos ALEC NATHAN DECEMBER 15, 2017

The Philadelphia Phillies reportedly agreed to trade shortstop Freddy Galvis to the San Diego Padres on Friday, according to USA Today's Bob Nightengale.

The Phillies will receive right-handed pitching prospect Enyel De Los Santos in return. According

to MLB.com, De Los Santos is the 13th-rankedplayer in the Padres' farm system.

Bleacher Report's Scott Miller first reported the sides were nearing an agreement.

Galvis, 28, has never been renowned as a particularly potent player at the plate, and the numbers bear that

out.

Dating back to his MLB debut in 2012, Galvis has slashed a cumulative .245/.372/.659. That said, he has

shown increased pop each of the past two years.

After mustering 20 home runs during his first four season, Galvis has gone deep 32 times over the past

two years. He's also piled up 128 RBI during that stretch compared to a mark of 105 between 2012-

2015.

More than anything, Galvis has solidified himself as a one of MLB's premier defensive shortstops over

the past few years.

Dating back to the start of the 2015 season, Galvis ranks sixth among all players at the position with a

19.3 UZR, according to FanGraphs. He's also posted fielding percentages superior to the league average

each of the past two seasons.

In 2017, Galvis registered a mark of .989 over 1,359.1 innings at shortstop—a number that comfortably

trumped the league average of .973.

For the Phillies, parting ways with Galvis will open the door for fourth-ranked prospect J.P. Crawford to

take over as the starting shortstop.

Crawford, who made his MLB debut on Sept. 5, slashed .214/.356/.300 with four doubles and six RBI

over his first 87 plate appearances.

De Los Santos, meanwhile, provides the Phillies with another quality pitching prospect who could

develop into a mid-rotation starter with some more refinement.

In 24 starts with Double-A San Antonio last season, the 21-year-old went 10-6 with a 3.78 ERA, 1.193

WHIP, 139 strikeouts and 48 walks.

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Report: Padres ‘clear-cut favorites’ for Eric Hosmer

Craig Calcaterra

NBC Sports•Dec 14, 2017, 3:05 PM

Bob Nightengale of USA Today says that the San Diego Padres and Eric Hosmer have had two face-to-face meetings in recent days and that, as a result, they are the “clear-cut favorites” to land the free agent first baseman.

This would be a pretty big splash for a team that has not, in recent years, made many big splashes on the free agent market, instead focusing on rebuilding from within. The Padres, however, are reported to view Hosmer as a “culture-changer,” who they believe can be the leader of a club they think is ready to turn the corner. If they did sign him, his deal would eclipse — maybe even come near doubling — the largest contract ever handed out by the Padres, which was the $83 million deal given to Wil Myers a year ago. Signing Hosmer would also force Myers off of first base and back to the outfield, which is something he has said recently he’d be willing to do to help the team.

Hosmer, 28, had a career year in 2017, hitting .318/.385/.498 with 25 homers. There have been suggestions that he’s still open to returning to the Royals, though they are about to embark on a rebuild. He has also reportedly had discussions with the Red Sox, who Nightengale says are “still lurking.”