Saturday night’s all right for making tons of baseball moves

Yu Darvish signed last week, and now one more big free agent is off the board. The Padres have reportedly signed former Royals first baseman Eric Hosmer to a massive eight-year deal that’s worth $144 million.

Hosmer reportedly had offers on the table from the Royals as well, but either San Diego offered him more years and money, or he was just ready for a fresh start with a new team. Regardless, Hosmer is a Padre now, and it won’t be long until we’ll find out how his power will play in Petco and against a steady diet of NL pitching.

The Padres are clearly working toward contending again. If the Hosmer signing itself doesn’t tell you that, how they structured the deal should. It is massively front-loaded, with Hosmer being paid $20 million for the first five years and then $13 million for the last three. He gets full no-trade for three years, limited no-trade for another two, and after that he gains 10-and-5 rights.

If the Padres weren’t looking to spend a lot more in the future, perhaps even up to the luxury tax threshold, why would they front-load the deal like that? Plus, those two years of limited no-trade protection give them options to get out of the deal if it’s not working, with the promise that Hosmer’s salary will be decreasing dramatically at some point.

That’s a crappy situation for Hosmer because if they trade him, he gets no 10-and-5 rights. But maybe the money is worth it. And in an offseason when we’ve been criticizing teams for not spending money, the Padres — the Padres! — have made a significant investment, even if it’s not the most player-friendly contract.

The Hosmer signing wasn’t the only thing that went down on Saturday night. The Twins traded for Rays starter Jake Odorizzi, which gives them the starter they so sorely needed after Ervin Santana went down with a hand injury. The Rays also traded for Angels first baseman C.J. Cron for some reason, and then DFA’d Corey Dickerson, their All-Star designated hitter, also for some reason.

A trade is definitely coming for Dickerson. He hit .282/.325/.490 with 27 home runs in 2017, and he would be a great fit for a variety of AL teams. But even assuming that, all any of this does is clear a really small amount of salary. And while it looks like the Rays might be burning it all down, they haven’t tossed the kerosene on the fire yet.

That kerosene is Chris Archer.

Evan Longoria is gone, Odorizzi is gone, but Archer for some reason remains. Until the Rays trade Archer, it’s hard to find real meaning in any of this. He’s by far their most talented player and their biggest trade chip. A deal for him could significantly restock their farm system. And yet they haven’t pulled the ripcord on the one thing that would actually jump-start their rebuild. It’s not clear what waiting gets them, but until they make a deal for Archer, the Rays rebuild is all theory and no practice.